Gloucestershire has seen the working of two veteran railway locomotives over the last few weeks, both on charter trains, writes Ian Thomas.
First up was The Mazey Day Special run by Pathfinder Railtours of Woodchester on Saturday June 28th. This train is the annual visit down to Cornwall with Truro, St Erth (for St Ives) and of course Penzance for the Mazey Day event. The train started at Dorridge Warwickshire, picking up at Birmingham New Street and principal stations to Bristol Temple Meads then onward through Somerset, Devon, over the mighty Royal Albert rail bridge into Cornwall.
This year the train was pulled by none other than the British Railways 1963 built diesel – hydraulic locomotive D1015 Western Champion with a class 47 diesel on the rear, in this instance, 47-815. The day went well and our visit to St Ives, always a pleasure, along that scenic branchline passing Carbis Bay and Porthminster Sands.
The second charter train one week later on Saturday July 5th was steam hauled with LMS Jubilee Class 4-6-0 No 45596 Bahamas up front and Class 37 diesel-electric No 37-240 at the rear.
This train was run by Vintage Trains based at Tyseley (Birmingham) and ran from Birmingham New Street to Swansea, again picking up at Cheltenham and Gloucester and then via Lydney, Chepstow, Newport and of course Cardiff.
The weather was unsettled that day and we encountered intermittent light rain west of Cardiff. The annual air show was on that weekend and because the cloud base was so low very little actually flew. Nevertheless, we walked through the city and visited the Industrial Museum and then took a stroll to the sea – a rather windy affair to say the least, but worthwhile.
Bahamas performed well with speeds into the 70-80mph bracket at times so all in all a cracking day out and a couple of pints of Mumbles Brewery ale into the bargain. Happy days!
