Seven Class 14s star at 60th anniversary gala

A four-day gala at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway on July 25-28 celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Class 14 Type 1 diesel hydraulic locomotives (built at Swindon Works in 1964-65), and brought together seven survivors of the once 56-strong class.

Resident D9537 was joined by guests D9504 from the Kent & East Sussex Railway, D9523 from the Wensleydale Railway, D9529 from the Nene Valley Railway, D9551 from the Severn Valley Railway, and D9553 from the Caledonian Railway.

The EVR’s other resident Class 14, D9525, was not fit to haul trains. However, ex-works in original British Railways green, it was able to take part in a one-off septuple-header of one train.

Organiser Chris Baily, who had previously arranged the 14s@50 event at the East Lancashire Railway a decade ago, said the event was well attended and passed without too many issues.

“D9529 failed on the Sunday with a snapped generator drive bolt, and D9537 had a coolant leak on the Friday which was soon sorted,” he said.

“I’ve never seen the railway so busy. The last train with seven locomotives on was packed - at least 330 people were on it.

“We made a small profit despite the road haulage costs going up. The Tuesday before the event I genuinely thought we were going to have to cancel, but Simon Reid [of Reid Freight] pulled it out of the bag for us and got the locomotives here, although one or two missed the first day.”

D9537 is now due to be stopped for overhaul. Its engine will go into D9525, to help get that running again while its classmate is stopped for a rewire and underframe overhaul and attention to its wheelsets and corrosion.

“After ten years use, it’s a tired locomotive,” added Baily.

“We deliberately sought ‘14s’ which didn’t take part ten years ago.

“Apart from D9537, and D9523 which only worked one train at Bury before a major failure, the ‘14s’ we had hadn’t been used to celebrate the previous major anniversary.”