Severn Valley Railway Timeline 1997

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1997 timetable

This page details events on the Severn Valley Railway during 1997. Passenger numbers exceeded 200,000 and turnover passed £3m for the first time.

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February 1997

46521 was officially named ‘Blossom’ by actor Steven Lewis in a ceremony on 17 February.

March 1997

20 March saw the death of the Revd. Wilbert Awdry, author of the ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ books. Revs. Awdry was a regular visitor to the SVR in the early days and had been an SVR member since 1980.

April 1997

The application for Heritage Lottery funding for the Kidderminster Carriage Shed was submitted. The proposal included under-cover storage for 56 carriages, together with a Locomotive Display Building. The latter proposal would later be dropped.

Spring 1997

A new mezzanine storage and office area was constructed in Bridgnorth Loco Works. ‘Tranter Towers’ as it became known was removed in 2014 to provide additional locomotive working space.

52044 (L&Y 2F 0-6-0 no 957) arrived on the SVR from the KWVR for a planned two year restoration to running order.

May 1997

Filming of the second series of Oh Doctor Beeching! took place at Arley.

Summer 1997

H.R.H. The Duke of Gloucester became Patron of the SVR. The Duke’s first visit to the SVR had been in October 1990 on the occasion of the opening of the new Bridgnorth Boiler Shop.

6024 King Edward I visited the railway between May and September, being used occasionally on normal SVR services.

60009's '7-year' main line certificate expired.

September 1997

Autumn Gala visitors included 6024 King Edward I, 5027 Nunney Castle (which had been receiving repairs) and Pannier 9466. A total of 13 locomotives were in steam, including The Great Marquess which had recently been repainted in BR black livery as 61994, having formerly been liveried as LNER 3442. During the gala The Great Marquess was posed on Kidderminster’s ex-Fort William turntable, which it would have used many times while in service on the West Highland Line.

October 1997

Stanier Mogul 42968 embarked on a series of 9 rail tours between October and January. Highlights included a climb of Sugar Loaf summit with a gross load of 365 tons (in BR days Class 5 engines were limited to 240 tons!), and the first steam ascent in preservation of the 1:37 Lickey Incline in tandem with 7325.

November 1997

Class 50 Diesel No 50031 Hood made a main-line debut, hauling Past-Time Rail’s ‘The Pilgrim Hoover’ from Birmingham International to Plymouth and return.

Winter 1997

The Great Marquess suffered a failure of the crank axle (used to provide drive from the locomotive’s third centre cylinder), the driver’s side driving wheel having moved on the stub axle. The problem was considered repairable (contrary to speculation in the railway press at the time), but also costly. As the locomotive was nearly ‘out of ticket’, newly liveried 61994 joined the ‘long term’ repair queue.

Steam locomotives used

A table of steam locomotives used and their mileages can be found on the Steam Locomotive Mileages page.

See also

• The Severn Valley Railway in preservation

Severn Valley Railway

The British Railways system of classifying steam locomotives by power using a number from 0, least powerful, to 9, most powerful, followed by either F for freight, P for Passenger or MT for Mixed Traffic.

British Rail or British Railways

London & North Eastern Railway

William Stanier, Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway 1932-1944

Locomotive with a 2-6-0 wheel configuration