Severn Valley Railway Autumn Gala: 15 - 18/09/22

Fully agree. Whilst I did mainly linesiding at Highley and Hampton Loade, Highley proved to have the most activity with the shunting of trains (both goods and shuttles) with the added bonus of the Perryvale 0-6-2T running on their demonstration line outside the Engine House. Whilst there was little sign of crowds per se there was a large amount of movement and whilst passenger numbers (train spend) are reportedly down I wonder what the figure from catering (bonus spend) will add to the overall revenue figures. Even the simple £5:00 purchase of the guide book will help income figures and I look forward to seeing what the total Income - Expenditure = Profit figures will show. The use of mainly resident engines will obviously reduce expenditure but my only thought is that having 34046 instead of 45231 (albeit a good choice) might have offered the sight of a double-headed Bulleid; one can only dream !!

 

Given the SVR's close relationship with Crewe, we can hope they might get 1st choice on Blue Peter or Nunney Castle next year.
Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed having a Black 5 back on the Valley - how about 45110 now Hagley is back folks?

 

Because the various bridge structures and PW slacks would love a pair of DH Pacifics …keep dreaming .

 

So I attended Friday to Sunday of the gala - here was my observations.

Locos: The visitors I felt was actually worth it this year. - 45231 is the first Black 5 to visit for about a decade and boy didn't she sound good. 9351 a lot of people disagree about a Prairie being "vandalised" but this was the star locomotive for me. It coped well with any train it ran with. Unfortunately, I didn't bag a ride behind Jessie but from everyone's feedback it was a fantastic addition to the line-up. It was great seeing 2857 again one of my true personal favourites and 70 before it gets repainted. I normally feel "big namer/Pacific visitors" are overrated so not having either visit tempted me even more. The Hall looked amazing. a full credit to everyone involved. It was a shame it was a firestarter though.

Timetable: In general, a fun, interesting timetable. My thoughts are the locals ended up running late several times in-particular departing Highley. The 21:40 departure on Saturday night from Bridgnorth ended up being 70 mins late for reasons I'm not sure of. the 22:50 was around half hour down as a result. It was a shame 43106 wasn't given a full line run - hopefully for the Spring Gala (I know it is being used sparingly). The max time lost at some points was 25-30 mins.

Passengers: Due to a number of reasons people above have discussed. It wasn't as overcrowded as the Spring Gala which personally made it more comfortable. I do however hope the event was a financial success though

One of my favourite galas from the SVR

 

The Austerities were based on the Hunslet 18" engines. I forget the exact class but it is discussed in Don Townley's book on the history of Hunslet

Sent from my SM-A105FN using Tapatalk

 

Neatly summed up, agree 100%. I was starting to wonder if I had attended the same event!

Shame you missed Jessie, she performed brilliantly, but probably one to ride behind before you had your dinner.. Not sure she was used to a 25mph limit!

Also agree with your comments re. 9351, cracking machine and it coped with some heavier loads than on the WSR (although granted their banks are a bit steeper!). I would say she was close to her limit on Highley bank mind. Was good to see 7325 on display, made for an interesting comparison - a much missed machine.

 

My video and a few photos from the gala.

Overall an enjoyable couple of days on the railway. Was great to see Hagley out and about, a shame she had to be pulled from Saturday and Sunday, but hopefully the issues they are having with her firestarting tendencies can be sorted soon. Jessie for me was a definite highlight, and I hope the railway continues to bring in an industrial loco to operate a shuttle service, they often tend to be a highlight, just as Welsh Guardsman was previously. The timetable had a nice mix of full line and shuttles, though would've been nice to have another run of the goods during the day.

 

Austeritie 18 in 0-6-0sts were based on the Hunslet 50550 class .8 of these loco's were built for Stewart and Lloyds Corby.A line was to be built from Corby to Islip ,round about 8 miles,to transport iron ore,in 1942. This was cancled before it was even started. The loco's were delivered to Corby ,most were sent to work quarries in Northants and Rutand ,one HE 2411 was put to work in the steelworks at Corby,and two went to the War Dept.They must have liked them, as the Austeritie locos we all know ,were ,with a few alterations ,made standard.
S&L numbered HE 2411 ,24, I photed it on the steelworks loco'shed in May 1971 ,there was a strike on at the works, and all of the loco's were on shed.I worked for a Auto electrical company at the time, and had a call at the steelworks garage once a week ,that was next door to the loco shed. 24 was converted to oil burning(as were other loco's ) sometime in the 1960s,the oil being a by product from.the works.
Its job at that time was to take loaded wagons from the tube works up to the main BR line ,large volumes of smoke from the oil burning could be seen all over the east side of Corby when climbing up the last mile or so.At the time I photed it, 24s normal job was working the lime plant,a couple of wagons at a time.
Going back to the start ,the 50550 were a enlarge version of Hunslets 16 in ,that was supplied to Guest Keen and Baldwins of South Wales, in the late 1930s.
Please see photo ,Corby 1971.

