Severn Valley Railway Spring Gala: an afternoon at Arley.

Arley Station, on the Severn Valley Railway, was one of two locations that most inspired my (Ben's) railway enthusiasm as a child.  Along with the level crossing at Langley Green -where my late Gran used to park me up to watch the trains in my pushchair, on the way home from playgroup- I spent many an hour peering over the bridge at the station.  I've heard other enthusiasts describe the above angle as one of the classic views of the railway preservation scene in the UK, and it's hard to disagree with that.

As mentioned, my parents are moving to Wales and thus it's very unlikely I'll have chance for visits to my old haunts in the West Midlands.  With a free afternoon following the Dudley Canal Tunnel trip, we nipped over to Arley to spend a couple of hours.  The Severn Valley Railway were holding their Spring Steam Gala, so there was the promise of a very frequent train service to photograph too.

Arley really is one of the most wonderful preserved stations you can find.

On arrival, we saw the visiting 2MT from the Great Central working a 'local' (Kiddy-Hampton Loade and return); these shorter trains, more in keeping with the SVR in its active days, were an interesting contrast with the rest of the gala services.

The Victoria Bridge, surely one of the most iconic and eye-catching structures on any preserved railway.

Of course, one of the differences between the SVR and our local line, the Worth Valley, is with the directions trains face.  The KWVR, being a reasonably steep uphill slog, always has the locomotives facing south.  On the SVR it's a little more unpredictable, which is a pity.  Good lighting, good sky, but a tender-first shot rarely makes for a satisfying pic.

There wasn't long to wait between trains, but whilst Amy had a bit more of a play with her stitching software, I was drawn to the interesting textures of this old gate post.

My Dad was wanting to see "Taw Valley" in its wartime black livery, and annoyingly this was another tender-first run.  It wouldn't be coming back facing the right way until later in the evening, so this was our only glance at it.

Much better was the local that arrived next; oddly enough, this Pannier is a loco I've photographed a great deal in recent years, as it's visited the KWVR a couple of times.

Back to Arley, and this magnificent scene.  "Pendennis Castle" was arguably the star attraction for the event, visiting from Didcot.  This loco had been preserved all the way out in Australia at the port-end of the railway serving the Hammersley Iron Ore Mines; repatriated and returned to steam, the machine looked and sounded superb.

And that, indeed, was that.  I genuinely don't know how many times I've been to Arley, how many times as a child I've stood here on Gala days.  One of my happiest memories is going for a walk on a cold Christmas Eve morning along the riverbank with Dad, and stopping in at Arley for a hot snack.  It seemed nice and fitting to have one last trip there on what was a nice, if slightly melancholy, end to the holiday.