Spa Valley Railway Cuckoo Line Gala - June 13-15 2025

A shame I missed the chance to chat. I do often ask whoever I get chatting to at heritage lines if they are in Nat Pres. I missed the opportunity here.

Bryan

 

Never mind. I may come down again on Saturday for a round trip behind the U Boat if that’s running as has been rumoured. Didn’t get it beyond Groombridge on Friday.

 

31806 is running this Saturday and Sunday.

 

Photos from Saturday... https://www.flickr.com/photos/alts1985/albums/72177720326945899

 

A really great set of photos.

Bryan

 

Thanks. Standard green steam/diesel timetable?

 

Very kind, thank you!

 

Sorting through my own collection of photos from the weekend. The Spa Valley puts on some excellent galas, part of the appeal being the regular pattern of departures meaning there is rarely a long wait for another train.

They're not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm very fond of the showpiece multi-headers at the end of the final day. Fun to see and great to listen to. I'd love to see more lines follow with these sorts of fun finales after a weekend of serious services. Likewise the renumbering of locos gives you something unique to that event too (and with the whole steam roster heading to Dereham for an event next week, means the Spa Valley and Mid Norfolk events will be different from one another).

 

Finally got round to sorting out my stuff from last Saturday, fantastic event and with amazing weather to boot! More photos available here - https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/SpaValleyRailwayphotosets/Cuckoo-Line-gala-June-2025

 

I've just finished checking, naming and editing very many photos from my three days at that amazing Gala.

Plus I've just about finished choosing the few that go best with my 1962 photos around Groombridge. From amongst almost all I took that were aimed specifically for that purpose, and will be best shown when I have them sized and positioned to go with those 65 year old images. I set out needing 7 photos suitable to go as comparison with those from my distant past, hoping to get 3, or at best 4. With a small amount of re-thinking as to how I put the comparisons together I got all seven -plus two more that I'll add as smaller images on some of the comparion pages. I guess 9 out of around 500 (maybe more as I edited out a lot in the field) that my in-depth editing has got down to 116 is just about OK! But position and lighting etc meant I had to keep repeating the shots at every opportunity to give me a decent choice.

So just two more to add to those I posted here a while ago, that I took when I finally left my two and three quarter day Groombridge station area vigil as the event came to an end.

The build up to the cavalcade that ended the event as the train headed down from TWW to Eridge at Groombridge Junction.

Bryan

 

Some of you may be interested in the internal message I sent out shortly after the Cuckoo Line Gala.

"Hello everyone,

I want to extend my sincere thanks to everyone involved for their support of the Cuckoo Line Gala and for making it such a resounding success. The online comments are very favourable, and the event showcased our railway at its best.

What started as an A5 poster in October and an email to Wealden District Council has led to our most successful enthusiast event in terms of timetabling, variety of what we had on offer, and visitor numbers that we've ever had.

We had the Bromley Bus Group creating a dedicated connection between Tunbridge Wells and Heathfield for the first time since 1965, and the re-opening of Heathfield Tunnel for the first time in over 10 years.

1,759 visitors travelled on the Spa Valley Railway over the three days, surpassing the Scottish event by over 500 people. Ticket revenue totalled £39,392.48, and secondary spend amounted to £18,088.67.

It was a gamble, though. The cost of hosting this event was substantial; the transport totalled £37,300! You can see that ticket sales have fortunately covered this. A photo charter on 20th June will cover our share of the onward transport of the U Class to the Mid Norfolk and the opening of Heathfield Tunnel, which in itself will contribute over a further £5,000 towards this and our share of the onward transport of the Ivatt tank.

For anyone who doubted the opening of Heathfield Tunnel, I hope we have proven you wrong with 5,000 people visiting the tunnel over the three days, all of whom bought stock that we had for sale. Not only did many people pay their £1 fee, but they also left us their change from a £10 note. A huge thank you must go to those who gave up their free time not only to oversee the opening but also to help prepare everything in the lead-up to the event. We had to inspect this 265-yard structure, clean the unwalked surface and install temporary lighting throughout to enable this to happen, as well as be on hand throughout the event to keep an eye on things.

Secondary spend has then boosted the income, covering the steaming fees, as well as coal, water, lubricants, and other fuels and expenses associated with it, and we have broken even.

When this event was conceived, it was never the intention to raise thousands; rather, it was to commemorate something close to the hearts of several people. It is the closest thing we can do to a closure event surrounding the steam era.

This event is one of the largest we will ever host. As you can appreciate, if we had been sending the U Class back to Swanage and the Ivatt back to the Island, it would have resulted in a significant loss.

Whilst we need to make money to survive, this weekend brought everyone as much enjoyment as possible, because we do this for that very reason, not just to keep making money and bring in further donations for the Broom Lane Bridge appeal, which currently stands at over £53,000. There are significant challenges ahead with the replacement of Broom Lane in early 2026, and we have just invested £70,000 in new drainage, a replacement culvert and a repaired embankment at Cold Bath.

So whilst it has not made thousands, I am extremely happy that it has broken even, and we all had a great time making that possible and showcasing our railway. Everyone should be proud of what they and your railway have achieved.

Thank you for your support and all that you have done at this event, as well as for your ongoing efforts to support the Spa Valley Railway.

Kind regards,

Jonnie Pay
General Manager
Spa Valley Railway"

 

@Jonnie thanks for sharing, some harsh truths in there about the financial realities of running these events, but you are right - it isn't always about the money. If it was, the heritage railway movement probably would have given up years ago!

 

@Jonnie And of course not forgetting your own role in this event, on top of the enormous efforts from your colleagues at the Spa Valley Railway.

I am very, very pleased the event broke even financially. I was taking as much interest in that as the event proceeded as I could from various chats I had, as many of us are aware that enthusiast style events can be expensive to run with no certainty as to financial success. Although the way you extended it with the re-opening of Heathfield tunnel and the help of the Bromley Bus Group took it to a new level and must surely have helped attract a wider range of support.

I guess it's now back to focussing on running the line with your wide variety of dining etc events that to me look to fit in ok on the normal service trains - from my casual observations on Saturday it looked like reasonable numbers for whichever of those dining services were in progress.

Back to the Gala. I'm not sure what local media coverage that attracted, but hopefully it has further raised the profile of the SVR and could be a springboard for Broom Lane Bridge funding from new sources. Nice to know it is over £50,000 as the Just Giving page https://spvr.link/broomlane obviously doesn't include direct donations. But there is still a lot more funding needed to get to the total needed to get that bridge replaced.

Many, many thanks again to you and all others at the Spa Valley Railway.

Bryan