THE Avon Valley Railway’s April 8-9 diesel gala welcomed Somerset & Dorset Locomotives’ (S&D Locos) Class 20 No. D8059 from the Severn Valley Railway.
Also in operation for the event was resident BR blue-liveried Class 31 No. 5518 (31101).
Class 08 No. 08202 and Kingswood 0-4-0D (Barclay 446 of 1959) were also in use until the latter had a couple of failures on the Saturday.
Monthly Subscription: Enjoy more Railway Magazine reading each month with free delivery to you door, and access to over 100 years in the archive, all for just £5.35 per month.
Click here to subscribe & save
The Barclay was then left at the end of the Oldland Common headshunt while No. 70043 Grumpy (Barclay 358 of 1941), also not in the best of health, took over its duties with the ‘Gronk’.
The shunter pair worked a two-coach local set, a demonstration freight train, and a brakevan train the full length of the line. This included a rare passenger working onto the headshunts at either end of the line.
Read more in the May issue of The RM – on sale now!
