Heavy freight locos on the Severn Valley
2-8-0s
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© Geoff’s Rail Diaries 2015
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
20 March 2015
When I used to sit beside the east coast main line, in the early-mid 60s, two locomotive types seemed common - the A1 pacifics and the WD 2-8-0s. Steam ended - and they’d all gone for scrap. So that we could all see an A1 again, “Tornado” was built. A “dub-dee” was acquired, in the meantime, by the Worth Valley Railway. Never a BR loco, it had found its way to Sweden, where it became part of a strategic reserve. I saw it running on the Worth Valley in 1974 - it was obvious what it was, but with
an oversized Swedish cab and a “wrong” tender, it didn’t quite get there. Eventually, the locomotive was rebuilt as an authentic-looking austerity, gaining the fictitious number 90733 (next in sequence...). I saw it at Keighley a couple of years ago - it looks “right” now (though it perhaps should be at the head of a long rake of bogie bolsters and similar wagons, carrying steel from Teesside, clanking along the “bottom line” at Northallerton...) Enough of history - this weekend it would be the star attraction at the Severn Valley’s Spring Steam Gala. I’d better go and see it again, in the company of the Severn Valley’s 2857, 2-8-0T 4270 visiting from the Gloucs/Warwicks, the “coal tank” and others. I didn’t stay all day (went home for lunch!), timing my visits for the two visiting 2-8-0s, right way round for the bank at Eardington. What goes up must come down, of course - and, as 90733 drifted back down Eardington bank, there was the familiar clank. Great - a real Riddles austerity 2-8-0! Links: Severn Valley Railway Worth Valley Railway
2857 at Eardington 90733 - Eardington 90733 - Eardington Sir Keith Park on the "local" Sir Keith Park on the "local" 90733 - a clanking descent 90733 - a clanking descent 4270 - first trip 90733 - second trip 90733 - second trip 4270 - second trip 4270 - away up the bank