One of the Great Central Railway’s guests for its upcoming Winter Steam Gala, Omaha 2253, developed a mechanical fault before it was due to be transported and will no longer be able to visit, but thanks to the Severn Valley Railway and The 75069 Fund, it has been announced that BR Standard 4 75069 is on its way to the line – to star alongside L&Y A Class No. 52322, straight from its appearance at Embsay. 52322 appears with kind permission of Andy Booth.
75069 is a BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 locomotive designed by RA Riddles for mixed traffic use on secondary routes where the BR Standard Class 5 and its predecessor, the ‘Black Five’, were too heavy. 75069 was one of the final batch allocated to the BR Southern Region, which was built in 1955 with a larger tender. This gives greater coal and water capacity, but restricting the weight and route restrictions to that of the Standard Class 5.
General manager Malcolm Holmes said: “We are, of course, disappointed to be changing our plans so close to the date but we are grateful for wonderful colleagues in the sector who have enabled us to offer another visitor to join what is sure to be a great weekend to start our 2024 season.”
The two visitors will be joining six of the home fleet, along with guest railcars Derby Lightweight Iris and the NER Autocar to provide an intensive timetable of passenger and goods trains over the three-day weekend, from January 26 to 28.
Find out more at www.gcrailway.co.uk/winter-steam-gala-26th-to-28th-january-2024/
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