New Build Supremacy at the Bluebell Railway | Giants of Steam – 17-19.10.25

The annual ‘Giants of Steam’ Gala at the Bluebell Railway this year would mark a historic event, as the biggest gathering of new build standard gauge steam locomotives in preservation was to grace the line, showing that in the 21st Century steam locomotives are still very much alive in the UK with many more ongoing new build projects happening around the country! Alongside the Bluebell’s own new build, H2 Atlantic No. 32424 Beachy Head, completed in the summer of last year, three guests would visit the line to mark the historic occasion. The newest of the visitors, GWR Grange Class No. 6880 Betton Grange, was completed in April of last year, making her debut in service on the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway the following month. Another Western engine would feature, in the form of Saint Class No. 2999 Lady of Legend, completed at Didcot Railway Centre in 2019. The oldest of the new builds featured, at just 17 years of age, and the only one to be mainline certified, is LNER A1 Peppercorn Pacific No. 60163 Tornado, completed at Darlington in 2008, with her officially entering mainline service at the beginning of 2009. She is the first steam locomotive in the world to be fitted with the new European Train Control System (ETCS), and was very much one of the first locomotives that would start the trend of building steam in the 21st Century. The A1 is the only one of the four to be built completely from scratch, while the other locomotives feature spare parts from similar locomotives that survived into preservation. For example, 2999 was built from various parts of a Hall class, while 6880 features the boiler of 7927 Willington Hall, and the tender borrowed from Cogan Hall. 32424 meanwhile features an ex-GNR Atlantic boiler, which was very similar to what the original H2 class used. Despite that, all these locomotives as a whole are younger than many who were out to capture them together over the weekend, in some cases even when you combine the age of them all together, and prove that in the modern world, building new steam locomotives, while much more expensive than it was back in the ‘glory days’, is still something people are passionate about doing, and show that there is still a massive following for the steam movement going forward. Many other groups have taken inspiration from these locomotives to start their own new build projects of long lost engines that could fit somewhere into the heritage steam scene, now that it has been shown in many different ways, that it can be done. An intensive timetable would be in place over the weekend with all four locomotives making three round trips each day, with the third trip for 32424 and 60163 being them both double heading each day. 60163 would mostly feature on nonstop runs, while the other three would perform stopping services along the route. The Saturday would see a pause in proceedings to have all 4 of the new builds lined up at Horsted Keynes station in the late afternoon, which is what this video starts with, showcasing the gathering of the new builds at its full potential. After the photoshoot, 6880 would depart, with 60163 & 32424 performing their respective run rounds almost immediately after the Grange’s departure, showcasing the oldest new build passing the newest while doing so. The Sunday, which would end up having rain for most of the day and thus making filming challenging at times, would sign the gala off in style with the two westerns double heading a trip, and 32424 and 60163 following behind with their final double header of the weekend. •Facebook:   / themodsterrailwayvideos