Severn Valley Autumn Steam Gala - 17 to 20 Sept

And having now sampled it for haulage for the first time, it goes as good as it looks!

 

Dare we ask what the final livery will be?

 

Svr shirt button below. A bit of fun pending the full painting.

Sent from my LGN-NX1 using Tapatalk

 

I always thought it would have been good it 9351 had a WSR shirt button rather than GWR livery.

 

As built (1947) GWR green, so plain green with GWR lettering.

 

Another excellent day at the Severn Valley today - it always delivers the goods! All locos seemed to be behaving well and things were running pretty much to time most of the day.
Highlight for me was seeing 46115 for the first time in many years. Last time I saw it was at York station in about 2012 so it's been a long time! All the visitors were good - first time I'd seen 9681 and it was good to see 41313 on the first stage of its tour of the Autumn galas. 4150 proved itself more than capable of doing the business and I'm sure it will look great when fully painted.

Special mention must go to 813 - what a little star that loco is. I've seen it many time, both on the SVR and on visits elsewhere but I don't think I've travelled behind it with a 4 coach rake before. I was most impressed with its performance.

Thanks as ever to all at the Severn Valley for a great day out!

 

Not much more to add other than another top notch gala from the SVR. Great selection of locos, the timetable was the perfect balance between interest, reliability and frequency. Trains were very well loaded, but always able to get a seat if needed. Perhaps this was the Goldilocks gala? Even the weather had something for everyone!

Personally I was quite happy with the late loco changes, but I still need 80097 for haulage - hint, hint! 3850 gave a good reminder of what we are missing with 2857. I am not sure ive been behind 9681 before, but it gave very good account of itself with a far heavier load than its probably had for many years. 41313 was definitely new haulage as was 4150. Both gave brilliant runs, the Ivatt is a credit to the Isle of Wight rly, lovely machine. 4150 is going to be a really useful addition to the SVR fleet. But that's quite some achievement for 3 new steam locos for this dyed in the wool train nut! 46115 is my all time favourite West Coast loco, so loved seeing that again and the crews had her performing beautifully.

So great locos, great performances, good weather, the best freight train ive seen on the valley on years, a timetable that achieved everything...we even had an awesome sunset at Bewdley this evening...& Flying Scotsman belt through Kidderminster mainline this morning!!
@2857Harry, how are you going to top this one?!!

 

Photos from my 2 day visit start with Friday, which turned out a very wet afternoon at Bridgnorth!!, excellent running all day i overheard a conversation at Bridgnorth between some footplate crew that 4150 is a very strong engine, far better than they anticipated, so good news for a loco that was a Barry wreck
13268 runs round at Bewdley



813 arriving at Highley with the goods train




3850 arriving at Hampton Loade



46115 Scots Guardsman arriving at a very wet Bridgnorth



3850 arriving at Highley with the goods train passing 4150 on a train to Kidderminster



lots more from a very dull, wet and overcast Friday here
https://railway-photography.smugmug...eam-Gala-Friday-18th-September-2026/i-DW8fTxp

Neil

 

Ditto regards 813, it goes really well. Gave me one of my runs of the day yesterday and has quite the surprising turn of speed. 4 coaches no problem although I think its limit is 5 on the valley unassisted.

Also heard the same regards 4150, already proving a firm favourite with Crews and proving a very capable machine.

 

I had a fantastic 2 days at the event. My highlight was the ivatt and 7714 double header last night. Very good.

The spray train was a very sensible idea, looked like an interesting turn for the 2 chaps manning the pumps!

Thanks to all who organised and operated the event.

 

I’m surprised that 13268 is there, I would have thought it would have been away being made ready for the mainline, they haven’t got long to the first run.

 

There really isn't a lot to do, bar fitting the electronics - which apparently has a date confirmed with the contractor according to the last YouTube update.
Don't forget it went to Derby via rail last year, so it is already a known entity to Network Rail.

 

Fitting it out with AWS/TPWS, GMS-R and OTM-R and a speedometer is a huge amount to do with an unbelievable amount of wiring and it all has to be tested. The loco will need a loaded test run. I’m sure they are on top of it, I’m just surprised it hasn’t been started. I am a member of the fund but didn’t know there are updates on YouTube.

 

Another fabulous gala weekend, some photos below. More can be found at https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/Severn-Valley-Railway/Autumn-Steam-Gala-September-2026

 

The update was on Severn Valley Railway YouTube channel where they did a tour of Bridgnorth works.
I am not underestimating the electrical works, but much of the paperwork, scanning and non-destructive tests were completed for its trip to Derby last year. My point is they are not starting from scratch & a specialist contractor is booked for the electronics.
I am sure a schedule has been agreed with Tyesley who wouldn't have advertised the 8th November trip if they didn't think it was feasible.

 

Had an excellent day at the SVR on Friday.
I was amazed how good the timekeeping was all day, certainly not normal for a gala.
I don't know whether the timetable has been tweaked to make it more resilient, or if it was just luck that nothing broke, but it certainly worked well.

The bit of rain was not enough to dampen any spirits, and at least, no risk of lineside fires. I'm sure the proposed canopy at Kidderminster would have been very welcome though!

Trains seemed to be all fairly busy, but not as packed as some previous events, and I never had a problem finding a seat.

Despite the challenges leading up to the gala, the selection of locos was excellent. Was good to get a proper length run behind 813, it always seems to have suffered some incident or another when I've tried in the past.

Great show by all involved, looking forward to the next one!.

 

Well Thankyou to you all for your kind comments.

We’ve had a blast this weekend. The profits have been superb, but more importantly the good feeling, the good wishes, and the happy faces around the place has been great to see.

This gala will go down as challenging, but fantastic. See you for the Winter Gala 2/3 January!

Next years events list -
- Branchline Gala 6/7 March
- Spring Steam Gala 15-18 April
- Mixed Traction/Open House Event 12/13 June
- Autumn Steam Gala 16-19 Sept

 

No railway does a gala like the SVR. A few years ago on holiday I was talking to the chairman of GECP, the group that work steam on the Nice - Digne metre gauge line. He’d been to the SVR gala the year before and still couldn’t believe what he’d seen. We are very lucky in the UK to have the best heritage railways in the world.

 

Echoing others comments you've done a brilliant job to deliver a gala that's clearly been very well thought out and planned through. Well done! A really nice mix of engines, movements and rolling stock across four days. Crucially for me no loco was penned in at one end only as had happened on recent events and doesn't get to venture out on the rest of the line. A really good gala - thank you.

The only very minor (yet serious) sour note for me came today unfortunately at Trimpley crossing. There seemed to be a man and his son amongst others who seemed to have very little regard for the gates and the railway boundary. Slightly more concerning was that numerous trains passed them with the child stood in the cess a good 20 foot away from the foot crossing and yet not a single train pulled up to tell them to get off the line which absolutely needed to be done. We're talking hours. The child was later walking the line balancing on the rail head shortly afterwards as well around 15 foot away from the crossing. There were three people on the lineside (two of which children) and yet the train just proceeded past.

Later when I walked past (three hours later) a chair had been placed inside the railway boundary.

I will feed this back separately with images, etc and not post them here but it is really sad that people just seem to have a complete loss of sense and reasoning sometimes. In this instance the thing that really struck me the most was that it was children and supposed parents were standing there watching them in the railway cess.

 

Adding my thanks to everyone involved for another excellent gala. The four guests, plus another one of 4150 (well it has been a long time coming!)