First confirmed visiting loco announced for 2019 Diesel Gala

We are very pleased to be able to announce the first confirmed visiting loco to the 2019 WSR "Vintage Diesels to the Seaside" diesel gala on 20th - 23rd June 2019. Courtesy of owner Mike Newton, we are pleased to confirm Class 46 Peak No. 46010 will be returning to its former West Country home of the 1970's in attending the event.

The loco was built in 1961 as D147 and was a resident of Plymouth's Laira depot in the 1970's until withdrawal in 1980 and storage at Swindon works until reinstatement to traffic a year later and allocation to Gateshead. It returned to its former hunting ground of the North East - South West and East Coast routes until withdrawal once more in 1984. It was dumped at Doncaster for a number of years until purchase for preservation by Llangollen Rly Diesel Group in 1993 and eventually restored to traffic after much effort in 2000. It left Llangollen for pastures new in 2009 and has since seen a major overhaul carried out by D05 Preservation Ltd, who have been working very hard on its full and comprehensive restoration. 

It'll be great to see this former West Country stalwart back "home" down west again and it's sure to be popular with the 'Peak Army' followers. 
The image herewith has been obtained from Google and shows the loco during its BR career at Gateshead depot. We are not aware of the copyright owner so we hope the owner doesn't mind the use of the image in this news release.