Severn Valley - The Night Trains

The 7714 was built in 1930 by Kerr, Stuart at Stoke on Trent. It was based at Birkenhead when the railways were nationalised in 1948 and remained there until It was based at Birkenhead until in moved to Wrexham Rhosddu in December 1958 but was withdrawn from service shortly afterwards in January 1959. It was sold to the National Coal Board (NCB) in 1959 and was used at Penallta colliery. At the time it was sold to the NCB it had completed 520,259 miles in service.

In 1973 it was bought by the Severn Valley Railway and was first steamed in 1992 after an extensive overhaul. It was withdrawn from service in 2009.

7714 underwent its steam test in July 2016 and the boiler was lifted back onto its frames the following month. The overhaul was completed in November 2016 and 7714 returned to traffic on the SVR.

The 7714 is a GWR Collett 5700 class 0-6-0PT 'pannier tank', one of two examples on the SVR (the other being 5764).

The GWR 7812 Erlestoke Manor is a heritage steam train steeped in history. I was lucky to see it as it was saved from the scrap-yard by enthusiasts. 

No. 7812 “Erlestoke Manor” is a member of the same class as 7802, being built at Swindon, and completed in January 1939. It was delivered new to Bristol Bath Road depot, and served there and at Bristol St. Philips Marsh until April 1948. The records show that the engine was nominally sub-shedded at Weston-super-Mare on several occasions during this period. From May 1948, It was based at various West of England depots; Newton Abbot, St. Blazey, Plymouth Laira and Truro all played host, and the engine was to be seen double-heading larger 4-6-0s in Cornwall and on the South Devon inclines, Dainton, Rattery and Hemerden. With the dieselisation of the GW lines in the West Country in the early 1960s, 7812 was transferred to the Cambrian section, being allocated to Oswestry from May 1960, and Shrewsbury from February 1963 until withdrawal in November 1965.

Woodham Brothers at Barry took delivery of 7812 for scrap in June 1966. The Erlestoke Manor Fund, organised initially by a group of Gloucestershire enthusiasts, purchased the engine in June 1973, and moved it to the now-closed preservation centre at Ashchurch, near Tewkesbury, in May 1974. No. 7812 was moved to Bewdley on 23rd April 1976. Restoration to operating condition was carried out at Bewdley, and 7812 first ran in September 1979, achieving several main line runs on the North-and-West route in the Spring of 1984. In response to popular demand, the locomotive was finished in the attractive B.R. lined green livery of the 1950s.

Its latest 10 year ‘ticket’ expired at the end of 2017, and the loco was moved to Tyseley for the owners to start the overhaul soon afterwards, some of the work being a contract repair by Tyseley Locomotive Works staff.  Work on the boiler was completed in 2021, and the loco returned to the SVR in 2022.   It is on hire to the West Somerset Railway for the 2023 season.

Cox's Barn Stottesdon and Eardington Nature Reserve

Two miles south of Bridgnorth, Eardington Nature Reserve is a 7 hectare (17 acres) former sand and gravel quarry with an unusual mix of habitats. It is a small reserve and provides a habitat for a variety of insect species and birds.

Venus Pools

The Snipe hide in the twigs when the Lapwings  took to the sky as a rapter  flew overhead. The snipe froze in time camouflaged until the danger passed,

Summer Leys Nature Reserve

Summer Leys is a local nature reserve at Wollaston in the Upper Nene Valley, in Northamptonshire. It is owned by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.

Members of the nature group met today despite the forecast of heavy rain until lunchtime. The area along the A14 and A45 was very water-logged with many fields under water. Once we arrived the rain stopped. Later there were a couple of showers prior to sunshine and a bright afternoon. 

It was difficult to get around the reserve without wellingtons as some of the paths were ankle deep in flood water and the water level was still gradually rising. A few of us had lunch at a picnic-table despite it being surrounded by water sodden grass but there was nowhere else to sit. At least it raised amusement.

It was very exciting to see a  Stonechat pair, Little-Grebe and Egret and the feeding station certainly had a variety of birds.

A distinctive dove with a restricted range. The white wing patches are usually visible when perched, and become very conspicuous in flight. This species is listed as Near Threatened because it is suspected to have a moderately small population, which is threatened by habitat clearance and degradation within its very restricted range. The collared dove is one of the great colonisers of the bird world, having spread west from Asia, it first bred here in the 1950s and has even reached America.