Severn Valley Railway (England) - 2024 Spring Diesel Festival - 4K

When I saw the impressive line up of diesels due to appear at the Severn Valley Railway - 2024 Spring Diesel Festival, I decided it was too good to miss. I booked my accommodation and rail tickets to what promised to be the ultimate British diesel event and it turned out to be even better than my expectations. On the Friday I visited the intermediate stations to chat with the volunteers, look around the attractive stations and shoot video of diesels, most of which have been in preservation longer than were part of the British Rail fleet. One interesting conversation I overheard went something like “you know you are getting old when you see HST's starring in a heritage railway event”. On the Saturday I travelled the full length of the line, stopping off at all stations to enjoy and record the action. There were rumours that even more people attended the Diesel Festival than the Steam Gala and judging by the large number of people crowding into the trains, that could well be true. Another notable feature was the average age of the visitors, many of which were under 30 years old, far too young to have seen regular steam on the mainline, but old enough to have seen the last of the first generation diesels, like those running at this event. All those youngsters bodes well for the future of railway preservation, after all they are tomorrows volunteers and visitors. I spent the Sunday recording trains at various viewpoints along the line. The Severn Valley is a scenic location with plenty of good vantage points to watch trains, please join me to watch the best diesel gala I have ever had the pleasure to visit.

Locomotives in operation during my visit -

Rail Adventure Class 43 HST Power Cars & Colas Rail Class 43 HST Power Cars

GB Railfreight Class 73 No.73119 'Paul Taylor'

Class 37's No.37409 'Loch Awe' & No.37263

Freightliner Class 59 No.59206

GB Railfreight Class 69 No.69009 'Western Consort'

Class 20 Locomotives courtesy of Michael Owen No.20048, No.20142 & No.20189

Class 46 'Peak' No.182

Class 14 'Teddy Bear' No.D9551

Class 17 No.D8568

Class 33 No.33108

Class 40 No.40106 'Atlantic Conveyor'

Class 52's No.D1062 'Western Courier' & No.D1015 'Western Champion'

Class 50's No.50007 'Hercules' & No.50035 'Ark Royal'

To plan your own Severn Valley Railway adventure or to learn more about the line, please click on this link – https://svr.co.uk/

Track gauge - standard-gauge - 1,435 mm ( 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)