THE Severn Valley Railway was always regarded as a ‘secondary route’ in the days of the steam – but the award-winning heritage railway will have all the look and feel of a busy, bustling main line when the curtain goes up on its three-day ‘Festival of Steam’ today.
The event, which brings together the very first passenger steam locomotive with some of the last and greatest – is expected to bring thousands of passengers and enthusiasts to the Bridgnorth area.
The line-up includes four visiting locomotives - all of them heavyweight express engines which worked some of the fastest and most prestigious trains on British Railways lines 50 years ago.
Newly-restored BR Class 7 ‘Pacific’ No.70013 Oliver Cromwell - one of the celebrities of BR’s ‘last-ever’ main line steam train in 1968, makes its first ever appearance on the SVR - as does BR Class 8 No.71000 Duke of Gloucester, the powerful three-cylinder ‘one-off’ design built as ‘the brave new future of steam’ in 1954, prior to BR’s commitment to mass dieselisation.
Streamlined LNER A4 ‘Pacific’ No.60007 Sir Nigel Gresley, one of the giants of East Coast Main Line crack expresses between London and Edinburgh between 1935 and 1963 and a sister-engine of the world record-breaking Mallard, makes a long-awaited return to action at the SVR.
It is joined by another returnee, four-cylinder GWR 4-6-0 No.5029 Nunney Castle, a one-time dynamo of London - Bristol and South Wales expresses which was last at the SVR in the mid-1990s.
It will be the first time the Severn Valley Railway’s ‘Spring gala’ event has been extended to run over three days.
Despite the ‘big engines’ nature of the festival, a three-coach ‘local train’ will operate between Kidderminster and Bewdley, with GWR ‘Prairie’ tank No.5164 in charge.
Passengers arriving at Bridgnorth station will get the chance for a first look at ‘Catch Me Who Can’ - a replica of the Richard Trevithick-designed locomotive which was built in 1808 at the Bridgnorth foundry of Messrs Rastrick and Hazledene, which is nearing completion at the SVR’s workshops.
This replica of the original engine which achieved the dizzy speed of 12mph during trials in London, will be in steam, but static because SVR engineers have not yet completed the braking system.
Other gala attractions include a display of stationary engines by the Black Country Live Steamers group, visiting ‘celebrity’ engines on the 71-inch gauge Coalyard Miniature Railway at Kidderminster, live steam action on the 32mm gauge Paddock Railway at Hampton Loade station, and both The Engine House Visitor Centre at Highley and Kidderminster Railway Museum will be open on all three days.