Category: News

752 visit to Severn Valley Railway September 2024

Our Saddletank 752 is to visit the Severn Valley Railway to run in their Autumn Steam Gala from Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd September 2024.

NEW – 752 will be in LMS livery as 11456, possibly the first time for over 80 years, although it did have a faded 11456 on the cab sidesheets under the Coal Board green paint in the mid-1960s – see image below from John Sagar taken during trial runs on 5th September in preparation for Heritage Open Days.

752 arrived at Kidderminster on 11th September, there is a Youtube video of this from Rail125 of 16 minutes – to view click here (opens in new window)

Their website currently includes an announcement (click here) which states that the visit was to be as 51456 and subject to confirmation of the agreement following examination at the East Lancashire Railway – that was successful in mid-August.
Currently it is planned that 752 as 11456 will operate shuttle passenger services throughout the Gala from either Bridgnorth or Kidderminster as far as Highley on the 16-mile long line. The official web page for the Gala can be found here

This page will be updated as the arrangement develops.

Expected use of our locos at the East Lancashire Railway in 2024

At the first time of first writing in November 2023 it was expected there would be two major steam events in 2024 during which our two operational locos were expected to be in use on the East Lancashire Railway. 7th and 8th September 2024 – there is now an additional event as below featuring our two locos at the railway

NEW – Heritage Open Days at Bury Transport Museum – Heritage Open days are taking place at many locations between 6th and 15th September 2024, the events at the Bury Transport Museum (near Bury Bolton Street Station will take place on 7th and 8th September featuring a static display of our Saddletank loco 752 currently liveried as 51456 – for this event it will be liveried as L&Y 752 – , the L&Y ‘Radial Tank’ 1008 on loan from the (National) Railway Museum and the bogie L&Y Directors Saloon recently acquired by the railway. Our Pug loco 19 currently liveried as 11243 will be busy with shunting demonstrations in front of the museum. NOTE – 752 will now be reliveried as LMS 11456 in advance of its road trip to the Severn Valley Railway on 9th September
To view the East Lancashire Railway web page giving full details click here
More details of the Heritage Open days in England can be found here

Autumn Steam Gala – Friday 11th to Sunday 13th October, our locos will be in use, see details on ELR website click here (opens in new window)}

Legends of Steam – Friday March 15th to Sunday 17th March, our Saddletank 752 featured in all 3 days liveried as Horwich Works service loco 11305 as we have reported elsewhere on this website, running shuttle services each day.

Images of 752 in use can be found on our page Photos – stock in use
and videos from Youtube on our page Video Online

There may be other public events during 2024 featuring our locos of which details will be published on this web page.

Expected use of our stock on Worth Valley in 2024

NOTE – the Worth Valley are carrying out a major engineering project in 2024 to replace bridge 27 over the river south of Haworth. This will mainly affect car parking at Haworth in May, late August and September. The railway website has a page giving more details – click here

Autumn Steam Up and Fenchurch Special – new event
From Friday 4^th to Sunday 6^th October there is to be a revival of an Autumn Steam Gala, this time with a twist – on Friday evening there will be a special operating with ‘Terrier’ loco FENCHURCH visiting from the Bluebell Railway, this will include two Mark 1 carriages and our Third Class six-wheel 1507, the event will include a hot supper.  90 tickets are available on a first come, first served basis and can be booked via this link – https://kwvr.co.uk/events/fenchurch-special/ 
Full details of the 3-day event can be found here –https://kwvr.co.uk/events/autumn-steam-up/
L&Y Ironclad 52044 is one of the locos that may feature in the main event services but currently there are no plans to use our carriages other than for the Fenchurch Special on Friday evening.

VINTAGE TRAINS – there was a dedicated web page on the Worth Valley website which can be found via this link (opens in new window)

The trains ran for full weekends in July and August 2024 –
20th & 21st July, 27th & 28th July, 3rd & 4th August, 10th & 11th August, 17th & 18th August and our carriage operation was without trouble, although there was some impact from other operational reasons including a lineside fire which temporarily stopped all services on one day.

For operational reasons our First Class 6-wheel 279 was not be used on the services, although our Third Class 6-wheel 1507 was be in use with its three replacement doors and one repaired door fully completed.


THE STEAM GALA – Thursday March 21st to Sunday March 24th 2024, 2 of our carriages, Club Carriage 47 and Bogie Brake Third 1507 were in service train use for the 4 days on one of the main carriage sets.

