KWVR Autumn Steam Gala - 12-14th October

Just picked this up of KWVR tweat's from the 12th, "With the final ever Autumn Steam Gala under a month away, tweet us your favourite memories/pics from years past and we’ll retweet the best.", question is what exactly does the word FINAL refere to, possibly the Ivatt and 957, and due to the number of characters on twitter this has been omitted or what?

 

Very odd tweet... I do hope that it isn't the final ever Autumn Gala and it does just refer to the engines

 

I thought at one point the KWVR were going to merge the Autumn Steam Gala and Ale festival together? Maybe this is what the tweet means maybe?

 

Could simply be logistics and cost thinking about it, 3 loco's drop out over the next year, 757,41241 & 80002,leaving the 4F, Coal Tank and the WD when it gets back from repairs, as it has been out for more than year now I am hoping they have taken the operatunety to look at the boiler which should give it a few more years. Any way the net result of the above to run the same gala as this years they would have to brink in not two, but 5 guest engines. So logicly baring one of coming up on the euro lotto for the forseable future KWVR abilty to hold a large gala is some what reduced.

 

Why would they need 5 guest engines. They only have 1 passing loop in the middle, and generally run 3 sets at an event, with a freight that can be shunted away for most of the day.

 

I did say to run the same gala. with 2 guest engines this year and 3 engines dropping out that makes 5. True they could still run a gala, but it could not be of the same scale.

 

Saw 1300 at Ribble over the weekend, it looks and sounds to be in good form, can't wait to see it working out of Keighley at the gala.

 

How can you forget about Nunlow?? The Dark Horse of most KWVR Galas ;-D

 

More of an omission, hadn't included nunlow as nunlow isn't used for fulll length of the line running, maths is the same either way as nunlow is either in or out of the calculation the same, However maybe Nunlow's role will change with loss of three loco's.

 

'Nunlow' is restricted to 15mph and would therefore struggle to keep with the 'normal' 25 minute schedule hence the reason it doesn't do much 'full line running'.

 

I imagine the tweet was more of a reference to this being the final gala for 41241 and 057 which are coming out of ticket soon although that doesn't come across clearly. I'll miss 957 as it's a particular favourite of mine. Great news about 1300 attending, I last rode behind it on the ELR years ago. looking forward to seeing the Barton-Wright 0-6-0 alongside the Aspinall. Any chance of them double heading the L&Y coaches and other vintage carriages?

The only other thing I could wish for would be for the WD to be running on a reasonable length freight. Any news about when the WD will be back?

I'll be attending on the Saturday - can't wait.

 

Evening Everyone, just to clear a few things up:

The tweet was shortened and should have referred to 957/41241 (the joys of Automatic twitter!)

The Autumn Steam Gala will go ahead next year (with 5 or 6 home locos for example + 1/2 visitors. Don't forget we have locos returning from overhaul as well as those going out of service)

Timetables. A public timetable with ALL train times will be given out FREE of charge. Those wanting to see the loco allocations will be able to purchase them in advance (probably a £1 + postage) and on the day for 50p with your ticket. Other Railways do this (some charge much more).
Without getting drawn into any arguments it is ok saying 'just add it to the price of the ticket', you do that and then we get complaints of high ticket prices so we can't win. So, for those who come to ride behind any train a simple timetable will be available. Those who want allocations can also have these for what I consider a not too silly amount of money.

All locos will be in action on all days. The timetable is more or less the same each day with combinations of both L&Y and Ivatt engines. Nunlow is mainly doing brake van rides at Ingrow.
Any questions please feel free to message me

 

Thanks for clearing that up, just as I orginaly thought, however the delay in clarification did make us wonder, glad to hear its just 41241 and 957, although it will be sad to see them go all the same but hopefully we should have the WD back in the not to distant future.

 

WD will more than likely be sometime leading up to Summer 2012. Big Jim & City Of Wells may well be in traffic come the Autumn Gala next year

 

City of Wells is due out in the spring (I am reliably informed)

 

hello
im planning on visiting the gala this year and would like to spend a day on the trains and a day lineside
i have phoned keighley to enquire about becoming a member in order to buy a lineside pass as i do at the gcr
but got conflicting answers one guy told me i could join and then get a pass but another told me i would have to attend a course before i could get a pass
does anyone know the correct procedure
thanks in advance

 

Since she was steamed at the beginning of March this year, does that mean that she will have already lost a year on the boiler ticket before she enters traffic.

 

You have to sit a basic safety test which is usually posted out to you with your membership, once you've posted it back and you've got all the correct answers they'll post out the membership badge.

 

Don't think that was the official Boiler test, could be wrong.

hmm, could have been checking other information, depends if a steam test is boiler test or just some other test, either way it aften takes a good year from the test to getting into traffic.

 

With regards the charging for a roster on the day, it's not the charge in itself that frustrates me, its the lack of pre-information allowing one to plan a visit, or make an informed decision whether to visit at all.

It doesn't matter how much the charge is on the day, if you don't publish the roster in advance, you are losing revenue from potential passengers not attending. If there are any 'floating voters' out there, who might attend and buy a rover ticket at £20 if a particular loco is doing a particular train, but who wouldn't attend if that loco is not out / doing enough passenger work to justify a visit, they are not going to buy the roster in advance on the off chance that what they want is happening. They just won't turn up. Had a roster been published for free in advance, then that person might have attended and paid £20 for a ticket.

An example would be; is a particular loco which I might want to travel behind all day, spending the majority of the day on full line trains? If it is then I will attend. If it spends all day shuttling between Ingrow and Keighley, or on freights, then I will not. Whilst one can be pretty sure that the visitors will be out on passenger trains all day, living a long way from Keighley, it is likely to be the home fleet that I wish to travel behind and so this is little comfort.

For every potential passenger you lose to not having published the loco roster - which is in effect free advertising - you have to attract 40 photographers buying the roster at 50p per time. I honestly cannot see how this can make financial sense. I would be very interested to know after the gala how many rosters were sold to those who are not travelling, then divide this number by 40 and see how few people you had to put off attending before such policy costs the railway money.

I hope KWVR will review this policy.