Steel Steam and Stars 4 - March 6, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15 2015

I'd definitely prefer Sir Nigel G to Tornado. Am I right in thinking that 60007's 10 year ticket expires in September next year, or is that just a main line ticket?

I'd love to see the Crab and the Butterley 7F (not sure if it will be back in service by then though).

If I was really pushing the boat out I'd go for Scots Guardsman and Galatea, but would West Coast allow them to run on a preserved line? (Although they did run on the Mid Norfolk wasn't it?)

 

If this is true the Betton Grange Group has just thrown the baby out with the bath water !!

The one distinguishing feature of the SSS events has been the Cavalcade of locomotives that climaxed the event. Other lines may drop lots locos on the Beerex, ELR tends to lash up the locos but the main attraction of SSS is THE Cavalcade so the decision to drop it means the event has created its first major problem. How many potential customers will be put off by the absence of this unique element ?

 

The cavalcade is only on one day, so not much of a loss. Personally I'm not keen on it. It looks daft and means no services running for a couple of hours while it is all assembled.

 

The cavalcade has always stopped me attending on the Sunday as it means most services stop mid afternoon whilst thy get it all ready so getting rid of it is a plus in my view.

 

I was not keen on it, although I went to SSS1 - 3 I never been to any of the cavalcades .
The main attraction for me has been the variety of visiting locos, and beer festival at Llangollen Station.

 

I would imagine that the Cavalcade is only good for the photographers who dont actually buy a ticket...... so as 6880 only have the 2 weekends and most people dont buy a ticket on the final day and just go out taking pics its good business sense to drop it.

 

That will be a great benifit to the crews. It always ends up being a very long shift with the usual delays gained when trying to assemble all the locos, and lose all the stock. As others have pointed out, there are no trains between 3.30 ish and the last train from Carrog at 6.

I'm sure if any Photographers wanted the cavalcade, then maybe a charter could be organised?

 

The main reason for the cavalcade being dropped is the extra working hours required for loco crews & signalmen.
I have never bothered to stay & watch one of these as they didn't appeal to me.
The main beneficiary of these were freeloading photographers anyway & the running of them didn't generate any extra revenue for the Grange project.

Bob.

 

Awww I had been looking forward to it

 

Whilst appreciating the fact that the Cavalcade involves extra organisation, additional crew hours and reduced train operation I feel that the spectacle is worth the effort and, whilst it is potentially a photographers' / videoers' extravaganza, the publicity value is worth a lot more than is being "lost" in immediate revenue. To my mind there is the long term value which keeps the SSS brand in the mind of the public - as witness comments on this thread - whilst Brand "Steel Steam & Stars" is uniquely identified with the Betton Grange Group hence my considered opinion that the Cavalcade is as much part of the SSS experience as cylinders are part of a steam locomotive.

I accept that the choice of programme is for the organisers to arrange but I would be interested to see the gain in income compared to the loss of publicity value should the Cavalcade element be dropped from SSS4 - and the potential loss of income to local farmers from "entry fees" to property for Cavalcade observers whose goodwill at such times might be influenced by that loss.

 

Which locos does Mr Hoskins have at the moment?

Locos that have never been to Llan always work well for events, especially ones that are not native to the GW route! Over the years we've only ever had 2 Southern locos, so that line of thought could prove popular.

 

Add me to the list of people for whom the cavalcade wasn't really an attraction and who doesn't care either way. If it makes the event more workable for those involved to not have it and removes a big timetable gap, great.

Bemused by the 'baby/bathwater' hysterics above, as while I can see it creates some useful iconic images for event publicity, the line-ups this event usually brings in are surely photogenic enough to guarantee some good mag spreads without all being hooked together.

Doesn't the Kent & East Sussex tend to do a cavalcade at galas too?

 

4270, 5029,6960, 92212.That should in working order at the time and have not appeared at a previous SSS.

 

Personally, I won't miss having a cavalcade and I say that as someone who is primarily going to photograph the trains rather than ride on them. (I hasten to add that I will still be buying a three day ticket to cover the period of my visit on the second weekend.) The railway's reasons for not doing a cavalcade have already been stated and I feel that from the average punter's point of view, the time required to organise the participating locomotives takes too much out of the day in any case and would certainly be a deterrent to those who unfortunately only have the option of attending on the final day.

 

A few rather nice choices to be had there then!

 

why not do the cavalcade on the Friday before the start ? - everything will be in steam then anyway.

The cavalcade was a put off attending on the day as it's means nothing running for hours,

but as a pre-event warm up / news publicity stunt why not ..

Have everything in the station during the day (and open to the public), invite the Media over etc to cover it, gives everyone that "up close" with the locos / footplate visits etc, gets people in the mood, then in the afternoon do a cavalcade as an event warm up.

maybe run a few freight trains etc as well, let photographers pay for what they want to haul them.

 

A rarely seen ,newly restored Ivatt or two would be nice...

 

I definitely agree with the idea of an A4 as a headline loco!

 

I think you are not likely to see any A4's on low loaders? Not sure if any of them have been to lines not connected to the ML recently?


It is one of the limitations that Llangollen has, and other lines in the same situation.

 

Correct, it is unlikely, but as this is Steel, Steam and Stars who knows!