We are delighted to announce our latest fundraising auction, thanks to our friends at First Great Western who have donated a pair of tickets for the Night Riviera Paddington-Penzance sleeper train to Swindon Panel Society!

The tickets will be auctioned to raise funds for the Panel move.

You and a friend or relative can board the train at Paddington or Reading and take a night’s sleep in a cabin, and wake up bright and refreshed in the morning in Penzance, or perhaps alighting at an earlier station, and exploring whatever area of glorious Cornwall that you prefer. Or, if you live in the West Country, why not have a day exploring the sights and sounds of London?

Return travel will be provided on an ‘ordinary’ FGW train. (Or you may chose to travel ‘out’ on an ordinary train and return on the sleepers.) The approximate retail cost of such a ticket is about £275 – £300.

This is a great opportunity to experience a dwindling classic railway experience – not only a sleeper train, but loco-hauled by an FGW class 57.

The auction is now closed.

The final (winning) bid was: £125.00
(Note this total may lag behind slightly)

Here is a taster video of the treat you have in store for you!

You can bid as many times as you like. Please remember that if you send a bid you are agreeing to pay that amount if you win. We will reply to your email to confirm receipt of your bid. If the highest bid amount is received from more than one bidder, the first-received bid will be the winning one. We will process the bids every couple of days through the period, and more frequently at the end.

Payment may be made by (in order of preference): online bank transfer, cash, credit/debit card, PayPal. Payment must be made by Saturday 4th July (unless agreed otherwise in order to pay by cash), otherwise we will offer to the next-highest bidder (without obligation).

The date of the journey is to be agreed between the winner and FGW. The tickets must be used by 31/12/15. (And, as similarly applies to our signal box visits – in the very unlikely event of a significant operating issue (such as, in this case, train failure, etc) the date/time of the arranged journey may need to be altered at short notice or re-arranged for another time/day. Clearly this is not the plan, but nothing can ever be 100% guaranteed.)

Last but not least, thank you very much indeed to First Great Western for this most generous donation!

Right: See this unusual signal with its miniature co-actor below at Penzance station: