Two significant centenaries and a railway birthday will be at the centre of the Severn Valley Railway’s Goods Gala on June 2nd-3rd.
The Gala will see up to two goods trains in operation alongside passenger services each day, showcasing the changing face of freight traffic on Britain’s railways from the 20th century through to the modern day.
Visitors will be able to see a GWR heritage goods train hauled by No. 2857, a Class 66 modern freight, parcel loading and unloading at Arley and displays of vintage commercial road vehicles on display along the line. Bewdley Yard will be open for visits and, to mark its 150th birthday, the SVR’s Eardington Halt will be open to the public on both days, with various special attractions (trains do not stop here).
The event will also herald the arrival of the Cavell Van, which will be on display at Arley. Part of the commemorations to mark the centenary of the end of WWI, and a key feature of this year’s Step Back to the 1940s Weekends at the SVR in June and July, the van has played a poignant role in Britain’s history.
In 1919, it was used to bring back the body of nurse Edith Cavell from Belgium where she had helped 200 Prisoners of War escape before she was caught and executed. The following year, the same wagon transported the body of the ‘Unknown Warrior’ prior to a funeral at Westminster Abbey, representing the many who died without being identified.
2857 Centenary
Long-standing SVR resident, Ex GWR No. 2857 will celebrate its 100th birthday in style at the Gala, hauling a GWR goods train featuring some of the Railway’s 100 plus goods wagons dating from the 1880s to the 1980s and including examples from all four post-grouping railways as well as many pre-grouping, private owner and BR wagons.
Swindon-built in May 1918 under wartime austerity measures, which determined its original plain green livery and cast iron chimney with no copper cap, No. 2857 was sent to Salisbury GWR depot.
Following a truly monumental 45 years of GW and BR service, during which time it most likely covered virtually all the old GWR routes it could run on, and having clocked-up an astounding 1,276,713 miles, No. 2857 was finally withdrawn and sent to Woodham’s Scrapyard in Barry in April 1963.
In late 1971 a fund was set up to preserve 2857, though progress was slow, with the general view that it was ‘only a goods engine’. After a three-year uphill battle, it was finally purchased in 1974 and, a year later, moved to Bewdley.
First hurdle countered, it is fair to say that the saga was far from over and – in fact, it was only just beginning, with an ensuing ten years of extensive, emotional and costly repairs, including complete boiler replacement and cylinder change.
2857 first raised steam in September 1979, but work was nowhere near complete and August 18th 1985 was the next time she was steamed, in time for the GWR 150th celebrations. A momentous return to service during a freight exhibition at Newport saw 2857 run with historic wagons loose-coupled. Hailed as a great success by enthusiasts, it earned 2857 the accolade of working the very last steam-hauled loose-coupled goods train on Britain’s railway network.
Back on the SVR, 2857 became a reliable member of the fleet, clocking-up 41,000 SVR miles until the boiler certificate expired in 1995 and, once again, it was back in for overhaul. It would take 16 years of hard graft from volunteers of the 2857 Society alongside SVR staff and contractors to reassemble the engine piece-by-piece until the engine was steamed again in 2011.
Following further work in 2012, 2857 was reinvigorated, and for each of the next four consecutive years, it ran the highest mileage of any steam locomotive on the SVR and by the end of the 2017 main season it had run up a further 53,000 mikes and was taken out of traffic for an intermediate overhaul, ready to maximise its centenary reliability.
Simon Marshall of the 2857 Society said: “We started this preservation saga struggling to save a humble goods engine, with no particular claim to fame, but looking back on it all, it dawned on us that 2857 did indeed achieve something pretty momentous after all!
“When you think of the millions of steam-hauled loose-coupled goods trains that must have been run in Britain over the preceding 160-odd years, for this locomotive to have run the last one, is quite some claim. The centenary of 2857 is indeed one to celebrate!”
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