Severn Valley spring diesels draw the crowds
THE Severn Valley Railway’s Spring Diesel Festival on May 19-22 proved a major hit, with about 4800 passengers – including the line’s members and shareholders – travelling.
That number was a marked increase on the figure for the similar previous event held in May 2019, and despite increased costs, the event again turned in a healthy profit.
Among the guest locomotives which arrived at short notice as late replacements for others that could not attend were GB Railfreight’s Class 73s Nos. 73107 and 70136 and Class 33 D6515, a first-time visitor to the railway, courtesy of 71A locomotives.
Swanage-based D6515 and Peak Locomotive Co Ltd’s Midland Railway – Butterley-based D4 Great Gable and D182 arrived from the Purbeck Line on May 10 following the diesel gala there on May 6-8 (see News, pages 40-41).
Visiting from the ‘modern’ railway were Class 68 No. 68003 from Direct Rail Services and Class 69 No. 69005 from GB Railfreight, making its first run on a heritage railway and hauling its first passenger services.
One minor failure saw D6515 sustain a split air pipe on the Friday evening. The problem was quickly attended to by the support crew to enable the locomotive to continue as planned on the subsequent two days. D182 will be staying on the SVR for the summer period at least until the September 29 to October 2 autumn steam gala, and it was hoped the Class 55 Deltic No. 55009 Alycidon, which became unavailable for the spring festival, will arrive in late summer in readiness for this autumn event, featuring heritage locomotives only.
The Severn Valley Railway’s head of marketing and communications, Lesley Carr, said: “For four days in May, diesels well and truly owned the SVR... and a great time was had by one and all! Diesel power is definitely proving extremely useful to us at the moment because of the universal difficulties in obtaining new supplies of coal.
“With extra assistance from our diesel fleet, we are able to offer full timetables to our visitors, and we are very grateful to be able to do that.”