SVR Volunteer Kenny shares some highlights from the Autumn Steam Gala
The nights are beginning to draw in, the trees are starting to turn golden and the Severn Valley is filled with unfamiliar whistles and exhaust beats….it can only mean one thing, it’s time for the Autumn Steam Gala. This year’s event, held between the 19 and 22 September, had a distinct London Midland theme with three of the four visiting locos being of LMS pedigree. The locos visiting featured a couple of returning guests from previous years as well as a two new visitors to the line.
Starting off the four was returnee LMS Jubilee 5XP 45596 Bahamas, visiting from the Bahamas Locomotive Society located at Ingrow West on the Keighley Worth Valley Railway. This was the first time the 5XP had been at the railway for a gala in 30 years and the first 5XP to visit since ex resident 5690 Leander appeared at the 2010 Autumn Gala.
Next up on the visitors list was first time attendee Black Five 44932 from West Coast Railway Co at Carnforth. The Five making an appearance on a heritage line is quite rare so this was a good scoop for the railway.
Third in the line up was the smallest of the four, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Class 23 Saddle Tank 11456 owned by the L&YR Trust and currently based at the East Lancashire Railway. This 1881 built veteran is an unusual one having been originally built as a Class 25 0-6-0 Tender loco then rebuilt into its current form in 1896. The loco was making its first gala appearance in the recently applied LMS Black as 11456, having been carrying a ‘what if’ BR Black livery with the number 51456 for the first few years of its ticket.
Finally, the last guest in the line up was regular SVR visitor GWR 2999 Lady of Legend, a recreation of a Saint Class, visiting from the Great Western Society at Didcot. The Churchward recreation was making its third visit to the line since it was completed in 2019.
On the home fleet side of things, there was four locos in action, joining the LMS guests was recently overhauled Stanier Mogul 13268, a great comparison next to the visiting Black Five and Jubilee while also looking very much the part next to the Aspinall Tank. The rest of the line up consisted of flagship 4930 Hagley Hall, as well as the ever reliable Standard 4 75069 and the popular across many heritage railways, Pannier Tank 7714, finally supplementing the steam fleet was the DMU Group West Midlands resident Class 108 2 car DMU filling in an extra path for ferrying people around to get them where they want to be for the next steam loco.
The four days featured various timetable differences, with Thursday featuring a pick up goods between Kidderminster and Highley, hauled and shunted by 2999 Lady of Legend, passenger services were handled by Bahamas, 44932 and 4930 on the full line trains while 11456 and the 108 handled the local trains.
Around lunchtime on the Thursday the Lanky Tank suffered a failure with 75069 taking up its duties for the rest of the day while the team at Bridgnorth shed and the owners reps of the Lanky Tank worked hard to get the little loco back in traffic. Friday saw a more intense timetable with all available locos in action, 75069 still replacing 11456 for the day as repairs were still ongoing, this was until the evening when the Lanky took up its booked run back from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster.
Saturday saw everything running as it should have been, all locos back on their booked diagrams, the same for Sunday, although 75069 was now stood down. Even with the loco failure on Thursday, there wasn’t a huge amount of delays in the timetable and no trains were cancelled. The quick work from Bridgnorth to get 75069 out in place of 11456 on the Thursday really helped with this.
Sadly we can’t be so positive on the one element we cannot control, the weather….Thursday and most of Friday were dry and even had sunny spells, but the rain did come in on the Friday evening and again on the Saturday evening, in the form of torrential rain at times and thunderstorms, it was quite entertaining travelling down the Valley in the dark with the lightning show going on in the distance. Sunday was a complete wash out from start to finish, which did seem to affect how many were at the railway, it was noticeably quieter and for good reason, even I retreated around 2pm and headed for home!
One noticeable difference this year to previous galas was the lack of overnight running on the Friday-Sunday, while the trains did run late into the night, it did seem that the trains looked quieter in the evenings, I do hope this isn’t the end of the overnights, maybe they could be a once in a while on special occasions like next years 60th anniversary for example, but I suspect there would be a lot of people who would be happy with a compromise on the in between years, maybe an earlier start of each day, there’s nothing quite like travelling along the line at sunrise.
Overall I feel the gala was well received and attended, shame the weather had other ideas, lets hope next year is a little dryer….!
Kenny Felstead
