7812 Erlestoke Manor blasts Eardington Bank! | Severn Valley Railway Winter Steam Gala 2024 | 8/1/24

Today's video is of the Severn Valley Railway (SVR)'s first Winter Steam Gala! The Severn Valley Railway is a fantastic preserved railway winding through the valley of a very flooded River Severn.
The locomotives in operation were:
GWR Manor Class 7812 Erlestoke Manor
BR Standard 4 75069
SR Rebuilt West Country Class 21C127 (34027) Taw Valley
LMS Stanier Mogul Class 2968
GWR 57xx Class 7714
LMS Ivatt 4 Class 43106
USATC S160 2253 Omaha should have been in operation but unfortunately was declared a failure a day before the gala with spark plug issues. It was also 43106's last day of operation on the Sunday. I decided I was bored of the usual Tenbury Wall and Foley Park shots I do so I decided to focus on some new ones on the North end of the line. To do this I actually travelled on the SVR!! It was a really great experience.

I was filming on Saturday only as I had tickets back up North on Sunday. With every locomotive facing South except 7812, it proved quite a challenge to plan in some places! Normally I tend to upload on the same day as I film but the creation of this video saw me encounter just about every technical difficulty under the sun, that being that half of the day's filming on my memory card corrupted (this is the 4th time recently this has happened so I'm going to renew some of my equipment to ensure it doesn't happen again), which meant I had to download software to get the files back. The software then demanded I cough up £68 to get the files, despite it being able to show me a preview of the videos. I therefore took the decision to screen record the previews which unfortunately means there's a drop in quality on the last few clips, but it's better than them being left out full stop. Without further ado, let's get into what happened!

I started off my day at my local at 7:03, travelling to Kidderminster for the 08:30 train behind 43106. I met ‪@harnettyrailways‬ on the train, followed by me alighting at Arley for the challenging walk fighting my way through a flooded forest to Bank Top Crossing, where I met ‪@MarshSteamVideosTM‬. The first shot was of 2968, followed only a few minutes later by 7812! Then it was back to Arley for the trip behind 75069 to Highley. Once there I realised my planned shot at Borle Viaduct wouldn't be even close to feasible due to the flooding so I instead set up at the Engine House. 34027 came by, opening up nicely! I then headed over to Highley Bank for the next run which was 43106. After this it was back to Highley for a run behind 2968 to Bridgnorth, where I made a very quick run up to the hill behind the MPD for a shot of 7714 leaving with the local. I then walked to Oldbury Viaduct (another battle with a flooded forest ensued lol) for 75069 which looked great. With the next forward facing departure being some time away, I walked over to Eardington where I set up for 2968 and tried not to freeze lol. A few minutes after 2968 was 7812 which came thrashing up the bank quite spectacularly. After that I walked down to Eardington Halt for 34027 Taw Valley before taking 7714's local train to Bridgnorth and bashing 43106's train all the way back to Kidderminster where I spent the evening having a chat with ‪@danielstrainsukofficial9133‬, ‪@LiamsLocos‬ and ‪@blackcountrysteamvideos8021‬. After that I headed home.

Thank you to all SVR staff as well as the locomotives and crews involved in pulling off a fantastic gala! Thank you also to my company for the day. I hope you enjoy the video.