to add an item to your Itinerary basket.
If you like good westerns, then the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway is the place to be when they stage their annual Spring Steam Gala from Thursday, March 21st to Sunday, March 24th!
That’s because the headline act in this year’s gala are two guest locomotives, former Great Western Railway-designs, Castle Class No.4079 ‘Pendennis Castle’ and Hall Class No. 6990 ‘Witherslack Hall’.
Both these classic machines spent their working lives hauling trains in the south west of England and Wales and they will be performing in the Gala together with a seven-strong line-up of resident Keigley & Worth Valley steam locomotives.
It will be the first time either of them has worked passenger trains on the challenging steep grades of the West Yorkshire heritage railway.
‘Pendennis Castle’ was built in Swindon 100 years ago and it hauled express passenger trains on the Great Western Railway’s main lines. And it made a name for itself in the 1925 Locomotive Trials when it comfortably beat the cream of the London and North Eastern Railways engines hauling trains from London Kings Cross Station to Doncaster.
After completing 1,758,000 miles of service with the Great Western and its successors, British Railways, the locomotive was sold to the Hamersley Iron Company in Western Australia in 1977. It’s exile on the other side of the world lasted until 2000 when it was repatriated to the United Kingdom.
Now based at the Great Western Railway Society’s Didcot Steam Centre in Oxfordshire, it took 16 years to restore ‘Pendennis Castle’ to pristine condition and three years ago it returned to steam.
‘Witherslack Hall’ is one of the Great Western Railway’s 6959 Class of mixed traffic locomotives. After being withdrawn from service in 1966, it spent 16 years languishing in a South Wales scrap yard before being rescued and restored by the Witherslack Hall Society. Built by British Railways in 1948, it too took part in some locomotive trials, but this time on the route from London Marylebone to Manchester,
Today, it’s based at the Great Central Railway at Loughborough, and it has certainly acquired a taste for working in the north of England having spent ‘guest’ spells with the East Lancashire Railway in 2017 and 2018 and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in 2019.
The K&WVR’s 2024 Gala offers far more than passenger and demonstration goods trains. Added into the mix will be behind-the-scenes tours and the possibility of being able to travel in an old-fashioned guard’s van at the back of a goods train. It all represents a four-day festival for not only dedicated railway enthusiasts but all the family too.
"The Keighley and Worth Valley is a great stage on which these fantastic locomotives can perform. We have ensured that the action will be pretty much nonstop over the four days of the Gala, because we want to make sure everybody gets an opportunity to see and smell the atmosphere of a steam railway."
Full details of the 2024 Steam Gala’s operations and tickets can be obtained by clicking on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway’s web site www.kwvr.co.uk or by telephoning: 01535 645214. For timetables and full information about the event go to the railway’s website or phone: 01535 645214.
Related
The Keighley & Worth Valley Railway is a heritage railway that was reopened in 1968 and runs from Keighley to Oxenhope through beautiful Brontë country. Board our steam train and enjoy the sound of the engine climbing the steep sides of the valley, while great clouds of steam and smoke add drama to the scene. The five-mile journey is a powerful reminder of our industrial heritage and a unique way of enjoying the beautiful countryside immortalised by Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë.
Throughout the four day steam gala, you'll be able to ride behind guest locomotives and home fleet engines, with intensive passenger service running on the railway.
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