Firstly, a belated Merry Christmas to all our members and supporters and wishing you all a prosperous 2025.
As this is being typed the 2024 has finished as far as our two locos go with D6948 having worked two of the Mince Pie Special days at the end of December and both are now free so that our maintenance team can complete some minor repairs as well as undertake the ever-important B Exams to keep them both in tip-top condition.
Overall, 2024 has been a very successful year for the Group and both of our locomotives have seen a significant amount of running throughout with very little time out of traffic – save for a few issues with respective brake systems and the usual ‘in-service’ maintenance. The 60th Anniversary running day in August – a celebration of 37215 and D6948 reaching 60 years since their respective releases into BR traffic (37215 in January 1964; D6948 in October 1964) – was a particular high point with an excellent attendance from members and non-members alike, a nice financial boost and, a number of new memberships. Both locos also performed faultlessly during the 2024 Diesel Gala, even if D6948 gave us a bit of a scare on the Saturday!
The only black mark against the locos was D6948 not being able to take its rostered turns during the Autumn Extravaganza mixed traffic gala at the end of October due to a lack of available crew, however it was used to provide cab visits to members of the public over both days.
So to the outlook for 2025. Due to the sale of the 3-car Class 117, L425, to the SRPS at Bo’ness, the timetable is still a little uncertain – particularly at the beginning of the year during the off-peak season. However, the peak season (June-August) will see longer diesel running, if not more days, with a new GREEN day being introduced midweek that will be similar to the Sunday PINK timetable (diesel all day with one steam) but with an earlier start – essentially a 3 round trip day. As it stands, the first turns for the mainline diesels will be in April, however this may change depending on availability of the Class 122 ‘bubble car’.
The Diesel Gala for 2025 will be back in its normal ‘last weekend of July’ slot – after a couple of years of experiment. Dates are 25 – 27 July inclusive with the guest loco and ticketing details to be announced soon. Our two diesel Driver Experience days are already sold out with an extensive ‘waiting list’ and the end of year ‘Autumn Extravaganza’ has been shifted forward a month to the 27/28 September. All of the railway events, including the Diesel Gala will have a ‘Railway 200’ theme – celebrating 200 years of the railways.
More details on all events as they are confirmed. See you in 2025.
