Severn Valley Railway: Autumn Steam Gala - 19th & 20th September 2026

After a long 5 month sabbatical from filming, due to the countless heatwaves and steam bans, I have finally re-emerged with the camera gear. Getting back into the swing of things, it was off to the Severn Valley Railway, for their annual autumn steam gala, held from Thursday 17th to Sunday 20th September. This year, the gala had a local theme, bringing in classes of locos seen on the SVR in its pre-preservation days, to run alongside the line's home fleet on a variety of passenger and goods trains. Unfortunately, two of the planned guests - BR Standard 4MT No.80080 (East Lancs Railway) and GWR 'Small Prairie' No.5526 (South Devon Railway) became unavailable, but some top work behind the scenes saw two last minute replacements sourced. These were GWR 2884 Class No.3850 (Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway) and LMS 'Royal Scot' No.46115 'Scots Guardsman' (West Coast Railway Company), making the guest line up two heavyweights and two lightweights. The latter were the originally announced BR(W) 'Pannier Tank' No.9681 - making a very rare foray away from its home on the Dean Forest Railway - and BR(M) Ivatt 2MT No.41313, from the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and currently seeing out the last months of its boiler ticket with a tour of the mainland heritage circuit. Making its gala debut was the SVR based GWR 'Large Prairie' No.4150, which recently made its long awaited return to steam, having been painstakingly restored from Barry Scrapyard condition. I only managed the one shot of it during the gala, but it sounded sweet as a nut! Despite the usual trials and tribulations of gala filming, it was nice to finally get back out with the camera, along with catching up with old faces and meeting some new ones. Many thanks to all those involved in putting together and running the gala, especially as everything pretty much ran like clockwork, which is certainly no mean feat on a busy timetable. The full line-up Home Fleet: GWR 0-6-0ST No.813 GWR 1400 Class 0-4-2T No.1450 GWR 'Large Prairie' Class 2-6-2T No.4150 GWR 5700 Class 0-6-0PT No.7714 BR Standard Class 4MT 4-6-0 No.75069 LMS Stanier 5MT 2-6-0 No.13268* Guests: BR(W) 8750 Class 0-6-0PT No.9681 BR(M) Ivatt 2MT Class 2-6-2T No.41313 GWR 2884 Class 2-8-0 No.3850 LMS 'Royal Scot' Class No.46115 'Scots Guardsman' Does not feature Shots included: 00:00 9681, Hampton Loade 03:20 1450, Bridge 12 04:10 46115, Bridge 12 05:21 4150, Eardington 06:36 1450, Rifle Range 08:04 3850, Bridge 12 09:11 41313, Victoria Bridge 10:25 46115, Eardington 11:58 41313 & 9681, Rifle Range 14:14 75069, Hay Bridge 15:21 7714 & 9681, Eardington 16:19 3850, Victoria Bridge 17:45 75069, Crossing Cottage 18:37 813, Elan Valley Aqueduct 19:32 9681, Orchard Crossing 20:29 41313, Orchard Crossing 21:29 3850, Eardington 22:54 46115, Crossing Cottage 23:47 813 & 41313, Eardington 25:19 46115, Eardington Filmed on Saturday 19th & Sunday 20th September 2026, using a Panasonic HC-X1500 with an Audio-Technica BP4025 microphone. I hope you enjoy the video. If you did, please like, comment, subscribe, and make sure you check your subscriptions page, so you never miss a video; it really does help a lot! Thanks. Facebook:   / speedtothewest