Teddy Bear in charge

A full service on the railway with a 5 train service and the prestigious Sunday lunch Pullman. I was on duty at Cranbrook Road level crossing working the gates all day. A few minutes action every 40 minutes then time to catch up on various tasks as well as playing the ukulele and singing in splendid isolation.

Teddy Bear is the nickname given to the Class14 diesel locomotive, https://kesr.org.uk/class-14-teddy-bear-loco/ which were built by British Railways to replace the steam pannier locomotives. Almost immediately the work they were expected to do disappeared. Most of them were sold to industry. Our Teddy Bear is on loan from the West Somerset Railway.

Why Teddy Bear. One story is that it looks like a Teddy Bear. Huh? Another is that the Swindon engineers who built them were proud steam engineers who said that having built the Great Bear now they were reduced to building Teddy Bears.

It’s an incongruous shot as the Teddy Bear is hauling our set of Victorian coaches. It was unusual to see. Having a smoky diesel in charge of our beautifully restored wooden bodied coaches.

For those of you who were looking forward to a steamy blip, I’ve included the Pullman as an extra.