Well that went well.

Last weekend saw Danish locomotive 656 hauling passengers for the first time in 38 years.

© Nathan Merryweather.

Here it is arriving at Peterborough Nene Valley on Saturday.

It looked right hauling the three Belgian coaches and the single Danish coach. There are many members who were not even born when this locomotive was last in service.

Sunday saw it in service again, and here it is approaching Overton on its way to Peterborough.

© Tom Elston.

I have seen lots of comments from both members and visitors with very positive comments.

Without doubt this will be a popular locomotive, and it’s nice to see it back on the line.

656 Back in service.

656 has today passed its loaded test runs with four coaches and will enter service on 10th and 11th February running with the air stock.

Image believed to be © Paul Roe. If this is incorrect please let me know so correct credit can be shown.

73050 CITY OF PETERBOROUGH OVERHAUL APPEAL

73050 CITY OF PETERBOROUGH OVERHAUL APPEAL

Now in her 55th year in preservation, the locomotive has been overhauled three times. The current work started in 2017 and has progressed to the stage where re-assembly of the frames, wheels and motion is gathering momentum in the NVR workshops at Wansford. The boiler, with the 70-year old steel fabric needing a most comprehensive overhaul,

Help is Needed

Thanks to generous donations from individuals and from the Peterborough City Council the overhaul has been able to proceed quite well, although the Covid-19 pandemic has had direct and indirect effects. But we need more money, the estimated cost to complete the overhaul is over £500,000 and funds are currently about half that amount. We’re running a series of programmes to suit all pockets.. We hope that one of them will appeal to your kindness.

To find out how to help and donate https://nvr.org.uk/article…/152/73050-city-of-peterborough

Here we go…………

25th November sees the start of our Santa services.

If you’re a working member volunteering for the Santa services, have fun and enjoy yourself.

If you’re a visitor with your family on the Santa services have a great time, and if you’re not sure of anything please just ask.

Pictures for the blog will be most welcome.

Thomas update.

Here are a couple of pictures taken of the Thomas rebuild. They were taken a week apart.

they are © Nathan Wilson.

We hope Thomas will be back to carry passengers in the not too distant future.

GWR 2999 Lady of Legend to run at NVR in September

2023 sees 100 years since the forming of the big four railway companies – The GWR, LNER, LMS and Southern Railways. To celebrate the centenary, we are delighted to announce that the Nene Valley Railway will host GWR Saint Class no.2999 ‘Lady of Legend’ for a visit in September! This is the first time the loco or any of its class will have visited the NVR and the first time it has made a visit to the east of England – it may even be the first time any Saint has ever made it this far east! No.2999 is unique in being the only type of its class that is preserved as all the others were scrapped by the mid-50s, and no.2999 was painstakingly rebuilt and re-engineered from a later class of locomotive after steam was axed by preservationists at the Great Western Society.

The Saint class were introduced on the GWR from 1902, but by 1953 all were scrapped. Designed by G.J. Churchward, the Saint class proved to be a highly successful class of steam locomotive, which used innovative ideas picked up by Churchward while studying locomotive design practises in the USA. The class established the design principles for GWR 2-cylinder classes over the following fifty years. This was shown by Charles Collett, Churchward’s successor, who converted ‘Saint’ no.2925 ‘Saint Martin’ into the prototype Hall class of locomotives, as well as serving as a template for the other GWR 4-6-0s such as the Grange, Manor and County classes. Design aspects also influenced locomotives on other railways, such as the LMS Black 5, LNER B1 and even the BR Standard class 5.

No.2999 ‘Lady of Legend’ was developed and built by reversing what Collett did to no.2925 to become the prototype Hall, by taking Hall class no.4942 ‘Maindy Hall’ which was purchased from Barry in the early 1970s, with the sole intention always being to recreate a Saint. The project didn’t fully get underway however until 1995, due to the costs involved and the amount of work which would be required to undertake the back conversion. Major new components were required, such as three new sets of 6’ 8 ½” driving wheels to replace 4942s 6’ ones, two sets of bogie wheels, two new identical half cylinder blocks were required to recreate the inside cylinders which are fed by a straight steam pipe that was an integral part of the Saint design, a complete new lever reverser was made from new, and the frames were heavily modified and straightened, as well as other major components were thoroughly overhauled and rebuilt, while others were sourced from other GWR locos, which proves how well the standardisation of Swindon’s locos worked. A connecting rod from 2906 ‘Lady of Lyn’ and the whistle from 2910 ‘Lady of Shalott’ have also been used on the rebuild of no.2999.

The loco was numbered no.2999 as this would have been the next production number for a Saint, the last, no.2998 ‘Ernest Cunard’ being outshopped from Swindon in 1913 -110 years ago this year, and 106 years between both locos being completed!

‘Lady of Legend’ has been built in a way that it can be converted back even further, to run as an Atlantic class 4-4-2 of which 13 Saints were built but were later converted to 4-6-0s. The project cost a total of £825,000 to complete, and in February 2020 the project won the inaugural Chairman’s Special Prize at the Annual Heritage Railway Association awards and was also highly commended at the National Museums and Heritage Awards in September 2020.

While at the NVR ‘Lady of Legend’ will undertake two weekends of running, an evening fish and chip train running as ‘The Cambrian Coast Express’, a pasty and pint train followed by live music running as ‘The Cornishman’, driving experience courses and a full line day time photographic charter with the freight train. Full details of all the above will be announced shortly!

We would like to thank Didcot Railway Centre and the GWS for allowing ‘Lady of Legend’ to visit the NVR!

Nice time of year for the weather!

Here I am sitting writing this entry with the temperature nudging 29c and fairly high humidity. I have a gloss finish on my face and I am doing nothing more active than typing.

Nice to have seen decent weather last weekend for the trains, makes a change from driving rain and howling winds.

Over the coming months we have some excellent events planned so all being well the weather will be on our side.

Of course this culminates at the end of the year with the Santa trains. Seems funny thinking about the Santas in this weather, but they are the most important services of the year. The profit from the Christmas services helps immensely during the quiet period at the start of 2024.

Mention must be made of both the Pacer and the Swedish railcar. They are running on some of the quieter days, and provide a variance to the normal diesel and steam services.

So let’s look forward to a busy summer, and welcome visitors with our normal enthusiasm, and make sure they go away after having a super visit.

Pictures of services and events always welcome for the blog, as are articles from events and happenings across the railway.

How the time flies.

Well the years seem to get shorter these days.

Today is June 1st and the Christmas Santa train tickets are on sale.

What’s the betting Easter eggs will be in the shops before Christmas.

45337 on Santa duty on a previous Christmas..

There we are a picture to get you in the mood to buy Santa tickets!