Diesel & Ale Day
Real Ale & Heritage Diesel Days!
If you love diesel locomotives and ale, this is the perfect event for you.
On selected dates, enjoy a full day of diesel-hauled trains through the heart of Brontë country, with either our Class 20 or Class 14 at the head of service. Sit back, relax, and sample some of the finest cask ales from our on-train bar as the Worth Valley’s stunning scenery rolls by your window
There is also a steam train running, see the timetable.
LOCOMOTIVES
D8031 BR Class 20
Introduced in 1957, the rugged English Electric Type 1s – later known as Class 20s – proved themselves as reliable workhorses across the network, often running in pairs for better visibility.
Our example, No. 20 031 (originally D8031), was built at Darlington in 1959 and spent three decades wandering from the Scottish Highlands to the East Midlands before withdrawal in 1990. Purchased for preservation two years later, it has since chalked up another 30 years of sterling service on the Worth Valley, a dependable “diesel’s diesel” equally at home on passenger turns, engineers’ trains, or topping and tailing festive Santa Specials.
D9520 BR Class 14 ‘Teddy Bear’
D9520 was completed at Swindon Works on 11th November 1964 and initially allocated to Cardiff Canton. In January 1967, it was transferred to Hull with
other members of the Class for work in the North East Region but was withdrawn from BR service there in April 1968.
Purchased by Stewart& Lloyds Minerals Ltd. the loco arrived, in company with D9523 at Glendon Quarries near Kettering on 16th December 1968, where it became No. 24 (Plant No. 8311/24) and was used to haul wagons of ironstone from the quarries to the exchange sidings, from where BR then hauled the trains to Corby Iron and Steel Works.