TWO days of special operating on the West Somerset Railway (WSR) will be timetabled at the end of the month to mark 50 years since a group was founded to preserve a British Rail diesel hydraulic locomotive.

The ‘Diesel and Electric Group’ is now the Diesel and Electric Preservation Group (DEPG), based in Williton.

Over the weekend of August 30 and 31 it will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of acquiring its ‘Hymek’ D7017, to which it quickly added D7018.

The WSR will be alive with the sound of ‘Maybach music’, the term used by diesel locomotive enthusiasts to describe the distinctive sound of ‘Hymek’ diesel hydraulic locomotives at work.

A special WSR timetable will operate on both days, with an opportunity for people to travel 120 miles behind the locomotives.

The engines will haul an eight-coach set of carriages, making them clearly audible on the climbs to Crowcombe Heathfield and Washford.

The ‘Hymeks’will operate both individually and as a double-headed lunchtime pairing on both days and there will be early morning and evening trips.

Some of the trains will run as ‘semi-fast’ and not call at all stations.

Today, DEPG has eight locomotives in its care, a mixture of diesel hydraulics and diesel electrics.

WSR general manager Kerry Noble said: “The DEPG has been part of the West Somerset Railway from the earliest days and it is great to be able to highlight their hours of patient work by putting a weekend spotlight on two of their fleet.

“It is sobering to think in the year of Railway 200 they have been caring for ‘modern traction’ for half a century and the two ‘Hymeks’ have spent four times as long on the WSR as they did in British Railways service.”

Tickets can be purchased on the WSR website or by calling 01643 704996, or from station ticket offices.