‘POPPY LINE’ DROPS M&GN THEME FOR GALA AFTER ‘4MT’ PULLS OUT

The North Norfolk Railway’s spring steam gala will no longer be a Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway-themed event, owing to the unavailability of its star engine, Ivatt ‘4MT’ No. 43106.

The Severn Valley Railway-based 2-6-0 was booked to be the guest of honour at the event, to mark 60 years since the closure of the joint railway system on February 28 1959 – No. 43106 having been allocated new to the M&GN’s South Lynn shed in 1951.

But after routine valve and piston examinations on No. 43106 and ‘14XX’ No. 1450 revealed that both engines needed more work than expected, the SVR informed the ‘Poppy Line’ that the Ivatt Class 4 was unlikely to be ready in time for the gala.

The SVR had discovered that No. 43106’s valve heads were starting to break up and one of its cylinder covers was cracked – meaning that replacement parts will have to be cast. Meanwhile, explained SVR Engineering Services Manager Neil Taylor: “No. 1450 was overdue for a full valve and piston exam, and while the cylinder bores were good, the slide valves were significantly worn and needed to be recast.

“The slidebars also need to be reground because they’ve got such a dip worn in them that it’s starting to interfere with the motion – and No. 43106’s slidebars still need to have that done as well.

“We don’t want to disappoint anybody – but with new parts to make, it got to the point where even if we had more staff, we couldn’t do both.”

Faced with the unavailability of No. 43106, or Keighley & Worth Valley Railway-based ‘4F’ No. 43924, the NNR has taken the decision to drop the anniversary connection and is now marketing the event simply as a ‘Spring Steam Gala’. “It wasn’t for the want of trying,” NNR General Manager Andrew Munden told Steam Railway.