Class 24 diesel locomotive No. D5054 Phil Southern is to be a guest at the Spa Valley Railway‘s Summer Diesel Gala from Friday, 12th to Sunday, 14th August.

Sulzer Type 2 diesel locomotive No. D5054 was built at Crewe in 1959 and is visiting the railway courtesy of the East Lancashire Railway. It is just one of four preserved examples from the original 151-strong fleet of locos and was one of the first diesel locomotives to be based at the East Lancashire Railway at Bury.

D5054 will be at the Spa Valley Railway for the month of August and will also star at the 25th Anniversary Gala from Friday, 26th to Monday, 29th August, and will be the first time a Class 24 has visited the railway in preservation, although classes 25, 26 and 27 have all previously visited Tunbridge Wells West.

Class 24s are no strangers to the Southern region, as 15 of the initial 20 were used on the Southern Region to cover for delays in the Kent Coast Electrification scheme They were later used to provide steam heating to carriages, often in tandem with a Class 33, as these only had electric train heating.

Joining D5054 at the gala will be Class 25 D7535 which is based at the South Devon Railway, a GBRf Class 73/1, and the railways home fleet comprising:

• Drewry 2591 Southerham
• Class 10 D3489 Colonel Tomline
• Class 31/4 31430 Sister Dora
• Class 33/0 33063 R.J.Mitchell
• Class 73/1 73140
• Class 207 DEMU 1317
• Class 421 3CIG 1497

A full timetable for the gala will be published in due course along with the identity of the GBRf Class 73/1, but can be bought online now on the Spa Valley Railway website.

The Spa Valley Railway is based at Eridge in Kent, and runs via High Rocks and Groombridge to Tunbridge Wells West.