Severn Valley Railway Winter Steam Gala 2024

Hello & Welcome to Harnetty Railways
In this video we have our 1st official outing of The 2024 Season with a long weekend visit to our friends at The Severn Valley Railway for their 1st Winter Steam Gala.
It was mostly a home fleet gala weekend as originally visiting loco Peter Best's S160 2253 Omaha was due to take part before leaving the railway for The Great Central Railway's Winter Steam Gala.
However due to issues with the locos fusible plugs he was declared not fit to take part for both galas.
The locos operating for the gala weekend were.
7714
7812 Erlestoke Manor
75069
2968
43106
21C127 Taw Valley
The 4930 Group's 4930 Hagley Hall was acting as a spare loco throughout the weekend as 75069 stud in for 2253 Omaha.
The weekend marked the 1st gala appearance of The Stanier Mogul Fund's newly returned to traffic Stanier Mogul or better know to us as the baby black 5 2968 in his temporary LMS wartime black & carrying the number 2968.
After the gala weekend he was to return to the paint shop to have the LMS lined black livery & his early LMS number 12968 applied as voted by the members & shareholder.
The gala also marked the last steaming of 2 well known locos The Ivatt Group's Flying Pig 43106 & Phil Swallow's rebuilt West Country Bulleid Pacific 21C127 Taw Valley before the pair were withdrawn from service following the expires of their boiler tickets.
We start on the preview day just south of the summit of Eardington Bank at Crossing Cottage as we see Taw Valley head south on the morning run of a private footplate experience charter with his owner Phil Swallow at the helm.
We had sometime to kill so a quick trip to Bridgnorth MPD to see the preparations for the weekend including seeing 7714 on test after remedial done to her & she was declared fit to work the gala weekend.
We end the preview day with the bulleid at Northwood Lane for the afternoon run with the sun appearing at the right moment as he approaches the crossing.
We move onto the main event the following day as we start at Hampton Loade while on route to Bridgnorth behind 43106 the loco's drawing power was very evident as she awaits for 2968 to arrive from Bridgnorth.
We continue northbound & we arrive at Bridgnorth were we see 7714 to depart with the shuttle run to Highley.
Here our main priority was to join the train for the southbound run. This was to be our very last scheduled filming behind Taw Valley in day light for sometime as we'll explain a little later.
After a splendid run we were 50/50 on whether to go lineside for the afternoon but we decided not to & carrying on bashing the train as the set we were on the 13:00 from Kidderminster would form the 15:10 departure from Bridgnorth behind 2968 & it was a momentous decision as this was to be our very 1st ride behind the baby black 5 since his return to steam so it was a red pen evening.
Despite being 12 minute late off Bridgnorth & running out of daylight the gamble to bash 2968 for the 1st time paid off as we arrived at Kidderminster before dark which is were we end Day 1 of the gala in this video.
We move onto Day 2 of the gala & back at Kidderminster as we took an easier planning day as we met up with our friends some of the volunteers of The North Norfolk Railway.
Our only daytime bash on The Sunday was behind The Erlestoke Manor Fund's 7812 Erlestoke Manor which during the gala weekend was the only loco facing to the north towards Bridgnorth.
We were supposed to have haulage behind 7812 at the GWR 100 Spring Gala event back in 2023 but stress in planning put pay to that & with the loco due to be heading back to The West Somerset Railway for another season hire we had to get some mileage behind him before he heads off.
After a great run we spend some time at Highley & Bridgnorth as we see 43106 being chalked on prior to his last daytime departure from Bridgnorth for sometime as seen at Hampton Loade the previous day the loco's drawing power was very evident then departure for Kidderminster came and even the shed staff came to see her off.
We stay at Bridgnorth as we see 2968 paired with the LMS stock for his 15:10 departure for Kidderminster.
We end this video as we travel on board Taw Valley's last passenger service before withdrawal we manage to get some night time filming on board as we get some reflections & some sparks coming out of the chimney as we headed south towards Kidderminster which is were we end this weekend video.
What a fantastic weekend despite the threat of flooding from the River Severn which burst it's banks caz of the aftermath of Storm Henk the event was a outstanding success.
We would like to conclude by saying a huge thanks to all the unsung heroes of The Severn Valley Railway in making this event possible & to give 43106 & 21C127 Taw Valley a great send off in the great possible style.
Thanks for the company of ‪@MarkP_747‬, ‪@blackcountrysteamvideos8021‬, ‪@crunchynutsteamfilms5043‬, ‪@_j_loco_‬ & much more.
Enjoy the film.

[@_j_loco_]

It was a great weekend ❤

[@SimonTog]

Great video Richard :)