Action from the spectacular Severn Valley Railway spring gala featuring three guest engines, with the main star Pendennis Castle wowing the crowds over the three day event. Pendennis also featured alongside the small Great Western Prairie No 4555 which looked very much at home on the former branchline. The final guest was B.R 78018 courtesy of the Great Central Railway which would be seen alongside 4555 working a number of local trains. The homefleet as usual were in attendance, though just the four locos feature in this video, making it seven locos in total which feature in this video. In regards to the homefleet, Taw Valley is now running in a wartime black livery for its final year in ticket and 4930 Hagley Hall is finally seen back in action after its sparky performance on last years Autumn Gala. Also 7812 Erlestoke Manor which is well known to the railway having spent many years along the line, is now due to head to the West Somerset Railway for the Summer due to the lack of available opportunities at the SVR.
The event saw a mix of weather with Friday being the worst with rain persisting throughout the day, though the travelling numbers were exceptionally high for a Friday given the weather forecast. The Saturday also saw good numbers with the best of weather finally showing up, no idea of the loadings for the final day on Sunday. In this video Seven locomotives feature and the action is mainly captured on the Saturday, though there is a few clips thrown in from the first day which were taken at Hampton Loade during our travels onboard. Scenes are not in order and the flavour of the video is most definitely a Great Western one.
I hope you enjoy the action, our favourites throughout the gala were 7812, 4079 and 7714 !
Locos featured
GWR 4079 'Pendennis Castle'
GWR 4555 Small Prairie
B.R Standard '78018'
GWR 4930 'Hagley Hall'
GWR Pannier Tank '7714'
GWR 7812 'Erlestoke Manor'
S.R 2IC127 aka 34027 Taw Valley