Great Western (SVR) Association

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The Great Western (SVRSevern Valley Railway) Association is a registered charity (No 1078718). It exists primarily to preserve and restore items of rolling stock for service on the SVRSevern Valley Railway, in particular GWRGreat Western Railway carriages from the 1920s to 1940s.

The Association began in 1967 as the ‘Great Western Rolling Stock Fund’, and quickly began to accumulate pre-nationalisation carriages which were being withdrawn from service by BRBritish Rail or British Railways at the time. In 1972 a separate group, the ‘Great Western Locomotive and Carriage Society’, was formed with the intention of saving a locomotive, Collett Mogul 9303/7325, from BarryWoodham Brothers Scrapyard, Barry, South Wales. The source of many locomotives now in preservation. scrapyard. The two groups shared common aims and members, and in 1973 merged to form the Great Western (SVRSevern Valley Railway) Association.

The MogulLocomotive with a 2-6-0 wheel configuration was purchased in 1974 and moved to the SVRSevern Valley Railway in 1975; it is still owned by the Association. Acquisition of further redundant ex DepartmentalRolling stock used for the railway’s own functions (engineering etc.) rather than for general passenger or goods traffic. Stock also continued in the 1970s. The Association owns 19 carriages, one Siphon G Milk Van, and Macaw B Bogie Bolster.[1]. Only 3 of the carriages have not yet been returned to working order.[2] A full list of SVRSevern Valley Railway-based rolling stock owned by the Association may be found here.

It is a membership body, by payment of a subscription. An illustrated members' Newsletter is nominally published twice yearly.[3]

Its restoration of GWR 9103 Nondescript Saloon was the overall Winner in the Heritage Railway Association’s Carriage and Wagon Competition for 2015.[4]

The Association’s most recently completed restoration project was Art Deco Brake 3rd 650 which entered service in November 2015. As of 2018 restoration of Bow End Composite 6045 is in progress.

The Association is also is a minor shareholder of Severn Valley Railway (Holdings) PLC.[5]

See also

List of preservation groups
List of rolling stock owned by the Great Western (SVR) Association

References

  1. Stock list on the GW(SVR)A web site (retrieved December 2018)
  2. GW(SVR)AGreat Western (SVR) Association booklet
  3. GW(SVR)A website (retrieved 6 January 2017)
  4. GW(SVR)A website (retrieved 6 January 2017)
  5. Full list of shareholders at 24 June 2016

Links

Great Western (SVR) Assoc. web site
The GW(SVR)A on Facebook