Spa Valley Railway - Latest News

Thanks - I had it my mind it was one of the WSR home fleet for some reason.

 

Enjoyed seeing 2890 and 51456 yesterday, in bright but cold weather. I think it's the first time I've been from Groombridge to Eridge by train since 1985. Could I enquire whether there are plans to provide workable run-round facilities at TW West and Eridge in the future, so that it's no longer necessary to top and tail trains? The level access to the Spa Valley platform at Eridge would make that more difficult, I guess?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/21602076@N05/51877621823
https://www.flickr.com/photos/21602076@N05/51878195980

 

There is a functioning run-round at TWW, but I think for this weekend it was top-and-tail as the Lanky Tanky doesn't have steam heat, and there were concerns about potentially low temperatures and subsequent cold coaches this weekend. Jonnie will probably be able to give a clearer picture of that situation as I know there has been a bit more of T-n-T'ing as of late than usual.

 

Can't speak about TWW but the top-and-tailing was indeed for that reason!

 

Is 75f now a sub shed of 26d?

 

Currently we are top and tailing due to the cold weather and the inability to run around at Eridge. The L&Y tank wasn't built with the ability to steam heat and last weekend in 'Sunny Tunny' was freezing so 'Douglas' was out providing heating and took trains from TWW to ERD.

We've continued top and tailing this week due to the weather, it spent most of today raining and the continuous warmth on board was most welcomed and with the forecast set to be rather dire for the rest of the week it is essential to keeping our passengers happy, we've a number of dining experiences over the next couple of days too. Tunbridge Wells has a fully functional run around loop but it is limited to 4 coaches, which is causing me problems because we could fill 5 or even 6 on occasion at the moment!

The Bulleid can't run around at TWW yet as the headshunt hasn't been re-extended into the concourse area, if you look back through photos of the railway from its beginning in the 1990s the headshunt was built long enough for 'Eddystone' and 50019 which were once upon a time destined to operate at the Spa Valley.

 

When will the extension take place this will be good string to a bow to add. I think the managers should make sure it will go up it as this is the biggest of all the engines

 

CALEDONIAN RAILWAY NO. 419 TO JOIN NO. 828 AT OUR SCOTTISH STEAM UP!

Yes, you did read that correctly!

We’re delighted to announce the visit of Caledonian Railway Class 439 0-4-4T No. 419 to our Scottish Steam Up which takes place on Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd April 2022 courtesy of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society at the Bo’ness & Kinneill Railway.

No. 419 joins already visiting Caledonian Railway Class 812 0-6-0 No. 828 courtesy of the Caledonian Railway 828 Trust and Strathspey Railway. This will be the first time the two Scottish locomotives have ever worked together in the South East of England and they will join resident Bulleid Pacific No. 34053 ‘Sir Keith Park’ and Hunslet Austerity No. 2890 ‘Douglas’ hauling trains between Tunbridge Wells West and Eridge on 2nd & 3rd April.

Furthermore, on Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th April you’ll be able to see the pair of Scottish engines operating alongside one another as we increase our service and give you another opportunity to see these two fabulous locomotives operating together at the Spa Valley Railway.

No. 419 is visiting us for two weekends and is scheduled to operate on 2nd, 3rd, 9th & 10th April.

No. 828 is visiting us for 7-months and will operate regularly throughout our busy Summer and Autumn periods, including the 25th Anniversary Gala from 26th to 29th August, our Model Railway Weekend on 24th & 25th September and the 11th Real Ale & Cider Festival which takes place from 7th to 9th October.

For full details of the exciting visits of No. 419 and No. 828 please visit our website https://bit.ly/3uVImU6 discounted tickets are now on sale for the Scottish Steam Up too!

 

Looks good, but how on earth can you afford to offer an event like this for £15 a ticket and at most £20? That lorry return trip alone has got to be like £7-8k.

Good value to the visitor granted, but if i'm honest I think most people are prepared to pay more.

 

So is Tunbridge Wells officially being claimed as a Scottish enclave? Well done Jonnie. I hope its a great success!

Another tour? What else is on the list?

 

She’s not coming back to Scotland for a while afterwords; on something of a summer tour (hopefully more successful than the last one) so presume that the railways involved have agreed how the transport will be split.

As a side note, You’d be looking at (at lot!) more than £7/8k for a return loader to Scotland given the prices we’ve had to move coaches by road for similar journeys recently.

 

For those wondering about money/cost of this.

828 is paid for already, the money is sat waiting to pay the invoice when the locomotive arrives, we needed to hire in another locomotive to work alongside 2890 during 2022 as 34053 goes out of ticket on 17th May (the boiler received its extension today) so I'd budgeted and set aside the funds for 828s visit to Spa.

As has been mentioned, 419 is visiting elsewhere after our event and transport will be worked out evenly which helps so in reality all I'm doing is working with similar payments to what I've had to pay for with locomotive hires before.

There is also the very unique nature of 419 and 828 pairing up so far away from home which I've no doubt will bring people in!

 

Just a shame that moving the coaches to go with them would be something that would definitely verge on extreme...

During their last catch up!

 

£15 seems like an absolute bargain. I'd be inclined to double it, at least for on the day booking.

 

Worth remembering that for the last decade you could have seen closely-related pre-grouping 0-4-4T and 0-6-0 tender engines working day-in, day-out together just round the corner

Tom

 

But not from the other end of this Island!

 

Indeed not, and I wish the Spa Valley well with their Scottish takeover!

Tom

 

2890 has previous with 419 when it visited the ELR

 

Oooh you make it sound like there could be some sort of Island of Sodor competition to come in Kent then @3855