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1970 reopening photography
==The 'Bodmin' Fund==
In around 1970 a fund was set up to purchase SR Bulleid West Country class Pacific 34016 Bodmin, then at [[Barry Scrapyard]], for use on the SVR. After a period of quiet the secretary announced that the fund was being wound up, with monies returned or applied to other SVR projects. A clerical error and unfortunate misunderstanding at Barry meant they had overlooked a prior deposit paid by another fund based at Swanage, who had later confirmed their intention to complete the purchase. This was not before the SVR fund had made extensive preparation work to allow the locomotive to be shunted out.<ref>SVR News 19, Spring 1971, p. 29</ref> Ironically, the locomotive did not end up at Swanage, and is restored at the Mid Hants Railway.
==1970 reopening photography==
The [[Severn Valley Railway Timeline 1970-1979#1970|reopening of passenger services in 1970]] is one of the poorest covered of such events photographically in Britain. It was a period when young keen SVR supporters were quite poor, and colour photography was very expensive. The nation’s top (wealthy) photographers had yet to discover where Bridgnorth was on the map and were still mourning the then recent loss of BR steam.
Another failing was that a party of 8 from the SVR had booked flights to Portugal some three months earlier. This included two of the most prolific and keen photographers, [[Image Collections#David_Cooke_Collection|David Cooke]] and [[David Williams]], and others newly equipped with Pentaxes. This seemingly inexcusable fact was because the date of reopening was not known until the Light Railway Order was granted on 20 May 1970 and there was no time to lose!
The weather was uncharacteristically poor for that period, dull and hazy. So, while the same few monochrome photographs have appeared of day 1, there is little of quality of this event. Day 2 by comparison was attended by good weather, and most published pictures show the sunshine of that day and other days<ref>David Williams, personal correspondence April 2020</ref>.
==See also==
