Category Archives: Preserved Railways

Saturday 6th October 2007

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I ventured outside of the Thames Rail area today to visit the Llangollen diesel gala and in particular Slug 1 (37901). As it was a 3oo~ mile round trip it meant an early start leaving home at 6am to make the first train of the day. I made the first train with 10 minutes to spare. The first run was a DMU return trip with a 109 +104 which gave an excellent first view of the line which is absolutley fantastic as it winds its way alongside the River Dee giving excellent views throughout.

Slug 1 put in an excellent performance with a superb thrash through Berwyn tunnel and the rest of the fleet also performed well. One of the highlights was the final trip of the day featuring D5401 with an auto coach in tow. It was definitely worth the early start for both the line and the traction. I have put of my favourite shot of the day as D8142 climbs the 1 in 80 on the approach to Berwyn station.

Friday 31st March 2006

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Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year although it is a bit late, it is my first update in over 6 months which was September 24th 2005. The long gap is due to a number of factors including work, poor weather and mostly lack of enthusiasm to actually go out photographing the railway. However as you can see by this update something stirred me into getting out. It was the GWR Spring Diesel Gala which did it and one locomotive in particular sealed it for me, 56003. The grid will be leaving the line shortly so it was my final chance to ride behind the beast before she moved on to new pastures so I decided to make the effort and have a ride out.

The first train of the day was 73129 and D8137 which I must say is one strange combination! The chopper put in a fine show but the 73s small engine couldn’t be heard above the noise of the 20. The pair were taken all the way to Cheltenham Racecourse were they are pictured above and then back to Winchcombe were we would board 56003 and 47105. The grid have recieved a fresh coat of loadhaul livery just before the gala and looked superb as she rounded the platform! It was a gentle start back to Cheltenham and we slowed for the tunnel expecting the grid to be wound up but instead all we could hear was the 47 thrashing away!

Not a peep was heard out off the grid all the way to Cheltenham, upon arrival we found out the grid had no power and later on in the day was found to have a cracked air pipe. Eventually the grid was dumped in the headshunt but not before I grabbed a shot of her gleaming in the station. Later on we returned to Cheltenham with the 20+73 combo but this time 56003 was dragged out of the headshunt and sandwiched between the 20 and 73 providing the sight of a Green Chopper, Loadhaul Grid and a Network Southeast ED!! What a colour combination, I’d love to see any lineside pictures of this combination as we returned back to Toddington with the chopper doing most of the work!

The final train of the day was 47376 going solo and it is the first time I had seen her since the fresh coat of Freightliner livery and renaming back last year and it still looked great today! Even though the main attraction I had gone for didnt actually pefrom it was still a good day with plenty of thrash from the lines resident locos! Maybe this will kickstart me into another update in the future…

Sunday 5th October 2003

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Sorry for the delay in updates, I had to reformat my PC and resinstall all my software again which took a few days and the I realised I had lost my login information so I couldn’t upload the pages for you all to see. EWS had recently sanctioned a repaint on 56078 into Large Logo Blue and its debut was planned for the Severn Valley Railway diesel gala over the 3-5 October. 47635 had also been scheduled to go also in LLB but it failed and was replaced with another grid 56067. Hey I’m not complaing about two grids!

It was an early start on Sunday morning and it was a lovely sunny morning though it was pretty cold as I had to scrape ice off my windscreen in the morning. Kidderminster was duly reached in plenty of time for the first departure of 09.45. 40135/145 headed the first departure and where taken all the way to Hampton Loade although 40135 was dropped off at Bewdley to leave 40145 solo. A quick leap over the platform for D1013 heading the other way and a rather quiet trip back to Arley. We changed here for the 108 unit back to Kidderminster but first the Wizzo had to depart so a shot from the footbridge was grabbed first.

The 108 was virtually empty bar half a dozen people and this enabled a good view out of the cab window. It was a very enjoyable ride as we trundled our way back to Kidderminster. As we pulled into Kidderminster we could see the next departure waiting time and it was a Kettle which had to be avoided which left the only option of the 108 straight back to Arley again!

Back at Arley we had 20 mins to wait for the next service from Bridgnorth and the 108 had to run into the back platform which enabled a couple of shots of the fantastic 108.

The shot looked pretty nice so I thought I would repeat it again for the arrival of 50049, don’t worry this is the last one in this position! Note the non 50 fan in the first coach!

A few more trips were taken and then we jumped onto a Superb looking 56078 at Arley for the ride back to Kidderminster and what a ride it was! Probably the best trip of the day with copious amounts of thrash thrown in made an excellent trip thanks to Midi!

A couple of shots of the Grid were captured at Kidderminster while we waited for the next trip out. Soon 47853 (D1733) and 40135 backed onto the train to take the next departure.

The quick trip to Arley and return was done and we waited at Kiddermnister for the final outward trip of our day. The diesel depot is out of sight around the corner and when 50049 and 56067 appeared a small cheer went up. We had overheard earlier in the day 56067 had no power and didn’t look like it was going to run on the Sunday but a quick fix with parts from 56078 had 56067 running just in time. More Grid thrash then took place enroute to Bewdley where unfortunatley it had to be removed due to weight limits over the bridge furthur on but it was rumored it would be added a top 47853 on its return from Bridgnorth. We carried on with solo 50049 to Hampton Loade where we met 47853. A quick swap again and we heading back to Kidderminster for the final time and as suspected 56067 was again added for the short but nosiy return to Kidderminster.

The morning started a bit poorly with the steam diagrams and timetabling but things picked up during the afternoon and at the end of it we had a good day out. I’ll be looking forward to what they have planned next year.