{"id":4270,"date":"2021-08-30T14:31:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T14:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/?p=4270"},"modified":"2021-08-30T16:03:41","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T16:03:41","slug":"hitching-a-ride-on-the-mad-dog-steam-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/2021\/08\/30\/hitching-a-ride-on-the-mad-dog-steam-engine\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitching a ride on the Mad Dog steam engine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Engine<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

TWENTY YEARS AGO today (30 August), Survivors<\/em> fans began a four-day location trip – in the midst of a Foot and Mouth epidemic – with a visit to the Severn Valley Railwa<\/strong>y.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it’s only in the last couple of months that it’s become clear that – even though those present were not aware if it – the attendees on this Reunion enjoyed an additional Survivors<\/em>‘ location experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The steam locomotive pulling the train that the Survivors<\/em> aficionados boarded at Kidderminster station, and which took them to Hampton Loade station, was the original engine used for the filming of Mad Dog <\/strong>back in 1977. It’s the train on which Charles Vaughan escapes his pursuers in the Peak District before arriving, exhausted and unconscious, at this same station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason that the connection was not apparent at the time of the trip was that the locomotive (which bore the number 8233<\/strong> at the time Mad Dog <\/strong>was filmed) was later reassigned its original service<\/a> number 48773<\/strong>. This fact was confirmed as part of a return visit to the Severn Valley Railway during the Mad Dog<\/strong> 2019<\/a> location trip. It was not until a recent rewatch of Adrian Hulme’s video memento of the 2001 trip that the significance of the previously disregarded engine number suddenly became apparent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that, while it was engine 8233 that was Charles’ salvation in Mad Dog<\/strong>, and it was engine 48773 that pulled the train from Kidderminster to Hampton Loade on 30 August 2001 – it’s one and the same engine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engine 8233 \/ 48773 has since been withdrawn from service and is currently on display in the SVR engine house adjacent to Highley Station pending a full overhaul and complete refurbishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while there’s no prospect of fans being able to take another trip courtesy of the pulling power of the ‘Mad Dog <\/strong>express’ any time soon, one lucky group of enthusiasts already enjoyed that experience some twenty years ago today – even if they had no idea of their luck at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Survivors<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Survivors<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TWENTY YEARS AGO today (30 August), Survivors fans began a four-day location trip – in the midst of a Foot and Mouth epidemic – with a visit to the Severn Valley Railway. But it’s only in the last couple of months that it’s become clear that – even though those present were not aware if … Continue reading “Hitching a ride on the Mad Dog steam engine”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-locations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9n8B4-16S","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4270"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4281,"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4270\/revisions\/4281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.survivors-mad-dog.org.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}