 

IIRC HE2411 was one of the original 8 Class 50550 locomotives which Hunslet offered to the War Department in preference to its original choice of Fowler LMS 0-6-0T [the Jinties] for war service. The War Department requested some modifications to the design resulting in the Class 50555 specification which saw 377 examples being built by various contractors (Andrew Barclay (15); W.G. Bagnall (52); Hudswell Clarke (50); Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn (90); Vulcan Foundry (50) and the remainder built by Hunslet). After WWII further examples were ordered by the National Coal Board (77), the Army (14) and steel companies (17) resulting in a total of 485 locos being built when production ceased in 1964.

As I noted in an earlier posting the original 18" locomotives (Class 48150) were developed from Hunslet's 16" design to meet a specification requested by Guest Keen Nettlefold steelworks in Cardiff. The Northamptonshire firm of Stewarts & Lloyds sought a batch of locomotives which was met by the development of the 48150 class to create the 50550 class (HE 2411 - 2418) but when the War Department sought a loco for war service Hunslet created the improved 50555 design to meet the War Departments specification. Whilst the 48150 / 50550 / 50555 designs were of 18" cylinders, the fact that the origin was the "standard" 16" design - as is HE1873 Jesse - I feel it fair to consider Jesse as an Austerity locomotive although others may demur on a point of pedantry.

On a more personal note as a child I was lulled to sleep for many years by the staccato bark of HE2411 bringing loaded tube wagons from Corby steelworks to Corby Sidings and returning with the empties. At one time the line passed between Corby station and the United Counties bus garage behind Corby coal yard but in the 1960s the line was re-routed on its entry to Corby Sidings and became the branch connection that it is today. Sadly during my time I could not afford a decent camera hence my only images of HE 2411 are taken from the time when it worked the limestone wagons within the work complex. The only images I have from the days of riding the tubeworks - Corby Sidings workings on Sundays are of the RSH 0-6-0ST locos with RSH 3931 being located locally at the Ribble Steam Railway - but not (yet) in S&L yellow livery. Perhaps one day the Rutland Ironstone Museum might appreciate the value of their HE2411 and restore it to working order - the loco deserves better than being stored IMHO.

 

It's not pedantry - it's not an Austerity! Smaller and older for a start. You may as well call D6700 a Deltic because it's got a nose each end and the same bogies.

 

Any chance of seeing your photo's you say you took at Corby ?

 

It may take some time as I have to scan them and I'm currently resolving some PC problems - but I'll see what I can do

 

2857 seen approaching Eardington with a Southbound Train for Kidderminster. (17th September 2022)

 

Well Severn Valley definitely "did it again", another great gala, lots of different things to see and do, nice seeing a South Downs bus in operation (being a Hampshire man) as well as seeing Anne, Jessie, 9351, 45231, 70, 1501, 2857, 7714, 43106 and 75069.

To be honest saying that 4930 was the "star of the gala" was a bit misplaced, it didn't really affect much, I suppose it's an opinion thing really, Jessie was definitely the "star" in my opinion and I do hope either Welsh Guardsman or another industrial tank do more of those shuttles, it was an experience, one not to be forgotten.

Ben Jenden, I did get behind Jessie on Saturday and Sunday, you definitely missed a very spirited performance.

All in all, great fun.

 

This indicates IMHO the fact that industrial locomotives are seriously disregarded. The SVR might find providing Austerities for the Bridgnorth - Hampton Loade shuttles could prove a valuable feature for future galas as they can show off their 4MT power to good advantage. Future such workings would surely attract a new part of the market with many industrial enthusiasts keen to see what Austerities can do with the free rein that the SVR can offer.

 

Before this love in of industrials gets too much momentum, I think there are many who are not impressed to see an industrial engine on a GWR branch line gala working a GW branch line set.
There are plenty of lines around the country where industrial engines fit in, for me personally, the SVR is not one of them.
There used to be a concept that at least one or two of the visiting guests would be engines that would fit in with rolling stock available or look right in a GW/LMS branch line setting. This was especially true for the Spring gala.
Industrials never ran on the SVR bar a short flirtation with some austerities in the late seventies. Yes, I am aware that Duchesses and Flying Scotsman don't fit in either, but they are a different kind of draw. This might be a bit of a purist view, but if you asked all those volunteers down the years who helped restore the stations, the infrastructure, the rolling stock etc. I'm fairly sure you would hear them say they wanted to recreate "what was and could have been" rather than a random industrial tank engine with a pair of coaches and a brake van.
Bottom line I think the number of visitors who came specifically to the gala because an industrial tank engine was hired in would be relatively small.

 

Ahem, ever heard of a 2 little tank engines? One named Warwickshire the other The Lady Armaghdale?