NEW MOVES AND CHANGES
The Midland Class 20 Association is currently looking at the future of its loco 20048, which is undergoing a full top end overhaul. With dwindling numbers of working members and future expenditure and running costs to plan for, the group is evaluating its options, which may see the loco going to a new owner. Delivered new to British Railways in December 1959, D8048 ran up almost 30 years of service before being withdrawn in late 1989. The MCTA took ownership in 1991.
Class 25 D7628 has put in sterling work at the North
Yorkshire Moors Railway, almost glued to the afternoon service from Grosmont to Whitby and back. Being part of a Pickering – Whitby service, these were all pre-booked trains and could only be accessed from Pickering; there were no bookings from Whitby available.
At the Avon Valley, 31130 was in service on October 24, and Halloween, while 31430 had a run out at the Spa Valley on the 16th. 47635 was due to work at the Epping Ongar Railway on the 17th, but an issue mid-week saw it replaced by 31438, only for that to fail on the Friday. Class 37 D6729 took its place on the 17th, albeit only working from North Weald to Ongar.
The West Somerset Railway has been one of those railways that has not run a service this year and it wasn’t until November 2 that the first trains ran performing crew training and stock movements. This included the line’s two Class 33s, D6566 and D6575, on a Williton to Bishops Lydeard ECS move. Of course, the national lockdown from November 5 restricted any further running.
Having arrived back at the Severn Valley Railway, 40106 was very quickly back in traffic, making its return on October 18, 2020. Five days later it performed the last booked diesel day of the brief running season when it worked services top and tail with Class 52 D1015 Western Champion, now in BR blue with a half yellow warning panel. It should have been D1062, but a failure found at the 11th hour necessitated the switch.
At the Great Central Railway, Class 37/7 37714 was busy on passenger trains on the second of two Fridays of diesel running, the first being Class 25 D5185. Unlike the weekend train services that started at Quorn, the Friday trains ran to and from Loughborough with five round trips commencing at 1315.
89001’s return to Barrow Hill was very brief, as completion of the paperwork saw it moved as planned to the West Midlands Trains Soho EMD for planned electric testing. The move took place on October 27, 2020 the ‘Badger’ being taken there by 467813 and 37510.