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SVR General Discussion

Discussion in 'Heritage Railways & Centres in the UK' started by threelinkdave, Aug 20, 2014.

  1. Gladiator 5076

    Gladiator 5076 Resident of Nat Pres

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    I would suggest it matters little regarding the enthusiast community. They are likely to attend whenever it is.
    The bigger risk I would have thought was potentially upsetting a lot of "normals" who may turn up expecting to just have a ride over a long weekend.
     
  2. 6026 King John

    6026 King John Well-Known Member

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    It can work the other way - I remember some "normals" getting on the train at Bridgenorth during a gala who hadn't known it was a gala weekend. They were absolutely delighted to find so many trains and locos running!
     
  3. Johnb

    Johnb Nat Pres stalwart

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    And so they should be, the Valley Galas are one of the greatest heritage railway events in Europe
     
  4. davesrailwayphotos

    davesrailwayphotos Member

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    Sadly the clash with Easter rules me out. I can’t understand why efforts wern’t made to move the event, when Easter weekend will be well populated with families and normals.
     
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  5. 2857Harry

    2857Harry Well-Known Member

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    Easter is not as well populated as most would have you believe.

    Unfortunately moving the event is very difficult. We have a very busy programme with SVR 60 next year, plus Rail 200, meaning we’ve basically an event every other week.

    Also the list of events below shows the difficulties in finding a suitable weekend. Clashing with other railways for their galas is not a wise move. There just simply isn’t a suitable weekend to move to. Easter doesn’t clash every year and we have accepted this year it’s better to keep it the same weekend, but put on a top tier show.

    March
    14-16 Bluebell Branch Line Weekend

    20-23 Keighley & Worth Valley The Steam Gala Extravaganza

    28-30 Swanage Spring Steam Gala

    April
    11-13 Llangollen Branchline Gala

    18-21 Severn Valley Spring Steam Gala

    25-27 Watercress Spring Steam Gala

    May
    2-5 West Somerset Railway 200: Spring Steam Spectacular

    3-4 Ffestiniog Friends of the Ffestiniog

    15-18 Severn Valley Spring Diesel Gala
     
  6. 1472

    1472 Well-Known Member

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    Its difficult to change it now but why wasn't the first weekend in April considered instead? If insufficient "normals" travel on a BH that suggests a publicity/marketing failure for what should be a peak non enthusiast centred weekend.
     
  7. 2857Harry

    2857Harry Well-Known Member

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    We already have an event on ourselves on the first weekend of April which again we try not to change the date of because it is a regular event. Also the railway has booked private charters that weekend which we try not to book on gala weekends so it would be far from ideal.
     
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  8. Fred Kerr

    Fred Kerr Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    Surely the problem lies with Easter which is a variable date; at least the SVR has retained its fixed dates as the 3rd weekend in April.
     
  9. Kje7812

    Kje7812 Part of the furniture

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    Easter being late (the latest it can be is 25th April btw) does as mean that the school holidays aren't consistent with some authorities picking the two weeks before Easter and others having Easter in the middle of the two. The local authorities around the SVR seem to have all picked the latter but I know London and North Yorkshire are the former for certain. It does make arranging family meet ups awkward.
     
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  10. Jamessquared

    Jamessquared Nat Pres stalwart

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    Do you want to kick off that discussion with the Church, or get someone else to do so?

    Tom
     
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  11. Kje7812

    Kje7812 Part of the furniture

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    The Easter Act 1928 provides provisional to limit Easter to "the Sunday following the second Saturday in April", thus Easter would be between 9th April and 15th April. The act is still valid, just never been in force.
    Also apparently there's discussions to unify the date for Easter between the Western and Eastern churches.
     
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  12. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    And the churches have been clear that they do not, generally speaking, have an issue with fixing the date of the celebration.
     
  13. MellishR

    MellishR Resident of Nat Pres Friend

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    No, they just disagree with each other.
     
  14. 35B

    35B Nat Pres stalwart

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    If you’re referring to western and orthodox, then that dispute over calendars is centuries old.
     
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  15. JBTEvans

    JBTEvans Part of the furniture

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    Get ready for another clash in 2028! ;)
     
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  16. 2857Harry

    2857Harry Well-Known Member

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    And that’s the thing. We want a regular, stable calendar, so as such we have to consider keeping our events on the same weekends every year. 3rd Weekend of both April/September for our galas. It means both staff and customers alike know when it’s going to be and can plan quite happily.

    We know Easter might put one or two off, but also we know that if we do something special it might draw one or two in. And that’s what we are looking at and have plans for.
     
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  17. acorb

    acorb Part of the furniture

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    Appreciate the balance & explanation Harry. For those of us who are committed elsewhere for Easter hopefully some of the treats can stay on for May B/Hols.. ;)
     
  18. Kje7812

    Kje7812 Part of the furniture

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  19. Kje7812

    Kje7812 Part of the furniture

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    According to the latest issue of RAIL magazine, the theme for next year's Autumn Diesel event will be 37s with it being 65 years since their introduction.
     
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  20. Kje7812

    Kje7812 Part of the furniture

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    An updated list for next year's events:
    FB_IMG_1733234915136.jpg
     
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