Avon Valley Railway End of Season Gala 2024

Over the weekend of 2nd and 3rd November 2024, I paid my first ever visit to the Avon Valley Railway at Bitton, near Bristol, for their ‘End of Season’ gala, which bought the curtain down on their 50th anniversary year.
The event featured resident Polish TKh 0-6-0T 4015 ‘Karel’, Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0 saddle tank No.7 (works number 3839) ‘Wimblebury’, on loan from the Foxfield Railway in Staffordshire, and ex-Great Western Railway 0-4-2 auto tank 1450, visiting Bitton for testing after overhaul at the nearby Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean before returning to its base at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway. For the event, 1450 was paired with auto trailer 232, hired from the Bodmin & Wenford Railway in Cornwall. Diesels 31130 ‘Calder Hall Power Station’ and D3668 (09004) are also seen in action on passenger and freight duties respectively.
On Saturday 2nd November 2024, I joined fellow YouTuber Luke Owen (check-out his channel ‘Owen’s Lane Junction ‪@owenslanejunction7544‬ for more videos of the Avon Valley Railway and elsewhere) for a visit to the AVR, his local heritage line. Unfortunately, a closure on the M5 as I travelled down to Bristol from the Midlands, plus the need to return Luke home early, meant that there was only enough time for a return journey on the railway and a guided tour of the yard and workshops at Bitton, where we see ex-LMS Fowler 4F 0-6-0 44123, under restoration from Barry Scrapyard condition, and Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0T No.20 (works number 1731) ‘Jennifer’, amongst the resident steam and diesel locomotives, which include Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST ‘Littleton No.5’, Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn 0-6-0T 7151, and Avonside 0-6-0ST 1798 ‘Edwin Hulse’, which has never left the Bristol area since being built there in 1918!
Keen to obtain more lineside footage, I returned to Bitton on Sunday 3rd November 2024, but that day didn’t go quite as planned either! A water supply problem saw steam locomotives ‘Karel’ and ‘Wimblebury’ replaced by Class 31 diesel 31130 part way through the day, with auto tank 1450 continuing on to provide shuttle trains between Avon Riverside, Bitton, and Oldland Common.
Chapters as follows :-
00:00 – Saturday 2nd November 2024
20:05 – Sunday 3rd November 2024