The main event in our diary this past week was a return visit to the Severn Valley Railway, this time for their 2022 diesel gala. We had an early start on Saturday morning, but with the car radio tuned into Yoshi FM celebrating the life of musical genius Vangelis we were in good spirits as we set off. We made it to Highley railway station just in time to see the arrival of GBRf Class 69 No. 69005 ‘Eastleigh’ double heading with Swanage Railway resident Class 33 No. 33012 ( D6515) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ on the first train of the day. Making Highley our base for much of the day meant we were able to relax and enjoy the spectacle of passing diesel locomotives, some from the SVR home fleet, and some visiting guests. I think we managed to see and photograph every loco which was running as part of the gala, even if we had to wait until almost the end to see DRS Class 68 No. 68003 ‘Astute’ working a train. It was a fabulous day with some lovely weather, good company and friendly conversation. Even the seemingly mandatory road closures didn’t dampen our enthusiasm.

Our video of our day can be seen below:

Locally, there have been a number of interesting workings on our doorstep and nearby. Unfortunately the scheduled visit of the New Measurement Train HST didn’t make it to Dorset on Wednesday as the train was turned towards Bristol after it arrived at Westbury, missing out a whole stretch of the planned route. However, we only had to wait until the next day for something of interest as Colas Rail Class 37 No. 37612 worked a Network Rail Ultrasonic Test Train as 3Q14 1037 Westbury Down Terminal Complex to Westbury Down Terminal Complex via Weymouth on Thursday May 19th:

Saturday saw a very early hours visit of a GBRf operated new weed killing train to Dorchester Junction from Exeter via Yeovil. Although I’m reasonably obsessed with catching trains visiting the southern reaches of Dorset, I’m not totally insane and instead decided to stay tucked up in bed and went to see the same ensemble top and tailed by Class 66 No.’s 66790 and 66752 ‘The Hoosier State’ – a nickname for Indiana where the locomotive was built – at a more reasonable hour passing through Castle Cary on Sunday 22nd May:

Earlier on the Sunday evening, Yoshi and I were in the Weymouth area to see Locomotive Services Ltd. Class 37’s No’s 37521 and 37688 ‘Great Rocks’ hauling the LSL chairman’s train as 1Z65 1134 Llandrindod to Weymouth Jersey Siding. Our first glimpse was at Upwey and we then popped into Weymouth station itself to see the train before its planned move to the sidings. It was also an opportunity to take a look at the upgrade work taking place at Weymouth station and the forecourt area.

Two days later the LSL consist headed back to Crewe and Yoshi & I took the opportunity to see it climb Parkstone bank making a fine noise.

Our video of the train is below:

71A Loco Group owned Crompton Class 33 No. 33012 (D6515) ‘Lt Jenny Lewis RN’ returned to Swanage from the Severn Valley Railway on Tuesday 24th May. A GSM-R cab radio fault meant she arrived back in Dorset a day later than planned following an enforced stop off at Nemesis in Burton On Trent for repairs. We saw her passing through Hamworthy where a signal stop enabled a good view of the loco. We wondered when the last time a Class 33 stopped at Hamworthy.

As we visited Weymouth and Upwey this week, our archive clip this time around is a glimpse of passenger trains from the late 1980’s around these locations:

Too late for last weeks “therailwaydog” blog entry was my Tuesday 17th May 2022 visit to Brooklands Museum who were hosting a land speed record celebration day, in partnership with the National Transport Trust and National Motor Museum Beaulieu exactly 100 years after Brooklands played host to a record-breaking run, which saw a speed of 133.75mph set by a 350-horsepower Sunbeam motorcar and the such last record ever achieved on a closed circuit. This event was immortalised in a painting by F Gordon Crosby, which depicts the Sunbeam ‘racing’ a train. Those attending the Tuesday event witnessed a real-life recreation of the painting, featuring the very Sunbeam that broke the record 100 years ago and LNER Thompson Class B1 locomotive No. 61306 ‘Mayflower’. Later in the day, four other land speed record holding cars were positioned along the finishing straight at the museum, making for an impressive display of record-setting performance. Guests on the day were joined by Kenelm Lee Guinness, grandson of his namesake, the Sunbeam’s driver in 1922. As you can see from the video below, invited guests screened the Sunbeam from public view as the B1 steamed slowly past. But to be fair, trees almost screened the train from view also! I made the composite image below to recreate the event. A recreation of a recreation, if you will.

Big thanks go to my brother who got us there on time to witness the steam train passing and also to him and my two nephews, who joined us on the trip, for a fabulous day at Brooklands Museum and the London Bus Museum.

Finally this week, a video of our visit to the 2021 Severn Valley Diesel Gala. Don’t say I’m not good to you. The weather, however, wasn’t kind to us that day, and I was reminded that at one point we had to go and buy a towel so Yoshi could be dried off!

That’s it for this week – it’s been a busy one at Yoshi HQ, but extremely enjoyable. Thank you for reading and your comments. We’ll hopefully be back next week with more railway dog adventures. Bye for now.