Spa Valley Railway - Latest News

Thank you for the clarification.


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Thank you for those comments, I understand the Class 20 new AVR needs a bit of tweaking by the owners so should be corrected on their next visit down to us. As well as the leaking roof REG had an intermittent control wiring fault which has been found and repaired so Loco back to normal (we think) . With 50 year old wiring it is surprising Locos do not have more issues and we want to rewire Sealion during its current overhaul so we are trying to keep REG going till it’s turn comes. Not to say it is being neglected, it has had an overhauled Governor this year and set of bogie dampers are being overhauled along with more roof and metal work planned. Most BRCW locomotive bodies are fairly well gone by now but we must remember the design life was 15 years or so so to last 50 is good going, I suspect an accountant would say over engineered . Like all railways more help would always be welcomed in every department.

 

VISITING LOCO NEWS!

The Spa Valley Railway is delighted to announce the visit of Great Western Railway 64XX Pannier Tank No. 6435 courtesy of the Bodmin & Wenford Railway.

6435 will arrive at the beginning of December and remain on hire until the end of March 2021. Built-in 1937 at Swindon Works, the 0-6-0 Pannier Tank will (subject to any restrictions) haul some of our Santa Specials and Standard Train Rides, alternating between Bulleid Pacific No. 34053 ‘Sir Keith Park’ and RSH No. 62 ‘Ugly’.

 

GWR Pannier No. 6435 arrived from Bodmin today, the loco was unloaded and a warming fire was put in the loco ready for an FTR exam tomorrow. 6435 will then enter traffic immediately and remain on hire until the end of March 2021. The loco faces chimney first away from Eridge.

Bulleid Pacific No. 34053 'Sir Keith Park' is fast approaching the end of its annual boiler examination and some other repairs have been undertaken on RSH No. 62 'Ugly', both of these locos will return to service ASAP. 'Ugly' only has until 14th February 2021 on her boiler ticket after which she'll be withdrawn for an overhaul.

 

Re-creating West Country 34095 'Brentor' - 26th & 27th June 2021
The Spa Valley was contacted last year by a person wanting to hire our railway for their wedding charter which as part of this they requested that 'Sir Keith Park' be temporarily renamed 'Brentor' after the West Country locomotive, the reason being simple, their surname is Brentor as they have the name and number plates already cast. Unfortunately, the wedding charter isn't able to proceed due to the current way of life but the owner of the Brentor plates is very keen to still enable this to happen so over the weekend of 26th & 27th June the Battle of Britain will temporarily become a West Country.

Some help is now needed in terms of photographs of the real West Country 'Brentor' and I'm hoping someone on this forum might be able to help. I need a few photos of 34095 from back in the 60s that can be used in marketing (in print and online such as Facebook) and on our website for publicity of this event in a legitimate way (i.e. the copyright has been passed on to an owner of a collection of photos etc) credit for use of the photos will be given where possible on our website and on other places it is used.

If anyone can help, could you please send images to Jonnie.pay@spavalleyrailway.co.uk, it'd be much appreciated.

General Update
By way of a general update, Pannier 6435 left the Spa Valley yesterday and has now arrived at the Mid Hants, we will have another engine coming on hire in April to provide us with a second engine for use alongside SKP during 2021.

Essential work undertaken recently has been drainage and track improvements all along the line as well as fencing repairs and vegetation management. If you live in Kent you might see that our bridge over the A26 is regularly struck by over height road vehicles, some repair work will be undertaken on this structure later this month and we are working with the appropriate authorities to try and prevent this type of event from happening continuously, we've had 8 strikes in the space of the last 6 months.

We are intending to re-open on Saturday 22nd May with SKP and one of the diesel fleet operating trains with a Summer Steam Weekend being held on 17th & 18th July.

 

@neildimmer might be able assist with regard photograph see https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/bulleid-light-pacifics-b-r-era-34094-34097.1293304/ and scroll down.

 

out of curiosity as it came to mind when I couldn't sleep last night. Was the T-Stock sold due to the Eridge extension? Are 'older' then Mark 1s carriages allowed to run on the Network Rail 'bit'?

 

I'm not sure about the latter points, but I think it is air-braked only, and was thus seen as limited use, especially following the departure of Spartan(?) which was (I believe) the only air-brake fitted steam engine on the line.

 

Its not just 'operational requirements' which have to be considered - physical size matters too!

IIRC one of the big issues with the T stock was / is its width - basically it was slightly wider than a Mk1 in places and thus there was the theoretical possibility of it coming into contact with trains on the adjacent NR line.

 

T stock? Sorry but could someone enlighten me. I'm afraid I have never heard of T stock and where did it end up.
Thanks Andy

 

http://www.quainton-railway-society.me.uk/t stock history.htm

Ended up at Quainton Road.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_T_Stock

 

See: http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=1075
Ray.

 

Thanks.

 

Sir Keith Park was out on crew refresher training duty yesterday, so took the opportunity to take a wander and see it.

 

Great pictures of SKP - thanks for posting.

 

We intend to go to the Spa Valley Railway on 26th June, travelling by train from Southampton. Any idea when the Spa Valley timetable will be available so we can plan our day. Its not on the website.

 

Have you tried contacting the railway directly? Not everyone is on Nat-Pres regularly

https://www.spavalleyrailway.co.uk/contact

01892 300141

https://www.facebook.com/SpaValleyRailway/

 

Yes I tried that but the contact form wouldn’t send

 

Maybe try phone/facebook?