{"id":51951,"date":"2024-05-23T21:38:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T11:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=51951"},"modified":"2024-05-23T21:38:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T11:38:13","slug":"a-95th-birthday-celebration-for-the-severn-valley-railways-flagship-locomotive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=51951","title":{"rendered":"A 95th birthday celebration for the Severn Valley Railway\u2019s flagship locomotive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend (25 and 26 May) will see the 95th\u00a0birthday of one of the <a href=\"http:\/\/svr.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Severn Valley Railway\u2019s (SVR)<\/a> most cherished steam locomotives, No 4930 \u2018Hagley Hall\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Hagley Hall\u2019 became established as the SVR\u2019s flagship loco 40 years ago, when it hauled the inaugural passenger train out of the embryonic Kidderminster Town station. This July, it will re-enact history, with special commemorative trips on the weekend of 27 and 28 July, when the SVR marks the ruby anniversary of this very important development in its history.<\/p>\n<p>This coming weekend, 25 and 26 May, will see \u2018Hagley Hall\u2019 in steam, hauling passenger services, including premium afternoon teas in the SVR\u2019s beautifully restored first-class dining cars. Bookings for the afternoon teas have now closed, but passengers will still be able to travel behind the locomotive on both Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019d like to wish our special locomotive very many happy returns,\u201d said the SVR\u2019s managing director Jonathan \u2018Gus\u2019 Dunster. \u201cIt has a special place in the hearts of many of our volunteers and visitors. We were absolutely thrilled to welcome it back in 2022, following 36 years out of service when it was on static display and under restoration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>SVR volunteers rescued the locomotive from the cutter\u2019s torch at the famous Woodham\u2019s scrapyard in Barry in 1973. They brought it to the SVR, where, after restoration, it entered service on the line in 1979, also making a number of appearances on the main line. However, the SVR withdrew it from service in 1986 after several boiler stays failed, and it was nearing the end of its 10-year boiler ticket.<\/p>\n<p>Tickets to travel are available at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsvr.co.uk%2F&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cdanny%40railbusinessdaily.com%7C63cc4bb9e1f64ce0f7d708dc7a71522a%7C15bbda6b673c46099846e937e2f01abb%7C0%7C0%7C638519874336717259%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=nON5KpAx%2ByUbTgrtHKkYb0Tvpk89kSyiDmA960BZaNU%3D&amp;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">svr.co.uk<\/a>\u00a0and at booking offices.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This weekend (25 and 26 May) will see the 95th\u00a0birthday of one of the Severn Valley Railway\u2019s (SVR) most cherished steam locomotives, No 4930 \u2018Hagley [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":51952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[7,11],"class_list":["post-51951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-news","tag-transport","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}