Heavy freight locos on the Severn Valley
2-8-0s
© 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
