Great Western Coffee Shop

I see pictures of "Fenchurch" - a locomotive I associate with the Bluebell - hauling trains on the West Somerset Railway at present and she looks so out of place (and small).  And I see Romney Hythe and Dymchurch locos on the Bure Valley and on the Ravenglass and Eskdale.

Guest locomotives help, I suppose, bring back for another ride (and another wallet extraction) people who have become too familiar with the day to day options but ... are they right?   Am I too much of a purist to be put off by Fenchurch's escapades (to me, would be OK on Isle of Wight ) or is in fine and dandy?

A plus point has to be that people get to see an engine that they wouldn't normally see

Back in the early 1970s, Butlins at Minehead were having a clear out, and "Duchess of Hamilton" was donated to the NRM (and, in November 1975, became the final BR train movement on the branch, as she was towed away to Swindon by a Class 25) and the diminutive Stroudley "Terrier" "Stepney" was donated to the WSR.  There was a fanciful idea to return the loco to service, but that didn't happen.  She was used, in 1979, as a smoking prop for a BBC2 telly drama though, thanks to a smoke bomb from BBC special effects department, and a shove from another loco

So there is a precedent for a Terrier on the Minehead Branch

?  - I thought that Stepney was another Bluebell engine right from the start, and Wikipedia seems to confirm that.

But ... I might see the earlier trip as another guest engine appearance and not anything like an "in regular traffic" type use.  It leads towards the question "at what point does a guest cease to be a guest and become a regular part of he family" ... which we could also ask about the S&D 2-8-0s to Minehead.

Research suggests that the Minehead engine was No. 78 (Knowle) rather than No. 55 (Stepney)

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LB%26SCR_A1_class_locomotives (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LB%26SCR_A1_class_locomotives)

You're right.  My memory isn't what it was.  Thank you

It's good for the railways to be able to have a fresh face in their line-up, and a visiting loco gets to be a star during an event or for a season. Smaller and fledgling railways who don't have a regular ex-big railway loco can finance a visitor to raise their profile, too.


That said, seeing a GWR loco in a GWR setting or a diesel hydraulic on its home turf is special...

I appreciate that this topic relates to visiting locomotives on heritage lines, but it is very disappointing to see mainline steam railtours using locomotives from other BR Regions. I know it is down to ownership and where the locos are based, but why use ex-LMS or ex-SR locos on the likes of the Royal Duchy or Torbay Express when there are ex-GWR locomotives available?

A couple of years ago, an 'Atlantic Coast Express' commemoration railtour from London Waterloo to Exeter St David's via Salisbury and Yeovil Junction was hauled by a Black 5, whilst a Merchant Navy was being used on a Settle and Carlisle railtour!