Class 50 No. 50033 Glorious will be one of the star attractions at the West Somerset Railway’s Summer Diesel Festival next June.

The Summer Diesel Festival will be held from Thursday, 6th to Saturday, 8th June when Glorious will be appearing courtesy of the Class 50 Alliance. Glorious is normally resident at the Severn Valley Railway, and with its BR large logo livery it looks every bit as glorious as its name suggests.

The West Somerset Railway is fortunate in securing the services of Glorious as it has recently been undergoing restoration work.

Glorious previously visited the West Somerset Railway on 5th June 1993, when with Class 50s Nos. D400 Fearless and 50007 Hercules it hauled the Pathfinder ‘Bishops Triple’ rail tour from York to the West Somerset Railway.

On that tour, Glorious only worked as far as Bishops Lydeard and this year’s Summer Diesel Festival will be the first time it will have been possible to travel behind it to Minehead.

As its name suggests, the Summer Diesel Festival will feature a variety of diesel traction. It promises to have something for everyone, including an intensive timetable and plenty of things to do at stations along the line. Planning for the festival is still going on, but more visiting locomotives are set to be announced very soon.

Glorious entered service with British Railways in August 1968 as No. D433, and after only 26 years’ service on the mainline it was withdrawn in March 1994 and retired to the custody of the National Railway Museum at York.

Since being withdrawn from British Rail service, Glorious has had a varied life after the National Railway Museum changed its priorities and was suffering from space constraints. In 2018, custodianship of the locomotive was offered to the Class 50 Alliance based at the Severn Valley Railway where it was fully restored, both mechanically and cosmetically, and is looked after by a team of dedicated volunteers.