Next weekend, the Churnet Valley Railway based at Froghall near Leek, Staffordshire, is holding a special event to recreate the days when BR Standard Class 4 4-6-0 steam locomotives hauled the Cambrian Coast Express from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth.
On Saturday, 16 and Sunday 17 March, No. 75014 will be renumbered as No 75033, one of its now-scrapped classmates.
The sensation of the loco working hard up the challenging 4.5-mile climb to Ipstones will bring back memories of climbing Talerddig bank in Mid Wales.
Timetables and Fares
Trains will depart from Froghall station at 10:30 and 13:30 on both days for a round trip of just over two hours to Ipstones.
Tickets cost £20 for adults and £11.80 for children aged 4-17 when bought in advance online, which is a £2 saving on buying them on the day. Children under four travel free.
Anyone visiting the railway this weekend can make it special by upgrading for a dining experience, with a choice of breakfast, afternoon tea or Sunday lunch, depending on the selected service.
The choice of holding this event in March and renumbering 75014 as 75033's appropriate as the last steam-hauled Cambrian Coast Express was hauled from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury on 4 March 1967 by 75033.
A group known as the Master Neverers Association was determined to ensure the final journey was one to be remembered.
They gathered at Shrewsbury station at 03:20 to travel to Aberystwyth, where they visited the shed and helped to clean the locomotive before the train's last steam-hauled journey, including replacing the smokebox numberplate and shedplate with wooden replicas and affixing an original “Cambrian Coast Express” headboard to the smokebox.
The train departed from Aberystwyth at 09:50, but the focus was the four-mile climb at 1-in-52 up Talerddig bank.
The final steam-hauled journey from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth was hauled by 75021, which local enthusiasts had helped give it a final special clean and a wreath of leeks and a traditional reporting number to the smokebox.
Although attempts were made to fit the traditional headboard, the condition of the loco made this impossible, so a substituted headboard was made of plywood, which depicted the coat of arms of all three operators of the Cambrian Coast Express: The Cambrian Railway Company, The Great Western Railway and British Railways.
The Churnet Valley Railway was in the news earlier this month when it announced that it had launched an appeal to raise funds to purchase a BR Sealion wagon to complement other vacuum-braked bogie ballast wagons for assisting with works planned for the line.
Another major event on the railway is in May, when Great Western Railway Castle Class No. 4079 Pendennis Castle will spend a month at the railway.
