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Last year some of the connections were not held at Kidderminster if the departing train was full. I'd plan accordingly if you require to use your red pen.
For the Severn Valley at least they used to do a lineside permit scheme. This has now been stopped however anyone who still had an in-date permit can use it lineside until it expires.
If you remove the chip you would need to replace it with blanking plate.
As posted by @4COR from what I have read a model brand new out of the box should run on DC with DCC chip installed.
Realtimetrains.co.uk only shows what the train is timed for not necessarily what will run it. A number of services now are timed for 80x but run with Pendolinos.