S.V.R. Spring Diesel Gala 2022.

[general rocket]

A small selection of pictures from this years Spring Gala.

Class 40 "Atlantic Conveyor"
200 Where built by English Electric between 1958-62, 7made it into preservation .







Class 44 "Great Gable"
10 built between 1959-60, 2 preserved, relatively heavy at 135 tons.









Class 46 46045.
56 built between 1963-67, 56 built, 3 preserved.





Class 31
263 built between1957-62, a mixed traffic locomotive built by Brush Engineering.







Classs 50
50 built 1967-68. Originally built for the West Coast Mainline, they where displaced to the western region following the withdrawl of the hydraulic locomotives.





Class 33
98 built between 1961-62, all where used exclusively in the Southern region.



Class 52
74 built between 1961-64 using hydraulic transmission, withdrawn in the mid 70's.



D1062 "Western Courier" has had its nameplates and numberplates replaced with those of D1040 "western Queen" for the rest of this year.
Western Queen was built and commisioned in October 1962, she was withdrawn in February 1976 and scrapped in August of the same year.











Class68
A guest engine that is still in service.

[iggie]

Lovely photos General, and some real favourites of mine amongst them too! Anything with a 'bonnet' is good but it's always nice to see a 31,33, 50 and a Western
I must have 'cabbed' every 50 at Reading Station back in the day....

[beany]

Great photos General - I do love the older Modernisation Scheme diesel types, even if many of them were quite awful performers.
I have to take issue with the Crompton comment - exclusively "allocated" to SR depots maybe, but were known to travel far and wide, especially on Specials. I personally went on a double headed Class 33 hauled Merrymaker to York for example.
I saw recently that the newer Class 68s are being bumped from services out of Marylebone because the locals are complaining about them being too noisy!

[Clashcityrocker]

Nice pics. Thanks.

Nigel

[general rocket]

Thanks for the appreciation gentlemen.
With regards to the 33s being allocated to the Southern Region, the 33s where designed expressly for the S. R. by Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Co during 1957, with construction being between 1958-59. As for the merry maker to York, this sort of thing was by no means unusual, I once saw class 26 in Shrewsbury ( 26s where all allocated to Scotland) unfortunately it was to far away at the time to be able to get the number.
York was also a favourite destination for me in Telford, as we where able to get excursion tickets that cost us a massive £1:50. Deltics for the win.

[beany]

Ironically Merrymakers and other excursions were the only time I really paid for rail travel as the son of a BR employee and then one myself I enjoyed free and heavily discounted travels most of my life. The best was going on Honeymoon in1981 - Aldershot to Rimini return for just the nominal cost of Port Duties (my wife also worked for BR at the time so got the same).
I love the class 26's as well - just bought a Heljan (BR Green livery) one for my layout.