The weekend started off with locos moving onto the railway. The 50, 31 and 37 were towed from Butterley using 45112 on the Thursday. The three ‘ED’s’ arrived at the event also on the Thursday from the London area.
Passenger loadings were high on all three days and most locos performed faultlessly some of them covering 200 miles or more over the weekend. However Hymek D7017 failed at Blue Anchor on Saturday evening after a relatively small gasket split. The loco was subsequently dragged back to Williton and repairs were completed on Sunday morning.
Several high profile loco failings on the Sunday caused some amendments to the train schedule with many services running late in the morning before the schedules were recovered somewhat a little later in the day.
50007 failed at Blue Anchor on Sunday morning with an electrical fault. Recently fixed D7017 was sent to assist though unfortunately the loco was unwell and failed on the approaches to Washford. ‘Thunderbird’ loco D6566 was able to take the loco onto Minehead. As a result of the failings several very interesting consists and multiple workings happened. Class 25 D7523 and Peak 45112 dragged the Class 50 from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard. Other locomotives like the Class 37 and Class 33 were able to have an extra round trip as a result too. Many enthusiasts enjoyed the less predictable nature of some of the loco workings on the Sunday.
Other highlights included the working of a HST for the first time at a preserved railway diesel gala. The first working was reported as being ‘wedged’ with passengers from Minehead. It was the first visit of Class 73’s to Minehead with plenty of multiple working taking place. On the Sunday all three were used – two double heading and one on the back. There was plenty of variety on the ‘shunter shuttle’ with Class 08/03 workings and double 03 workings over the weekend. The goods train also ran okay on the Friday with D9526 in charge.
The DEPG would like to thank everyone for attending and helping to make the event a success and a special thanks for your patience on the Sunday. Hymek D7017 will now receive attention to prepare it for the peak season trains, Class 33 D6566 has also returned to Williton for the final touches to be made to its cabs and work will go on to keep the other locos in traffic. The work on Western D1010 to its defective transmission will be progressed with the aim of getting it back in service as soon as possible. Please keep checking back for news updates on the site. Plenty more running days to come this year!
Jon Tooke adds:
“FANTASTIC!” “BRILLIANT!” “BEST WEEKEND FOR DIESELS EVER ON THE WSR!” “OUTSTANDING LINE-UP!” “WHEN YOU DOING IT ALL AGAIN?” “I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE NEXT DIESEL GALA!”
All the above were comments made by the masses as they visited the WSR over the past weekend.
It certainly was a busy one which saw many visiting locomotives from our friends at GBRF, and the Midland railway Centre, who between them supplied seven locomotives.
Plus First Group who allowed us to use the HST 125 as a service train-the first time ever this has been achieved on a diesel gala anywhere!
Our warmest thanks go to them and to their drivers for giving up their time to visit us.
Of the many high points, the heritage goods train contained no less than four wagons that have been overhauled by the DEPG!
Many thanks to all of you that visited the DEPG depot and heritage centre over the weekend, your generous donations will help the group in financing many of their projects.
No pictures on the report this week, because there are plenty of photos elsewhere on the site from the weekends happenings!
PHOTOS FROM GALA CLICK HERE