SVR share issue reaches target with hours to spare By Paul Appleton IT was real ‘skin of the teeth’ stuff, but the Severn Valley Railway’s huge army of supporters rallied and with a late surge on the last day, managed to beat the 2016 Share Issue target of £2.5 million with just hours to spare on Tuesday, October 31. On the last operating weekend before the share issue closed – October 28-29 – there was still a further £200,000 needed, but with share application forms and credit cards being handed over at booking offices along the line, the fear was that with the railway not being open for service trains midweek, the issue would fall short of its target, with only personal visits to the railway’s Kidderminster office guaranteed to make the deadline. And remarkably, big hearted supporters did exactly that, with the last applications taken in person over the reception counter at the SVR’s Comberton Place headquarters. People queued throughout the day at the SVR’s Kidderminster head office to purchase last-minute shares and offices remained open right up until 9pm on the Tuesday in response to the demand, with more than £33,000 coming in over just four hours. The hugely-busy final day was the icing on the cake for volunteers and project organisers, who had seen a massive surge in interest over the campaign’s final weeks, with almost three quarters of a million pounds received since the end of September, and 60,000 extra shares being purchased over half-term week alone. The total at the end of the day was £2,520,300 – with more applications still to be processed. Project organisers said they were ‘overwhelmed’ by the support for the share offer, which has been raising funds to transform visitor facilities at Bridgnorth – the biggest redevelopment project in the SVR’s history. In addition, the Severn Valley Railway Charitable Trust has raised a further
Visit out of this world BRITISH astronaut Tim Peake’s spacecraft is touching down at the Locomotion museum in Shildon for two months from November 22. The public will get the chance to see the Soyuz TMA-19M descent module, which carried Tim back to earth following his International Space Station mission, and through a virtual reality experience narrated by Tim, they will discover what that dangerous 250-mile high-speed space descent felt like. Admission is free but the space descent virtual reality experience will cost £5.
£60,000 for the Bridgnorth Development Project, taking the total to almost £2.6 million. Launched to a fanfare on November 1, 2016, with an impressive colour brochure, decorated with artists’ impressions of the proposed development work at Bridgnorth that the share issue funds would be earmarked for, fast forward a year, and work is already at an advanced stage of Phase 1, which includes the construction of a completely new refreshment facility and toilet block on platform one at Bridgnorth station. By the end of October, contractors Iris Construction, had completed most of the brickwork up to the roofline, with sample window frames received for evaluation, and the roof gable ends starting to take shape. Although work on this phase is behind schedule, this is due to the extra care being taken to achieve an as authentic as possible representation of a GWR structure typical of the early 1900s, while at the same time conforming to modern regulations and customer expectation levels. Long-standing volunteer and SVR board member Tony Bending said: “We are absolutely delighted and overwhelmed by the amazing response - we always knew that the £2.5million figure set at the start of the campaign was an extremely ambitious one – and we never dared hope that we would get anywhere near it, but we are truly humbled and grateful to all those who have so generously supported us and we would like to say a huge thank you – we are over the moon.” *Both SVR members and the public can still support the project by donating to the Bridgnorth Development fund via the Severn Valley Railway Charitable Trust. If you are a taxpayer the trust can usually claim a further 25% Gift Aid on any donation at no extra cost to you. Visit http://svrtrust.org.uk/our-projects/ bridgnorth-development-project.html to download a Bridgnorth donation form, or to make an online donation.
Wirksworth provides steam heat for Moors THE North Yorkshire Moors Railway has taken the unusual step of hiring an industrial tank locomotive for carriage warming duties for its Pickering-based Santa special services. Previously it has used an industrial steam generator – and on one year a 45-ton steam crane – but those options are not available this time, and so Barclay 0-4-0ST Henry Ellison is to be hired in from the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, where it has been fitted with steam heating pipes especially for these duties.
BR Standard 5MT 4-6-0 No. 73156 accelerates away from Loughborough Central. The locomotive has been nominated for the Heritage Railway Association’s John Coiley Locomotive Engineering award after completion of its restoration at the Great Central Railway. KEN WOOLLEY
Shortage of steam footplate crew could hit tour operators EXCLUSIVE by Robin Jones FIFTY years after the end of BR steam, a growing shortage of main line steam drivers is set to hit parts of the charter market. West Coast Railways, which along with DB Cargo, is the principal provider of steam operations for tour operators, has said that it will struggle to provide them from the end of this year, unless the situation improves. A statement issued by the Carnforth-based Train Operating Company on November 7 read: “With the recent retirement of several long-serving steam train-crew, it has become increasingly clear that, in order to service the requirements of both its own in-house operations and those undertaken on behalf of third parties, West Coast Railways’ resources are being stretched to the limit, particularly in the south of England. “WCR feels that at present it will be unable to provide services to organisations, such as Tyseley-based Vintage Trains, beyond the end of 2017 and has advised them accordingly.” West Coast’s managing director Pat Marshall said: “It is a shame that we have to make this decision but, when it comes to steam, it is a fact of life that there are fewer and fewer experienced suitably-qualified railwaymen out there. The requirements to train and pass out new crew are becoming ever
more onerous and time-consuming and, in the current climate, we don’t see the position changing.” It is understood that this position will not affect WCR’s diesel-hauled operations or ‘whole package’ operations, which include locomotives and stock along with the crew. A spokesman for Vintage Trains said: “We have expressed our concern to West Coast about the reducing numbers of crew available in our region for some time. With the recent retirement in the last few years of several key drivers, and the apparent difficulty in training replacements, it comes as no surprise to us that West Coast are forced to downsize. This is precisely why in 2015 Vintage Trains established plans to become self-sufficient and form our own Train Operating Company. “We have already begun our application process with the Office of Rail & Road and are engaged in the mandatory 30-day consultation process with other Train Operating Companies. Our application has been very positively received by ORR, Network Rail and throughout the industry. We have enjoyed an excellent relationship with West Coast since 1998 and hope to continue to do so. We hope they will have resources to operate our trains particularly in northern parts of the country where we are unlikely to have route knowledge in the immediate future.”
South Tynedale general manager departs after Slaggyford success SOUTH Tynedale Railway general manager Heather Palmer has quit to pursue new challenges after spearheading the recent Heritage Lottery Fund-backed upgrade of the line and its facilities. All that is needed to open the extension to Slaggyford is some level crossing work. Heather said: “I look forward (as
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a member) to watching the society grow and prosper in the years to come.” Chairman Richard Graham said: “As well as steering the STR’s operations safely through the disruptions of major construction contracts, she has been an inspiration to staff and volunteers alike.” Heritagerailway.co.uk 7