With family day-tripper income falling in these cash strapped times, the SVR looked to boost the coffers by putting on two new enthusiast events over the turn of the year. The second of these was a Winter Steam Gala on weekend 6&7 Jan 24. Like the Winter Diesel Day the previous week there were no guest locos, but it was a suitable way of marking the re-entry into traffic of Stanier Mogul 2968 and the final runs of Bullied Pacific Taw Valley and Ivatt “Flying Pig” due to expiry of their boiler certificates. GW Pannier 7714 was also in action on a local service. Ivatt 43106 had literally been delivered to the SVR in steam from Lostock Hall shed at the end of BR steam in August 1968, and had been a fixture on the Valley ever since. Now though with ownership issues and no funding in place for a major overhaul, it appears that it has sadly reached the end of its working career. So along with W&W members Chris Roscoe, Paul & Charlie Woollard we joined the large turnout of enthusiasts out for a final ride behind it. Chris had come up with a plan which saw us get three runs behind the Pig as well as refreshment stops at the Railwayman's Arms at Bridgenorth. As well as the Pig, we managed runs with the Pannier and the Stanier Mogul. This was appearing in a one-off livery of plain LMS black, it will be fully lined out for its next Gala appearance in April 24. There was a short gap before the Pig's final evening time run to Bridgenorth so we adjourned to the Captain Cod in Kidderminster, along with half the Gala customers. This was a reward for the Chippy's decision to open especially for the occasion, showing how events like this can benefit the local economy. Fish suppers consumed it was time for the final run with the Ivatt, which by this time was bedecked with chalked farewell messages and a small model of a Flying Pig on the centre lamp bracket. The Ivatt wasn't going quietly into the night and we enjoyed a storming run to Bridgnorth with the Pig (ahem) flying up Edington Bank. In order to get everybody back to Kidderminster the SVR had added a special return service with 37 264, which added 3 empty coaches to our train for a noisy limited stop 11 coach run back. My thanks to the SVR and loco groups for putting on this successful event, hopefully to be repeated in future, and Chris for driving.
Copyright of all pictures in this gallery belong to N Clarke.