SVR Autumn Gala

That is a lineside pass only location

 

Does anybody know which ways the locos will be facing?

 

Smokebox first into either Bridgnorth or Kidd,tender/bunker first in the opposite direction.

Shame Fairlie didn't make it to standard gauge to please all the festoon veg.

 

After their trial at the spring gala does anyone know whether evening rover tickets will be available? We plan to get over Friday late afternoon and would like to travel Friday evening overnight into Saturday but can not justify a 2 day rover when we won't be getting to the railway until 4 or 5pm. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

I thought was just a trial for the Spring Gala ?

 

Many thanks for your help with this, the value option 2 looks very attractive! Enjoy the gala.

 

Well, having bought my WTT, don't think I'll bother...

Without giving too much info away, as the svr are trying to sell it, a few reasons why I'm not interested...

> I know it's only preference, but of the 4 svr resident locos I rate, 3 do b****r all, and the other does LITERALLY nothing.

> Of the visitors, the two which would be most likely to make a decent sound are generally restricted to load 4 all weekend, save for numerous double headed runs, and when one of the two finally does get a solo run load 7 it involves a 2 and a half hour layover at Bewdley in the small hours for what appears to be a very unusual (polite way of saying 'pointless'?) shunt move!

> Load 4 on the overnights is likely to be more than a little cosy?

> FAR too many trains running with reduced length rakes. I realise the svr want to run as many trains as possible, but I go to a gala to listen to the locos!

> Having looked through the timetable, I can see only 2 runs on Saturday and 1 run on Sunday which appear to be of any real interest, speaking personally!


I realise these are all personal views and you can't please everyone, but on more than one of these points I'm sure I'm representing far from a minority view!

Look out Embsay, you might be selling me a 2 day rover now!

 

As far as i know it is usually 4 coaches on the overnight trains, i've often read this is to reduce the noise for the residents near by? Perfectly understandable.

 

Perfectly understandable, yes, but not what I had in mind. I can certainly see your argument, and I agree that running load 4 would be better than nothing, but it's simply not to my taste!

 

The problem with the 4 coach all night rakes is they often consist of quite a few compartment coaches, which results in as few as two people sharing a compartment laying over 6 seats. This probably results in quite a few people not being able to make use of these services. I would hope that this year there would be less compartments, but no doubt they will still be used.

I can only assume you haven't been to the SVR before, because you mention lack of noise with 4 coaches, I can assure you on every visit i have paid to the SVR, the locos have made plenty of noise, regardless of what load they are hauling.

Why not just enjoy the gala for what it is... it could be worse, the SVR could have just a small handful of locos running with no overnight trains. Suddenly 4 coach services don't seem as bad?

 

Well, it all depends on personal taste. For me, Embsay, the same weekend, has more to offer, so I'll go there. I'm not going to be one of these who sits at a gala moaning about it, I'll vote with my feet!

 

Fair point, but this is a discussion forum after all. You can't please everyone, and that's fair enough, but if nobody put their point of view across you wouldn't get much discussion!

 

Well I deliberately refrained from posting which locos I considered to be underused as the svr are selling the information, and I don't want to be seen to be giving this away for free! Suffice to say it's not a weekend for fans of panniers!

And you've hit the nail on the head with SMALLER MOTIVE POWER. An industrial in the right hands will generally make a hell of a lot more noise load 4 than a larger tender loco on the same load!

 

I understand (from SVR Forum) that 7714 deliberately wasn't timetabled owing to continuing fears about it's health and the fact that it possibly wouldn't be available by now -in the event it is holding out quite well at the moment but the risk couldn't be taken. Can't speak for 5764, though in previous years it has found gainful employment on locals. After the big engine galas this looks to be a very pleasant change and should provide a lot more noise and entertainment than big pacifics drifting at 20 mph.. You will find me mainly at a front end window up either Eardington or the climb to Bewdley tunnel enjoying said entertainment on Saturday!

 

You can travel behind a Pannier on load 6-8 on a lot more days of the year at SVR. Gala weekend is about doing something different, with different trainsets/freight trains/service patterns etc that are not seen on normal weekends of the year, and its only logical that the guest locos are used more than the home fleet anyway. Gala timetables never please everyone, but the planners must be doing something right with the high number of visitors who make the weekend an integral part of their annual calendar!