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Use as Santa’s Grotto continued for some years. In 1985 it was proposed for 1257 to go on show at Swindon in August as part of a demonstration goods train in the GWR 150 event,<ref>SVR News 75</ref> later cancelled after the closure of the Swindon works was announced just before the event was scheduled to take place.<ref>SVR News 77</ref> The coach received major body repairs at [[Carriage Repair Works|Kidderminster Carriage Works]] in late 1991 before returning to Santa duties.<ref>SVR News 101/102</ref>
Further repair work was carried out in 1997.<ref>SVR News 124</ref> On 24th October 1998 owning group the [[Great Western (SVR) Assoc. | Great Western (SVR) Association]] celebrated 25 years with a special train from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth which used their locomotive [[GWR Mogul 7325 | Collett Mogul 9303]] and vintage GW set [[GWR 3930 Full Third|3930]], [[GWR 9055 Nondescript Saloon|9055]], [[GWR 9369 Nondescript Saloon|9369]] and 1257.<ref>SVR News 128</ref>
In spring 2000 the SVR acquired several [[BR 80328 Post Office Sorting Van|Post Office Sorting Vans]] for use on Santa duties.<ref>SVR News 132</ref> From around that time 1257 was used as a mobile store rather than a grotto. It underwent a major overhaul between 2004 and 2007.<ref>[http://www.gw-svr-a.org.uk/1257_overhaul.html Great Western (SVR) Assoc. Association overhaul pages]</ref> Another Association celebration train with the toplights and 1257 ran on 27 September 2008.<ref>SVR News 163</ref> The interior was restored and repainted in 2014.
In 2019, 1257 formed part of the 'German troop train' in the battle staged at that year's '[[Step Back to the 1940s]]' event.
In 2022 it moved to [[Bewdley Down Yard]] for bodywork repairs<ref>[https://www.svrlive.com/bljan22 Branch Lines January 2022] (Retrieved 13 January 2022)</ref>.
