Return to Hampton Loade


The Hampton Loade Paddock Railway at the Severn Valley Railway has featured on this page before, back in 2007. On the 7th March 2009 a visit to the big railway's "Festival of Steam" allowed me to renew my acquaintance with this delightful line.


The combination of circuits on different levels makes the line more interesting, as well as allowing more track to be fitted into a confined area. A Roundhouse "Lady Anne" 0-6-0T passes under the high-level tracks.


Turning the camera by about 90�, the "Lady Anne" heads towards the steamup area, out of shot to the left. The first three coaches are from the Brandbright Easy Range.


A delightful "Quarry Hunslet" 0-4-0ST on the high-level lines.


The "Quarry Hunslet" passes a Regner vertical-boiler loco, with a nixture of Lynton & Barnstaple and Isle of Man stock. A Fowler diesel lurks in the background.


A coal-fired 0-4-0ST hauls a train of American stock over the bridge while the "Lady Anne" passes beneath. The "Quarry Hunslet" is being refulled in the background.

MVR Open Day 2008


It was a combination of circumstances that led to this event. Exams were over and the summer hoildays finally in sight, and I had always intended that we should, as usual, have a gala with visiting stock from the Woodrow Light Railway. However, other friends of mine had also asked to see my railway, so I felt that this year I should invite them as well. It also happened to be my birthday two days after the end of term, and I realised that this would be a suitible day for a gala!
So, I duly invited various people, and six were able to accept. However, whilst I knew the evening would be the best time for most of my guests, due to them having work during the day, Jon Potter of the WLR had other commitments during the evening. I therefore split the event into two parts; JP would bring his stock to run during the late afternoon, with the others then watching the MVR's home fleet during the evening. A couple of weeks of intensive work in the workshop followed, as there were many jobs I wanted to finish before the visitors arrived - for more details, see the workshop page!
Jon arrived at three, bringing the same stock as was run at the 2007 New Year's gala - that is, WLR Nos. 3 Jonathan, 6 William, and 14, with the traditional wooden-bodied freight set and the Accucraft Welshpool & Llanfair wagons. Russell was first out with the MVR passenger set, followed by Jonanthan with the WLR wagons. This was, incidentally, the first time No. 3 has run on the WLR in its original red livery since 2004; since then it has always appeared in BR black as with its fictitious number 8903. Nos. 6 and 14 then ran with the same set - as well as a brief appearence from Blackbird - before we rounded off the first half of the gala by running Lyn with the Accucraft wagons and Albatross with the passenger set. Amazingly, this made it the first time since 2004 that we have actually run the entire MVR home fleet at a gala - normally I cannot be bothered to wire up the electrics!
Jon departed, kindly leaving No. 3 with me so that I had another live steamer to show to my guests that evening. They began to arrive from about seven, and MVR Nos. 2, 3 and E762 alternated on passenger and freight trains until everyone was present. I then steamed WLR No. 3 before running Russell twice, with the contrasts between the manual and R/C controls being noted. By the time Russell's second running session ended it was growing dark, so we ran the electric engines, whose working lights looked very effective.
Overall, it was an excellent day, and everyone greatly enjoyed themselves. Photos will be in the gallery shortly, but you may notice there are rather less than usual. This was partly because I was  busy running the railway most of the time, but also because I was also trying out my new toy: a digital camcorder! So hopefully I will soon upload a few video clips as well...