Great Western (SVR) Association
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 1967 as the ‘Great Western Rolling Stock Fund’, and quickly began to accumulate pre-nationalisation carriages which were being withdrawn from service by BR at the time.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 Barry scrapyard. The two groups shared common aims and members, and in 1973 merged to form the Great Western (SVR) Association.
The Mogul was purchased in 1974 and moved to the SVR in 1975; it is still owned by the Association. Acquisition of further redundant ex Departmental Stock also continued in the 1970s. As of 2016[update] the Association owns 19 carriages, one Siphon G Milk Van, and Macaw B Bogie Bolster. Only 3 of the carriages have not yet been returned to working order[1].
The Association’s most recently completed restoration project was Art Deco Brake 3rd 650 which entered service in November 2015, while restoration of Bow End Composite 6045 is now in progress.
References
- ↑ GW(SVR)A booklet