Mogul and Dukedog coming to SDR in 2010!Two unique GWR locomotives are coming to the South Devon Railway this summer! First to come to the railway will be the Great Western Society's 1917-built 43xx Mogul no 5322. Painted in unique wartime ROD (Railway Operating Division) brown livery, 5322 will be on the South Devon Railway for the 1940s weekend on 10th and 11th July, when she will be coupled to a specially prepared military train. 5322 is a genuine old soldier. During the Great War, she was one of twenty GWR 2-6-0s built in Swindon in 1917 and sent when new straight to wartime service in France. This was in response to a call from the army in the summer of 1917 for the British railway companies to supply a further 160 locomotives to help with transporting supplies from the Channel ports to the front line. The livery she currently carries is a faithful reproduction of the one she wore when in active service in 1917 to when she was demobbed in 1919. Withdrawn from service from Pontypool Road in April 1964, 5322 was also the first locomotive at Woodham's scrapyard in Barry to be the subject of a preservation appeal and the second to leave. Cymru am byth! The Rails & Ales event on August 28th - 30th and the Heritage Transport Gala on September 11th and 12th will have a distinct Cambrian air to it this year - and not just because SDR general manager Dick Wood is an ardent Wales rugby supporter! Subject to the completion of boiler repairs, joining the SDR's own GWR no 3205, which spent much of her life working in Wales, will be Bluebell Railway based Dukedog no 9017 Earl of Berkeley, currently carrying BR black livery. 1938-built no 9017 is the only remaining locomotive of her class and she and many of her class members worked for the GWR and BR(W) for most of their lives on the lines of the old Cambrian Railways. There are also rumours of the return of an old friend to the SDR too this year. Watch this space! It looks like this will be another great year to visit the South Devon Railway! 12th June 2010 |
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