The North Norfolk Railway has announced provisional plans for its Rails & Ales Mixed Traction Gala to be held from Friday, 13th to Sunday, 15th June.

Rails & Ales will allow visitors to enjoy both steam and diesel power with the chance to see and ride behind steam engines, diesel locomotives, and diesel railcars while sampling some of Norfolk ‘ best local ales and ciders.

An added attraction is that visitors can travel on a wide variety of trains and hop on and off at each station, which will all be serving a different range of Norfolk tipples.

One of the stars of the gala will be Class 40 No. D213 Andania, later renumbered under TOPS to 40013.

It is one of just seven survivors from an original class of 200 built by English Electric at the Vulcan Foundry in Newton Le Willows, Lancashire in 1959.

Class 40s were a familiar sight on the West Coast Mainline and across the North of England before being relegated to secondary and freight duties, where they made occasional appearances across much of the national network.

Also returning for the gala will be railbus No. E79960 built by Waggon und Maschinenbau in Germany, which operated off-peak services on the North Norfolk Railway for much of the 1970s and 1980s.

It is currently on loan to the Ribble Steam Railway but is returning for the gala as part of the North Norfolk Railway s 50th Anniversary celebrations.