The first Class 31, D5500 (31018) entered service with British Rail (BR) in October 1957 and was put through its paces on test, before working its first main line revenue earing service on 13th November 1957; the 1036 London Liverpool Street – Clacton-on-Sea. This very machine now takes the main stage at the National Railway Read the Rest…
The Ecclesbourne Valley Railway (EVR) held a diesel gala over the weekend of 18th & 19th March 2017. After long time resident 31414 had left the railway the previous year I thought my visits to Wirksworth had come to an end. When the EVR announced that 31206 would be visiting for the gala and having Read the Rest…
The Spa Valley Railway diesel gala saw 31289’s return to traffic for the 2017 season. Having watched the live start-up courtesy of someone’s Facebook Live post, all looked good when we got there and the cloud of white ‘289 had spluttered out had dissipated. Locos in use of the weekend were: D3489, D9537, 31289, 33063 Read the Rest…
Outings for anything at the Weardale Railway, other than on their festive Polar Express trains, are quite rare; yet in February 2017 the Weardale Railway advertised two running days, one involved T&T 47’s but the other involved the first workings of Harry Needle Railroad Co. (HNRC) 31465 since it had been bought it from Network Read the Rest…
Tuesday 6th September 2016 (The day disaster struck…..) I got up for work at 1600 to a myriad of texts and whatsapp messages telling me the wires were down on the ECML and the job was well and truly stopped. Firstly it was awfully nice of people to let me know and secondly this not Read the Rest…
On the back of their successful “mileage” running days in 2015 the Great Central Railway (GCR) organised a series of running days for certain locos during the 2016 season and it was the turn of 31563 on Friday 15th July. Like the previous year the GCR would run 6 round trips but unlike the previous Read the Rest…
The East Lancs Railway (ELR) Summer Diesel Gala was held over the weekend of 8th to 10th July 2016. The list of locos attending and timetable produced can be found below: I planned to attend on Friday & Saturday and my time there on Friday was rather brief really as after 31162 had done its Read the Rest…
The Severn Valley Railway (SVR) had basically one of the grandest diesel galas in years planned for the 19th to 21st May 2016; which included 6 main line visiting locos and a whole host of other preserved visitors from all around the country, which would ultimately include 20 different locos in total. However due to Read the Rest…
31203 had been one of those class 31’s that had spent a long time in preservation and yet was about as elusive as they came! Unfortunately its initial return to service was cut short by an AVR problem on its first running weekend and then it looked as though it could have ended up meeting Read the Rest…
I hadn’t planned to travel down to the Avon Valley Railway specifically on this particular day but when 31203 was advertised to work its first trains at the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway on Sunday 1st May I needed something to make the journey worth while and I was very grateful for 31101 having a day Read the Rest…
31466 had seen quite a lot of use already during 2016 at the East Lancs Railway, generally when I was away on holiday! Thankfully I’d been keeping an eye on the Bury Diesels Loco Roster and was pleased when 31466 had to stand in for 37418; again! The weekend previous to this had seen it Read the Rest…
This was my first venture to a preserved railway during the 2016 season and the place was absolutely packed on Saturday 9th April 2016! The gala line-up had the following present: NVR Home Fleet – D9520, D9529 & 31271 Visitors – DCR 31452, Prototype Powercar 41001, 47192, 47712, 50008, 56006, 56098, DB Cargo 60066 & Read the Rest…
As I’d recently started a new job that allowed me to take advantage of discounted travel on Eurotunnel this day was picked as a day out to spin up and down through the tunnel on the Le Shuttle trains; the plan being to get as many of the sets out that day in as we Read the Rest…
Mangapps Railway Museum currently houses probably the biggest celebrity of the class 31 world; 31430! While not much of a line to be sampling class 31’s on, an opportunity arose to go an have a look at what goes on down there and with 31430 having been recently painted into BR Blue it would have Read the Rest…
For the first year in a good 10 the Strathspey Railway attempted to make use of their diesel fleet during the Summer of 2015 with the 27 and 31327 alternating each weekend, working two round trips on a Sunday to allow the steam loco to operate the afternoon dinex. It’s long way to go to Read the Rest…
The Great Central Railway did something on 21st August 2015, that hadn’t been done by them in a good 10 years; put 31563 out for 6 round trips! While back in the early 2000’s, mainly due to lack of steam, it was quite common that 31563 would do 6 round trips a day, it actually Read the Rest…
An eagerly awaited gala that unfortunately suffered the same fate as most other galas had during 2015; a loco failure prior to the start of the weekend. The original line-up had involved 33108 which had been pulled from the line-up well in advance due to it not being ready in time but 26007 was en-route Read the Rest…
The Great Central Railway Nottingham (GCRN) held a very reasonably priced diesel gala over this weekend, with day rovers only priced at £12 per day. The full loco line-up was 25279, 31162, 41001, 47292, 56097, 66765 (GBRf) & 73110 The day didn’t get off to a good start for me when I managed to miss Read the Rest…
With all the hype about the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) Diesel Gala there were great expectations while waiting for the loco roster to be published and personally I was looking forward to a good few days out with 31271, on a decent length line, with a decent load and with plenty of noise to Read the Rest…
Between Sunday 7th June and Sunday 14th June 2015 there was a considerable amount of class 31 action all over the country so rather than split all of the trips out to their separate railways I’ve included them in one post to show just what was on offer that week! Nene Valley Railway – 31271 Read the Rest…