Black Prince to star in Cotswolds after successful Norfolk gala
BR Standard 9F 2-10-0 No. 92203 Black Prince has completed the locomotive line-up for the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s showpiece June 3-5 Cotswold Festival of Steam.
North Norfolk Railway-based Black Prince will join four other guests locomotives for the event which, as reported last issue, are rebuilt SR West Country 4-6-2 No. 34028 Eddystone, courtesy of Southern Locomotives Limited and the Swanage Railway, Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T No. 41312 from the Mid-Hants Railway, Andy Chapman’s Sentinel 4wvb No. 7109 Joyce from the Somerset & Dorset Railway Heritage Trust at Midsomer Norton, and the Ivatt class 2MT 2-6-0 No. 46521 from the Great Central Railway, which is on loan to the G/WR for the summer.
No. 92203 Black Prince was once based at Bath Green Park and worked trains including the ‘Pines Express’ over the Somerset & Dorset between Bournemouth and Bath.
Owned by the late artist David Shepherd until 2016, for several years it was a resident on the G/WR.
Nine-loco line-up
Home-based locomotives will include Merchant Navy 4-6-2 No. 35006 Peninsular & Oriental SN Co, WR 4-6-0 No. 7903 Foremarke Hall, GWR 4-6-0 No. 7820 Dinmore Manor, and GWR 2-8-0T No. 4270, which dates from 1919 and is the oldest locomotive working over the festival. Bala Lake Railway Trust chairman Julian Birley will be bringing his Bentley motor car that once belonged to the late Ivo Peters, the fabled S&D photographer.
G/WR spokesman Ian Crowder said: “This is shaping up to be an especially exciting event after a two-year gap in our annual Cotswold Festival of Steam thanks to the pandemic.
“Four of our five visiting engines were associated with the former Somerset & Dorset line.”
Black Prince was one of five locomotives that featured in the highly successful spring steam gala as its current home line.
More than 1700 passengers were carried over the April 1-3 event, a step up from the 1294 people carried at the corresponding event in 2019 – the last time that the North Norfolk was able to stage a spring gala before the Covid-19 pandemic.
This time round, the Poppy Line welcomed special guest maroonliveried Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T No. 41241 from the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway, which helped attract lineside cameramen.
No. 92203 developed a small hole in a steam tube on the Saturday and had to be taken off the roster the following day as it underwent repairs.
The North Norfolk Railway’s next big event is the June 10-12 annual mixed traffic gala, at which the special guest will be the Waterman Railway Heritage Trust’s newly restored Class 25 D7659.
The 1966-built locomotive will operate as part of an 11-engine lineup scheduled to include a variety of steam and diesel locomotives, multiple units, and shunters.
The Rat’s debut
D7659 returned to service late last year after an absence of more than 23 years and will be making its first appearance as a gala visitor following a restoration that amounted to a complete rebuild.
The final locomotive built by Beyer Peacock at Gorton Works in Manchester, during a 20-year working life with BR it worked mainly in the Midlands and North West, but also saw service in Wales and Scotland and worked some summer holiday specials to Norwich in the 1970s.
Joining D7659 will be a second visitor courtesy of Direct Rail Services. It will be drawn from the DRS stabling point at Stowmarket and details will be confirmed nearer the event.
The rostered home fleet will include Class 37 D6732, Class 31 D5631, and London Undergroundliveried Class 20 No. 20227
Sherlock Holmes.
There will be an intensive service of passenger and parcels trains,
selected double-heading, nonstop expresses, and other unusual workings.
The line’s two Class 101 DMUs are also scheduled to appear, alongside two of the railway’s resident steam locomotives.
Completing the line-up are the line’s two Class 08 shunters. It is hoped that D3940, which returned to service in December following a lengthy overhaul, and which is usually employed on shunting duties at Weybourne shed, will be able to make its first passenger runs. It will join Horwich-built classmate D3935, the regular station pilot at Sheringham, which is seldom seen on passenger duties.
The line’s recently repainted fourcar suburban set will be among the rolling stock in use, as well as the vintage train of four and six-wheeled carriages. A demonstration parcels train is planned to be in operation.
It is also planned to have a real ale bar at Sheringham, with a variety of Norfolk ales available.