The Lady of Severn Valley Legend
New-build GWR Saint 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend added Edwardian star quality to the Severn Valley’s eagerly-awaited Spring Steam Up, which, blessed with bright sunshine, provided the ultimate curtain-raiser for the sector’s post-lockdown new season, reports John Titlow.
New-build GWR Saint 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend added Edwardian star quality to the Severn Valley Railway’s eagerly-awaited Spring Steam Up which, blessed with bright sunshine and clear blue skies, provided the ultimate curtain-raiser for the UK heritage sector’s post-lockdown new season, reports John Titlow.
With the Government’s lockdown restrictions eased, the Severn Valley Railway ran its first public services of the year on April 12. However, it was the eagerlyawaited April 15-18 Spring Steam Up which gave the season one of the most stupendous starts in the line’s history.
As reported in Heritage Railway issue 277, the headline guest locomotive was the Great Western Society’s new-build Saint 4-6-0 No. 2999 Lady of Legend.
No. 2999 had originally been booked as the principal guest at the SVR’s 2020 spring gala last April, but the event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Spring Steam Up finally gave Lady of Legend its first chance to shine on another railway – and shine it did!
Lady of Legend is the second standard gauge new-build to be completed at Didcot, following that of steam railmotor No. 93 in 2011. It took 45 years to reverse-engineer the GWR development of the Hall class from Churchward’s two-cylinder Saint in 1925 when the prototype Hall was converted from No. 2925 Saint Martin at Swindon Works. No. 4942 Maindy Hall, built in 1929, was acquired from Barry scrapyard specifically for the project in 1974. The end result, No. 2999, moved under its own power for the first time in late 2019, the first time a working Saint had been seen since 1953, when the last of class, No. 2920 Saint David, was withdrawn and scrapped that October.
As described last issue, No. 2999 Lady of Legend was unloaded at Bridgnorth on March 31 after arriving from Didcot Railway Centre by a low loader.
Getting it into Bridgnorth was no mean feat. Because of its size and weight, the Saint could not come over the lower town bridge so it had to travel round the town
bypass and enter the station yard via the narrow terraced roads of Salop Street, Pound Street and Hollybush Road before turning right into Station Lane where unloading took place at the rear of the boiler shop.
Inside the shed, inspections took place. However, the vacuum brakes were discovered to be leaking off very quickly, meaning that the brakes could not hold off, and so it did not meet Severn Valley Railway requirements. Very different conditions apply when running eight-coach trains at 25mph on a 16-mile railway as opposed to hauling three coaches at 10mph along Didcot’s half-mile demonstration line.
The problem lay with the locomotive’s vacuum-brake cylinder which is positioned above the front bogie. Access is generally difficult without a wheeldrop, but surprisingly the one inside Bridgnorth shed can do not only driving wheels, but bogies as well.
Preparation
Once the bogie was out of the way, the vacuum cylinder could be removed. It has a diameter of around 30in, a stroke of 18ins and weighs more than half a ton. After removal, it was discovered the internal India rubber band was not sealing correctly. Bridgnorth has a stock of these and sells them on to other railways: once the new band is fitted it goes onto the in-house test rig before refitting. It all sounds complicated but is a familiar process at Bridgnorth. The tender has its own vacuum cylinder of a slightly smaller size.
As part of the SVR inspection process and works it was weighed on the portable test rig to ensure the wheels carried the correct loading. All this may sound a long and complicated process – but it was professionally accomplished in a few days after Easter.
On Friday, April 9, No. 2999 was steamed and ran light engine
to Kidderminster, completing successfully its first lengthy turn since completion. Waiting in the station was the eightcoach Great Western carriage set and once coupled, it ran as a mail train, stopping at all stations to Bridgnorth delivering internal post.
On Sunday, April 11 most signalboxes on the SVR were opened for the first time this year as a test for the following day’s passenger services. Light engine positioning took place with GWR pannier No. 7714 and 2-8-0 No. 2847 travelling to Bewdley. The best came in the afternoon when Lady of Legend completed two return empty coaching stock turns from Bridgnorth to Bewdley with the Great Western set: what a sight it made climbing past Hay Bridge!
On Tuesday, April 13, Lady of Legend made one more round trip to Kidderminster in the evening for turning to face south in preparation for the Spring Steam Up.
Beginning on April 12, a regular timetabled service ran for three days during half term before the Spring Steam Up – the first event of its kind on any heritage line this year: many other major railways in the sector had not started running by then.
In addition to No. 2999 Lady of Legend, locomotives running over the Spring Steam Up included the usual residents: No. 2857, Ivatt 2-6-0 No. 43106, GWR 4-6-0 No. 6960 Raveninghan Hall, West Country light Pacific No. 34027 Taw Valley which was turned to face north. For added interest GWR/Port Talbot Railway 0-6-0ST No. 813 and No. 7714 double-headed throughout.
On standby were Hawksworth pannier No. 1501 and BR Standard 4MT No. 75069, the latter being brought into service on the Sunday due to a minor mechanical failure of No. 2999.
Most locomotives carried wreaths in memory of the Duke of Edinburgh.
Operations
Four carriage sets were used throughout with each rake consisting of either seven or eight coaches – the full Great Western set, BR Mk.1s, the LMS set and a mixed set of opens, all of compartment stock. Some were not as uniform as we have become to expect for the Severn Valley, but Covid-19 restrictions played a big part in this to ensure social distancing took place throughout.
Superb weather welcomed the return of the Severn Valley. All four days were dry and sunny with sporadic light clouds but no rain.
The Railwayman’s Arms on Bridgnorth Station and the King and Castle at Kidderminster were reopened for outside seating only. People were keen to be out once again and secondary spending
in the pubs, refreshment rooms and shops was healthy. The online preorder bottle facility and bottle bar on the concourse was well received.
Spring Steam Up ticket sales were in excess of 90% capacity and what has now become standard, all trains had to be booked beforehand either online or by telephone.
Two of the services sold out completely each day and the others were up to 80% full. Working to about two-thirds of the capacity of a normal special event, almost all the sales were pre-bookings, either online or by telephone. Only a few on-theday tickets were sold, and this was also attributable to the fact that some of the services were sold out.
Timings were not as intensive as normal because the programme lacked the usual short workings. Timekeeping was generally good with the occasional delay made up relatively easily.
No trains stopped at Highley and the Engine House was closed due to Government guidelines despite the local pub being open. It was nice to finally see Hampton Loade and Arley stations open for the first time in around a year.
Schedule
Additional steaming dates for Lady of Legend were due to take place (check at www.svr. co.uk) before it returned to Didcot for the May 29-31 Bank Holiday Steam Up where it will be possible to ride behind the locomotive in a different rake of Great Western carriages.
Other major SVR events planned are the ever-popular Step Back to the 1940s which was cancelled last year, and which is scheduled to take place over June 26/27, and July 3/4. May 13-16 will see the diesel bash take place.
During May and June, an almost daily service will resume on the SVR, apart from some Mondays and odd days. Bookings can be done online, by telephone or at the booking office on the day if space is available.
No July service train dates are available yet because it is impossible to plan too far ahead at present.