SVR General Discussion

Do I see more troll-feeding happening?

 

Welcome to the October edition of Branch Lines. You can access this at https://www.svrlive.com/bloct22

Entirely coincidentally, it covers a lot of themes covered on here recently. Reduced hire fees for locos, cutting its costs, good results for galas and events, a two-part infrastructure update. Definitely worth a close read and I hope you enjoy it.

I volunteer on the newsletters with and for the head of marketing and comms. but I don't have any wider role. I've seen the comments on John Leach and it got me thinking. The Railway's won a national tourism award and is shortlisted for some in 2023. It's literally the poster for local tourism. There's a comment upthread about how HR mag carries a lot of SVR stuff, both Railway Mag and Illustrated do too. The Railway's been on local BBC and ITV tv/radio this month, and can point to national coverage in 2022. The YouTube channel's got two more out this week and they can point to subscriber growth. It runs on a team of 2. I don't think that's a bad record.

 

The new Kidderminster footbridge has arrived. All being well, it will be lifted into place tomorrow night.

 

Will you still be able to take photos from it?

 

Not while it's being lifted.

 

An interesting read as ever Patrick, thanks for sharing.

 

Some views of the new bridge:

 

The parapet is shown in the plans as 1800 mm. Photographers will probably need a stepladder or pole, or possibly instead to take photos from the steps? (and hopefully to share the space with pedestrians, it can be a busy thoroughfare)

The smoke deflector plates will be fitted this weekend. I don’t know when it will open though.

 

I've seen comments that it's hoped to be finished (presumably open to pedestrians) by the end of the month.

 

Any plans to co-opt the opening for a splash of publicity? Big name, big scissors and TV cameras .... that sort of thing.

 

Unlikely from the SVR I would have thought. It’s an NR bridge, doesn’t land anywhere on the SVR and you can’t access the SVR from it.

 

Aah ... my mistake.

 

Ahem!



Tom

 

Noted, perhaps I should add it doesn't land at any station either!

 

I was at SVR all weekend.

The bridge was on its road haulage low loader at the end of the car park on Saturday day time, and hey presto by magic was in place Sunday day time.

My real reason for remarking is that the road haulage was by Colletts Heavy Haulage which I thought a wholly appropriate name for the location (even if is an NR bridge).

(Never set eyes on whatever crane must have been used.)

 

Network Rail's replacement footbridge opened yesterday. Video (not mine) of what you will find

 

Looks very enclosed and forbidding, not just as a viewpoint for us but for "normal people" to walk across. Like a 1960s subway in the sky.

 

It would seem that 34027 will be losing its purple livery and be reappearing in full SR wartime black as 21C127. On their FB page apparently.

 

And on their website as well, in case FB throws a wobbly to the non-users: https://www.svr.co.uk/2022/11/04/se...ls-wartime-livery-for-its-famous-purple-loco/

 

That's a really good piece of communication. Explaining the rationale for the change, tackling the inevitable shrieks from certain quarters, and emphasising the practical reality and benefits of the change, including turning something necessary into something interesting.

And thank the lord it's not going to be in purple any more…

Simon