West Somerset Railway - Summer Diesel Festival 6TH - 8TH JUNE 2024

Filmed in 4K 50p PAL with a Sony Alpha 7 Mk4 mirrorless camera.

Here we see all 3 days of the WSR Diesel Gala filmed between Williton and Minehead.

The following content is from the WSR page -

Class 50 No. 50033 ‘Glorious’, courtesy of the Class 50 Alliance. Nowadays, ‘Glorious’ can normally be found at the Severn Valley Railway, wearing the renowned BR large logo livery, looking as glorious as her name suggests. This is a big comeback year for 50033 as she is fully back in traffic after further restoration work. ‘Glorious’ has visited the West Somerset Railway before; on the 5th June 1993, the locomotive joined two other Class 50s to haul the Pathfinder ‘Bishops Triple’ rail tour from WSR to York. ‘Glorious’, however, only worked this tour to and from Bishops Lydeard and thus our Summer Diesel Festival will be the first opportunity to travel behind this iconic locomotive, all the way to Minehead. This will be the first time Glorious will have visited another railway since her extensive refurbishment and return back to traffic throughout 2018/2019.

Class 46 ‘Peak’ No. D182 (46045) courtesy of the Peak Locomotive Company Limited will be making its debut to the West Somerset Railway during our Summer Diesel Festival which is taking place between Thursday 6th and Sunday 8th of June.

The BR Class 46 diesel-electric locomotive was originally classified as Type 4 and was the third of the Sulzer 'Peak' classes. A total of 56 were built by BR Derby between 1961 and 1963 as part of BR's modernisation plans to replace steam locomotives. D182 is now one of the only three surviving Class 46 ‘Peaks', the rest being scrapped after a working life on the mainline.

D182 entered service in September 1962 at Gateshead, where it remained allocated for its entire service career. On withdrawal in 1984, D182 was renumbered 97404 and transferred to the research department in Derby where it ran until 1986. Nowadays D182 is normally based at the Midland Railway Centre but has recently been working services at the Severn Valley Railway.

Courtesy of 20189 LTD, Class 20s 20189, in BR blue livery and 20142 'Sir John Betjeman', in commemorative London Transport livery, will be joining us at our Summer Diesel Festival. Both locos have visited the line before during our 2018 gala and were very popular. If you missed out, then now is a chance to gain your mileage behind these Type 1 locomotives!

Class 20s, otherwise known as English Electric Type 1, were part of the BR modernisation plan to replace steam. 228 of these locomotives were built between 1957 and 1968. Weighing 73 tonnes and delivering 1,000 horsepower, the class was designed to work light mixed freight traffic up to 75 mph and on rare occasions worked passenger services. The Class 20s soon gained the nickname “Choppers”, due to the distinctive engine beat which resembles the sound of a helicopter. The class continues to be incredibly useful to the privatised railway and preservationists. While they may be over 60 years old, their simple design and ‘go anywhere’ capability allows them to be re-invented for new railway uses.

Class 24 diesel locomotive No. D5054 ‘Phil Southern’ will be making a welcome return to the railway since it’s previous visit 25 years ago! and will be another guest engine to join us at our Summer Diesel Festival from Thursday 6th to Saturday 8th of June.

D5054 was built at Crewe in 1959 and is visiting the railway courtesy of the East Lancashire Railway. It is just one of four preserved examples from the original 151-strong fleet of locos and was one of the first diesel locomotives to be based at the East Lancashire Railway at Bury.

We will be hosting and operating one of GWR's 'Castle class' sets, one of the shorter train sets now used on regional services in the West Country. Although we don't yet know which power cars will be attending, we're truly grateful to GWR for their assistance.

Locomotive line up:

Class 03 No. D2133
Class 09 No. D4107
Class 14 ;Teddy Bear' No. D9526
Class 20 No. 20142 'Sir John Betjeman'
Class 20 No.20189
Class 24 No. D5054 ‘Phil Southern’
Class 33 'Crompton' No. D6566
Class 33 'Crompton' No. D6575
Class 35 'Hymek' No. D7017
Class 46 ‘Peak’ No. D182 (46045)
Class 50 'Hoover' No. 50033 "Glorious"
GWR HST