Owing to the success of the Diesel Gala last year, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway will be welcoming the takeover by these mighty engines for a second year.
With ‘no steam’ between 29th September and 1st October, it is a rare opportunity to see diesels at work on the Island’s Railway.
The highlight of the event will be a Class 33 diesel locomotive in operation. This will be the largest locomotive to ever come to the Isle of Wight and due to its weight, the locomotive can only travel over at high tide. The proposed sailing will be the Wightlink 17:00 sailing from Portsmouth to Fishbourne on Wednesday 27th September.
33202 was built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage and wagon works entering service 9th February 1962. There were 3 versions of the class 33s the push/pull version, the standard version and the slimline version – 202 is of the later version designed with a narrower body to allow it to pass through the restricted bore of the southeastern region tunnels.
The locomotive entered service as D6587 and was allocated to Hither green depot in south east London. D6587 became 33202 in December 1973 and was transferred to Stewarts lane depot, working trains from London Bridge and Victoria as well as freight traffic in the Kent area . In February 1991 33202 lost its BR Blue livery in favour of the civil engineers yellow/grey colours known as the Dutch livery and in July 1991 was renamed ‘The Burma Star’.
33202 was purchased by Stewart Robinson in February 2009. It is now in BR blue again and carries the name ‘Dennis G. Robinson’ after the owners Father who was heavily involved with the introduction of the Class 33’s to the southern region back in 1962. 33202 is based at the Mangapps farm railway center in Essex.
Also hauling passenger trains over the weekend will be the BR Class 03 D2059 built in Doncaster in 1959. For visitors there will be an opportunity to take a Brake van ride round the sidings behind D2554 built by Hunslet in 1956. This locomotive is known locally as ‘Nuclear Fred’.
Immediately following the Diesel Gala on Monday 2nd October and Tuesday 3rd October, the Railway will not be open to visitors. There is a unique opportunity to take a footplate experience in the cab of the Class 33 diesel locomotive 33 202.
For more details on this and other special events at the Railway visit the website at www.iwsteamrailway.co.uk.
