Services at the GWSR are now on the slow-down towards the end of year and our November/Winter shutdown periods. Both of our locos have performed without major incident throughout the year and will be working right up until the end of October, as well as (hopefully) a couple of turns over the Christmas/New Year period….D6948, in particular, will be in use on turns at the end of October.
Both locos had their final ‘Double Up Sunday’ run for 2024 on Sunday 29 September, with both running without incident. D6948 had had its Brake Feed Cut-Off valves replaced after the 60th Anniversary event and has worked without incident since. The removed valves have been sent away for refurbishment.
Speaking of the 60th Anniversary event in August, hopefully many of you have taken the opportunity to order one of the fantastic DVDs (or Blu-Ray) of the event from Hellfire TV. If you have then you should have received yours by now and Hellfire have temporarily stopped the ordering process for now. But, don’t worry if you haven’t partaken of the offer yet!
There will be a small number of both formats available via the Groups’ sales stand at upcoming events and, Hellfire TV will be reopening the ordering for them in November. We will, of course, let you know when the ordering process reopens if you can’t make it along to any of the events we will be present at.
Speaking of events, our end of season ‘Autumn Showcase’ event takes place over the weekend 26/27 October. As with last year, the days are split with ‘English Electric’ traction on the Saturday (26th) and ‘Sulzer’ traction on the Sunday – although it was more organised for green diesels on Saturday and blue on Sunday. D6948 will be working on the Saturday alongside Class 20, 20137. Event and ticket details can be found on the GWSR website here ===> https://www.gwsr.com/galas/autumn-showcase D6948 will be working the first train from Cheltenham Racecourse with a departure time of 09:23.
Also on offer, although not Growler Group organised specifically, Simon Hale (GG Chairman) has, with others under the banner of the ‘Non-Staggered Grille Group’, organised a running day at the Great Central Railway with class pioneer, D6700. Taking place on Saturday, 23 November 2024, the event will offer 6 full round trips of the GCR. A small GG sales stand will be on the train along with a stand from our friends in the Heavy Tractor Group.
Tickets are only available from Simon via email (ggeditor294@yahoo.com) or by paying in cash on the day. The damage is £30 per person. As this is a private running day, no GG/GCR/GWSR discounts are available.
Finally, the dates of our 2025 Driver Experience events have been made public. The Class 37 days will be Friday 4 April 2025 and Friday 5 September 2025. The cost is £525 for a full 14 mile experience of driving one of these magnificent locomotives on load 7. Best get in there quickly as they sell out very quickly. Visit https://www.gwsr.com/your-visit/events-experiences
Finally, don’t forget to visit our eBay online store. We always have a large selection of 2nd hand railway books available (as well as other transport related items), some of which are long out of print and give the group some much needed extras to keep the locos running. https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/the_growler_group
