Since the Severn Valley Spring Diesel Gala, Peak Locomotive Co Ltd.'s 46045 aka pre tops number D182 has been on hire to the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) fulfilling its rostered runs. 46045 Last appeared on the SVR in 2016, since then (pre return) the locomotive has been in use on other lines, and more recent years has had much work done to it including a generator rebuild. After this work the 138te 2,500hp locomotive (with its powerful 12LDA28-B Sulzer power plant) was repainted in classic British Rail corporate era blue, of which you see in these photographs, and what a stunning restoration it is. So whilst fulling its SVR running contract that is generally 2 round trips - Kidderminster to Bridgenorth on a rostered running day, we decided it was time to climb aboard and get Hossing for old time's sake! On the day the SVR volunteers were excellent making the whole day out a great experience, myself and good friend Rob Stopford decided to get ahead of the peak intermittently on day to increase our photo opportunities of capturing this mighty beast through my lens! So a plan was hatched a month or so before to get cranking, the only problem being there was lots of other tempting galas on the long weekend, however bashing one of our old favourite Peaks came out tops. Very near to the date my good friend Jerry Mathews and the Gloucester crew plus others decided it was a great idea to have a Jerry's bonus stag do, hence the appearance of Matson's finest Bavarian Heidi! And what an unexpected bonus it was too, making the day a Gloucester basher reunion in many ways, excellent. The only shock of the day was a planned cheeky drink in our old favourite pub The Ship Inn at Highley claim to a grinding halt, when we turned up in the afternoon only to discover a week before it had a gas explosion and fire starting on the frontal decking! Sources say it started on the decking at 5am on the 21/7/22, but no one was hurt we were told. Let's hope it can come back soon. On the day we also chatted to the drivers of the Class 46, one SVR Diesel Driver said it was one of the best-preserved locos they'd been rostered to drive for in a while. This shows the excellent restoration to a very high standard that the Peak Locomotive Co Ltd (PLCL) have done. We would like to thank PLCL and the SVR volunteers and drivers (including Matson's finest son) for making the day an awesome one.
Copyright of all pictures in this gallery belong to R Kelsey.