The ‘Green Machine’ is prepped and ready to take part in this weekends’ festivities at the Severn Valley Railway for their ‘Class 37s at 65’ Gala. All in all there will be 10 Class 37s, including D6948, present and a very intensive timetable will see all locos used – except 37501 which will see use on a couple of days due to crewing constraints.
Don’t forget, we will have our Sales Stand at Kidderminster throughout the whole of the event. We will have some new branded merch available for the first time as well as some old favourites! Come and say ‘Hi’ and, if you aren’t already, perhaps sign up for a membership to help us keep our locos in fine fettle!
D6948 left Toddington last Thursday morning (25/09), having been loaded the previous evening.
Kev J and Darren T headed to Kidderminster on Friday afternoon to ensure the loco had arrived safely and to refit the lifeguards and horns. These had been removed to allow for ease of loading (lifeguards) and prevent damage (horns) – lesson learned from its visit to the WSR where the horns weren’t removed and were subsequently damaged by low hanging tree branches!
With all the bits refitted, the loco had its FTR exam at Kidderminster on Saturday without any problems. Although Kidderminster is only 40-ish miles from Toddington a selection of spares, tools and containers of oil have accompanied D6948 on its trip – just to be on the safe side.
The details for the Gala have now been confirmed and the timetable with loco allocations is now available on the SVR website. You can access the Gala page here – https://svr.co.uk/event/65-years-of-class37/
As well as the Gala D6948 will also be taking part in a Driver Experience Day (already fully booked) on Fri 10 October and will be the booked diesel loco on Sat 11 October. On the 11th, the GG Sales Stand will be on the train for the day.
D6948 is due back at the GWSR at the end of October. In the meantime, 37215 will see a fair bit of use throughout October. See our ‘Loco Roster’ page for details.
We have our final ‘open’ event of 2025 on the 25 & 26 October when we have our end of season mixed traffic ‘Autumn Showcase Gala’ and 37215 will be in use on both days. Hopefully it’ll have a better timetable to work with than at our recent ‘RAIL 200’ event. Details to be confirmed in the coming weeks.
