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[[File:7325_20190629.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The Association's locomotive 9303 (7325) at Kidderminster, June 2019]]The '''Great Western (SVR) Association''' is a registered charity (No 1078718). It exists primarily to preserve and restore items of rolling stock for service on the SVR, in particular GWR carriages from the 1920s to 1940s.

The Association began in 1968 as the 'Great Western Rolling Stock Fund' (also referred to as the 'GWR Coach Fund'), and quickly began to accumulate pre-nationalisation carriages which were being withdrawn from service by BR at the time.<ref name=GWSVRA>[http://www.gw-svr-a.org.uk/background.html GW(SVR)A website ‘Background’] (retrieved 8 February 2019)</ref> In 1972 a separate group, the ‘Great Western Locomotive and Carriage Society’, was formed with the intention of saving a locomotive, [[GWR Mogul 7325 | Collett Mogul 9303/7325]], from [[Barry Scrapyard]].<ref>SVR News 25</ref> The two groups shared common aims and members, and in 1973 merged to form the Great Western (SVR) Association.,<ref name=SVR128>SVR News 128, “The Great Western (SVR) Association celebrates 25 years”</ref> the somewhat convoluted title being chosen to avoid any confusion with the Didcot-based Great Western Society.<ref>SVR News 157</ref> The first Annual General Meeting of the new Association was held on 18 May 1974.<ref>SVR News 34</ref>

In 2019 the Association announced it will run It ran a special train on 12 May 2019 to celebrate “the 50th Anniversary of the Association on the Severn Valley Railway”.<ref>Leaflet circulated to members, January 2019</ref>. This anniversary relates to the 1968 origins rather than the Association’s formation in 1973.

{{As of|20192020}} the Association owns 19 20 [[Carriages | carriages]](three of which are owned by Association members), one [[GWR 1257 Siphon G Bogie Milk Van| Siphon G Milk Van]], and a [[GWR 107291 Macaw B Bogie Bolster| Macaw B Bogie Bolster]].<ref>[http://www.gw-svr-a.org.uk/stock_list.html Stock list on the GW(SVR)A web site (retrieved December 2018January 2020)]</ref>. A full list of SVR-based rolling stock owned by the Association may be found [[:Category:Rolling stock owned by the Great Western (SVR) Association | here]].

Only 3 of the carriages have not yet been returned to working order.<ref>GW(SVR)A booklet</ref>The association’s Association's restoration of [[GWR 9103 Nondescript Saloon | GWR 9103 Nondescript Saloon]] was the overall Winner in the Heritage Railway Association’s Association's Carriage and Wagon Competition for 2015.<ref>[http://www.gw-svr-a.org.uk/news.html GW(SVR)A website] (retrieved 6 January 2017)</ref>  The Association’s most recently completed restoration project was projects are [[CarriagesGWR 650 Brake Third Open (Excursion)|Art Deco Brake 3rd 650]] , which entered service in November 2015. {{As of|2019}} and [[CarriagesGWR 6045 Bow-end Composite|Bow End -end Composite 6045]] is internally complete whose restoration was completed in April 2020. Only 3 of the carriages have yet to be returned to working order.<ref>GW(SVR)A booklet (since publication 6045 has been completed and awaiting final painting and bogie overhaul, while 2242 acquired)</ref> {{As of|2020}} work on 4786 is now in progress at Bewdley<ref>GWR(SVRA) Newsletter published Jan 2019</ref>and on 2242 at Kidderminster. 2426 was moved to Bewdley in 2019 where it is being used as a workshop although work has started on restoring the ends.