MAY WILL SEE AN 80 YEAR OLD EXPRESS STEAM LOCOMOTIVE IN ACTION ON THE WEST SOMERSET RAILWAY

While many folk are waiting for the winter to pass and the dull days of January to yield to Spring and its longer daylight hours the West Somerset Railway has its ongoing planning in place for one of its major events during the year of Railway200 festivities.

This is the Spring Steam Gala which will take place between May 2^nd and 5^th, a Bank Holiday Weekend when those daylight hours will have lengthened to make a full day out more tempting for enthusiasts and families alike.

The Steam Galas on the West Somerset always feature a number of “guest” engines which make special visits for the duration of the event. The Railway’s Special Events Planning Team has already booked a definite “headliner” in the form of 45596 “Bahamas”, a locomotive built for express train duties by the London Midland and Scottish Railway in December 1934. as part of the “Silver Jubilee” class, more commonly known and the “Jubilees”.

“Bahamas” has visited Bishops Lydeard before, arriving there at the head of special trains from the mainline network, before the trains and their passengers have continued to Minehead behind West Somerset based engines. This evokes the days of steam when trains from the London Midland Region of British Railways, many hauled by “Jubilee” class locomotives would arrive at Bristol Temple Meads or Bath Green Park stations before handing their trains over for onward haulage and then going to a locomotive shed for servicing ahead of their northbound returns. On Summer Saturdays this pattern might be broken and “Jubilees” could reach the Somerset coast, working trains into the now closed and demolished Locking Road station at Weston-Super-Mare.

“Bahamas” trips to Minehead during the Gala will recreate that aspect of Somerset’s railway history and it will also be the very first time that an engine of its class has reached the northern end of the West Somerset.

The “Silver Jubilee” class took their overall name from the Silver Jubilee of King George V in 1935.  In line with this the first locomotives were named after parts of the then British Empire with later ones being named after historic Admirals of the Royal Navy and the final ones’ nomenclature coming from warships.

191 of the Class were built in total and the last ones in British Railways Service were withdrawn in 1967 as part of the changeover from steam to diesel power. Four have survived, “Bahamas” herself, 45593 “Kolhapur”, 45690 “Leander” and 45699 “Galatea”

The West Somerset Railway thanks the owners of 45596 for agreeing to its hire for the Gala. Advanced tickets for the event can be purchased from www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk or by calling 01643 704996.