Severn Valley Railway Diesel Gala this w/e

[meurglysIII]

Severn Valley Railway Diesel Gala

I'm quite looking forward to this, this Thursday onwards. I live in Warrington but I've managed for the last couple of years to find accommodation in the area for the duration of the event, but don't recall it being Thursday-Saturday in previous years. This made it more difficult to find somewhere to stay this time, does anyone know why it's not Friday-Sunday like most other galas?

I was also thinking it's a shame that 56007 won't be there, leaving the usual fare of 37s and 50s mainly. The Peak is the only one that's a bit different to the usual stuff really. Which got me thinking - the practice of hiring main line locos for galas seems to have died off - one memorablea example of this was when the East Lancs Railway hired in two Freightliner class 66s for their diesel gala a few years ago, which made for some great haulage and photos. Has it just become too expensive to do this? It would be great to ride behind a 70 or 60 on a heritage line.

I suppose I'm saying the galas are still good fun but maybe there is not enough variety in the available traction - from the SVR listing it seems there are FOUR class 50s and two class 37s at this one.

Any thoughts?