West Somerset Railway - Mixed Traffic Gala (June 5th - 7th 2015)
As the last crankshaft makes its final rotation and the final exhaust note falls silent, the curtain falls on the challenging eventful and colourful 2015 Mixed Traffic Weekend. The three day gala event saw the DEPG home fleet locos joined by visitors Class 45 No.45060 'Sherwood Forester', Class 56 No.56006, and GBRf repatriated Class 59 No.59003 'Yeoman Highlander'. Each day had its own particular challenges, after the failure of 56006 on Saturday with fuel starvation, caused by clogged fuel filters, and then the failure of 45060 on the Sunday, it was left to the WSR home fleet locos and GBRf Class 59 to fill in the gaps. The event seemed well supported helped by three days of good weather, the best day for warmth and good light being the Sunday, which no doubt bought people out to the line. We would like to extend our thanks to all the crews and volunteers involved on the front line of the 2015 event. While it wasn't possible for all the locomotives to complete their full weekend of diagrams it did provide additional surprise variations in the timetable and extra 'double heading' which wouldn't of occurred had original timetable been operated. Credit should also go to the crew on 56006 on Saturday for having four attempts to get the locomotive moving prior to calling 'The Peak Army' for a tow. The Class 56 had it's filters cleaned and was operational by Sunday morning, but a desicison was taken to cancel the operation of the Class 56. After the Class 45 failed on Sunday with a compressor fault the locomotive was hauled to Bishops Lydeard where its fault was fixed within ten minutes, but again another desicison was made to cancel the locomotive diagrams for the rest of Sunday. Both locomotive groups have issued appologies for their ability to operate their locomotives due to desiscisons which were out of their control. The DEPG's own locomotives covered he remaining diagrams over the weekend providing further locomotive haulage for enthusiasts to enjoy.
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59003
GBRf Class 59 No.59003 'Yeoman Highlander' was one of the star locomotives from the event. Missing from UK metals for over 17 years after export to Germany, GBRf repatriated the locomotive during October 2014 and shipped to Immingham Docks. Since then the locomotive has undergone a complete overhaul, upgrade and has been refitted with all the current UK safety and signalling equipment. The quality of the work carried out of exceptional and GBRf should be proud of their pure heavy haulage thoroughbred. The Class 59's have strong ties to the South West and the class are no strangers to the West Somerset Railway, and it was only right that 59003 should visit the West Somerset to operate it's first public passenger train in 20 years.

BR Class 35 Hymek No.D7017 powers through Nornvis Bridge with the late running 18:30 Bishops Lydeard to Williton freight. The train ran late due to not enough time allowed in the turn around at Bishops Lydeard to shunt coaching stock and form the freight train. Further issues were encountered at Williton when it was found the train was too long for the siding and had to be shunted accordingly.