Severn Valley Railway: Spring Steam Gala: 14th of April 2023

NOTE: The clips in this video were recorded at 1080p HD, but have been rendered at a higher quality to benefit from the VP9 codec that CZcams uses for high-resolution videos. Choose the '1440p' option from the quality settings to get the best viewing experience.
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Between the 14th and 16th of April 2023 would see the Severn Valley Railway hold its annual Spring Steam Gala. Recorded here is the Friday of the event.
The star for this year's gala was, undoubtedly, ex-GWR/BR Castle no '4079, Pendennis Castle' making its first heritage railway visit since it was first preserved in 1964. The engine had technically been used on specially chartered trains the day before, but the gala would see the engine open for all travellers throughout the event. Other visitors included ex-GWR/BR Small Prairie no '4555' from the Dartmouth Steam Railway and ex-BR built LMS Ivatt 2MT no '78018' from the Great Central Railway.
The event would also see a selection of the home-based fleet in operation, which included ex-GWR/BR Manor no '7812, Earlstoke Manor' hauling its first public trains since returning from overhaul late last year, and ex-GWR/BR Hall no '4930, Hagley Hall' making a return to service since being withdrawn on the Friday of the Autumn Steam Gala last year due to being responsible for lineside fires. Also making an appearance was ex-Southern/BR rebuilt West Country no '21C127, Taw Valley' in a temporary, fictitious Southern wartime black paint scheme, which had been applied due to an expected withdrawal for an overhaul later in the year.
Unfortunately, yours truly was cursed, once again, with poor weather throughout the day, and remembering how things went down at Statfold, I tried to not let a repeat of my camcorder going kaput happen again. It did start to act up towards the end of the day with the OIS not working properly, but I've managed to curtail the effects mostly with editing. It also didn't help that I managed to scald and blister my right index finger the day before, so the zooming in this video is a bit sloppy.
Due to this video's length, it has been broken down into ‘Chapters’ where certain parts of the video have been labelled correspondently. LS = Lineside; all shots taken from stations and vantage points. WS = Windowside; all shots taken from the droplights of passenger trains - the locomotive/s hauling it will be added too. You can view these chapters in the video playback bar or in the description where they’ll be listed with the timecode.
Overall, despite the minor setbacks and consistent rain, it was still an enjoyable day out and always a joy to travel this line when the railway goes all out for such events.
LS: Kidderminster station - 0:00
LS: Arley station - 0:35
LS: Highley station - 9:16
LS: Bridgnorth station - 18:36
LS: Highley station - 20:09
LS: Kidderminster - 20:31
WS: '21C127', Kidderminster to Highley - 21:07
WS: '78018', Highley to Arley - 32:40
WS: '7812', Arley to Highley - 34:53
WS: '21C127', Highley to Arley - 37:15
WS: '4079', Arley to Bridgnorth - 39:35
WS: '4930', Bridgnorth to Arley - 50:18
WS: '4555', Arley to Highley - 59:22
WS: '4079' Bewdley to Kidderminster - 1:00:50
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Current equipment as of 2023:
Photography - Nikon D3400 w/ Nikon AF-P DX VR 18-55mm lens
Video - Panasonic HC-VX870 w/ Rode VideoMic Pro+ microphone

[@severnvalleysteamer]

Fantastic video! I was there today 👍👍

[@KLJTransport]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@gainsbourg66]

Hardly anyone alive can recall the pre-1948 look (you have to be at least 80 to be aged 5 that year) - so why do the SVR not focus more on the BR steam years so many of us actually witnessed - and miss?