Images of our carriages in use can be found on our page Photos – stock in use
and videos from Youtube on our page Video Online

New L&Y arrivals at East Lancashire Railway

On 1st July 2024 the L&YR Radial Tank 1008 from the National Collection arrived from York under a loan agreement with the National Railway Museum. It is on public display in the Bury Transport Museum in Castlecroft yard.
It was moved by rail through York Station on the national network for loading to a road vehicle, there is a Youtube video of it being hauled through York Staion, to view click here (opens in new window)

Above shows unloading from road lorry at Castlecroft, below entering the Museum (photots copyright of John Sagar)

Another L&Y item has also arrived at Bury from the estate of the late Harvey Scowcroft, this , the chimney from Saddletank 11305 has been found to be in excellent condition. It is not clear to what use it will be put (if any) as all the existing preserved L&Y locos using the same chimney were fitted with new replacements as part of a bulk order a few years ago.
Since the arrival of 1008 it has been observed that the existing chimney is in poor condition so Harvey’s chimney may be used as a replacement.

Saddletank 752 visit to Didcot Railway Centre in May 2024

Agreement was reached for Saddletank 752 to visit the Didcot Railway Centre for their ‘Steam into the 40s’ event during the early May Bank Holiday on May 4th, 5th and 6th 2024.

752 stayed at Didcot to operate there on the weekend of 11th and 12th May to feature in a ‘Mini May Gala’ .

This was subject to 752 passing some additional testing. This arises because road access to the Didcot site is on the opposite side of the main National Rail network line to Oxford so 752 will briefly have to negotiate the main line, albeit not as extensive as its travels in 1980.  
752 passed the testing and arrived at Didcot by road on Saturday 27th April.
Upon arrival by road and return on 13th May 752 was escorted across the Network Rail main line ‘under the wires’ (another first for 752) into the Didcot Railway Centre sandwiched between two Class 66 locos which can be seen on our photos stock in use page (link below).

Images of 752 with the Class 66 locos and in use can be found on our page Photos – stock in use and videos from Youtube on our page Video Online

Saddletank 752 becomes 11305

(By the end of March 2024 752 had reverted to it’s fictitious British Railways 51456)

In early March 2024 We were advised at short notice that 752 as 11305 would feature in all 3 days of the East Lancashire Railway ‘Legends of Steam’ event March 15th, 16th and 17th 2024. It operated shuttle services, mostly between Bury and Ramsbottom, but between Bury and Heywood on a morning trip each day.

Images of 752 in use can be found on our page Photos – stock in use
and videos from Youtube on our page Video Online

As we have previously made most people aware, there has been a plan to operate Saddletank 752 as the last survivor in BR service, loco 11305 as a service loco at Horwich Works.

This was to be in conjunction with long-time supporter Harvey Scowcroft, who was in possession of the front numberplate from 11305, but he died suddenly in December 2023.
Harvey was very active with a group who arranged photo charters at the East Lancashire Railway so an event was organised for early March 2024 by this 3P20 Group, taking place in Buckley Wells Yard of the East Lancashire Railway at Bury.
A video of the charter can be seen on Youtube, loaded there by ‘Preserved Railway’ and can be found here (opens in new window)

Known use of our locos in use at East Lancashire Railway (ELR) during 2023

Autumn Steam Gala – October 13th 14th 15th
Our locos 19 as 11243 and 752 as 51456 featured with other ‘home fleet’ locos and some visitors – West Country 34072 from the Spa Valley Railway, 48305 from the Great Central Railway and Jubilee 45690 based at Carnforth.
752/51456 was in use throughout the Gala and 19/11243 carried out public shunting demonstrations as well as a passenger shuttle once each day and a short freight except on Sunday.

Pug 19 as 11243 was used for a wedding train special on 20th September,  the Pug ran from Bury to Ramsbottom to pick up the wedding, then Ramsbottom to Heywood, Heywood to Rawtenstall (stopping at Bury and Ramsbottom as booked), and then Rawtenstall to Bury dropping the wedding off at Ramsbottom.  Photos have been supplied by Liam Barnes of the ELR.

Images of our locos in use can be found on our page Photos – stock in use
and videos from Youtube on our page Video Online

Apart from special events, Saddletank 752 as 51456 is a regular performer on the Diner Trains (which require advanced booking) operated by the East Lancashire Railway.

Small Engines Gala – June 10th 11th
A new event for 2023, it featured 6 steam locos and 6 diesel locos, our 752 and 19 both featuring, with 752 being one of the largest.

Images of our locos in use in the Gala can be found on our page Photos – stock in use and videos from Youtube on our page Video Online

1940s Weekend – May 27th 28th 29th
752 as 51456 operated passenger shuttles between Bury Bolton Street and Ramsbottom. 19 as 11243 spent most of the weekend shunting military wagons around Bury Bolton Street

Images of our locos in use in the Gala can be found on our page Photos – stock in use and videos from Youtube on our page Video Online