THE Severn Valley Railway hit the headlines earlier this year after it unveiled SR Bulleid Pacific No. 34027 Taw Valley in a temporary purple livery and renamed it Elizabeth II to commemorate the late queen’s platinum jubilee.
It has now been confirmed by the railway that, after operating the Santa services from Bewdley MPD, the 4-6-2 will have an interim repaint into matt black Southern livery during the annual shutdown period early in the New Year.
Replicating the austerity livery carried by SR locos during the Second World War, the West Country will have sunshine-yellow cab number and lettering on the tender with red nameplates – and it will also carry the loco’s original SR number, 21C127. The previous plan to repaint No. 34027 this autumn was changed due to an operational need for the loco to be available for the SVR’s range of Christmas services through until early January.
Reaction
Phil Swallow, of Taw Valley Limited, which owns the locomotive, said: “Our loco was not built until 1946, the year after the Second World War had ended. It was then rebuilt by BR in the 1950s into the form we see
