GCR Winter Steam Gala 27-29th January 2017

When the TPO goes wrong...afternoon run behind 777 today. Don't think anyone was hurt.


The railway was very busy today, good to see!

 

A selection of scenes from Friday and part of Saturday. Many thanks to all involved at the GCR.

 

Enjoyable, if long, visit to the GCR yesterday, and was surprised by the numbers attending, even at the start of the day. Never saw any ticket checks on the trains thoughout the whole day, which I thought was unusual for a Gala.
Can't say I've been to one (steam or diesel) where there appeared to be some seriously pi***d people around later in the day - which could explain why the "tin shed" at Quorn was down to one beer available by early afternoon...........
And as for the "entertainment", a la Basil Fawlty, with the individual and the umbrella at Quorn whilst waiting for the afternoon TPO........! (handled well by the Station staff in the vicinity, I have to say)

 

Something else I remembered. The demo of the guys fitting the steel tyres onto the heavy duty wooden wagon wheels was fascinating as it was something I had never seen before and was analogous of fitting loco tyres.

 

Agree on the comments about the light, challenging conditions and when the sun did poke through it was low and awkward. Having said that, it did create some great atmosphere around the place at times and it was good to see the Q giving a good account of herself, even if she wasn't allowed out on a freight (boo).




More photos here - https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/Great-Central-Railway/Winter-Steam-Gala-January-2017/

 

Another strong gala from the GCR, proving you don't need a wrath of visiting locos to bring the numbers in ! The weather was a real mixed bag, I enjoyed the frosty start on Friday morning. Hope you enjoy

 

A selection of images from Saturday at the gala can now be seen at my Zenfolio website at: - http://mickrogers.zenfolio.com/p594685007



As always, the GCR managed to pull out all the stops for another excellent steam feast, and it was good to see the Bluebell's Q class no. 30541 on the double track.
Cheers,

 

A very enjoyable Friday and Saturday at the Gala, with nice atmospheric conditions on Friday morning. My photos can be found at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pamw/

 

All, fully endorse previous comments. Had all Saturday and half of today at Great Central and thoroughly enjoyed the gala. I'm a lineside pass holder and must say the money is very well spent even though I can only make the trip from Hampshire a couple of times a year. The 'chat' with other photographers is always friendly and informative and it makes for a 'club-like' atmosphere.
Phil, please pass on my thanks to all at GCR for making this a great gala and not sure how it can be improved!
As The Terminator would say; 'I'll be back'...!

 

An enjoyable visit on Saturday, great to see 73156 near the end of her overhaul as well inside the sheds. Spent most the day riding in the sub, lovely vehicle and some decent performances - the 9F surprisingly giving the best of all!

 

Back home after three great days and sporadic sunshine! Well done to the GCR for all their efforts to make this an enjoyable event for all. Who cares about timetable slippage on such an ambitious programme? Not me!

Some of my pics can be seen from here....

https://johnleyland.smugmug.com/CD/Heritage-Railways/i-P2kvj5L/A

 

The GCR always puts on an excellent show and I had a really enjoyable day today.

Completely agree about timetable slippage at Galas. To my mind a good Gala Timetable is one which gives you plenty of action and the GCR never disappoints in this respect. Who cares if time is lost as long as everyone has an enjoyable day, visitors and volunteers included

 

I went today and enjoyed the day did notice the train heat on set b was not that good.

 

Had an excellent day Sunday. Was bit cold and wet, but apart from that great gala as usual! Thanks to all those involved.

 

Does seem rather odd to bring in a freight loco as the star guest and then proceed to not use it on a freight, I've no problem with it hauling passenger trains for those who want it for haulage, but you coulden't put in one freight turn ?, A minor gripe but I struggle to understand the logic, as mentioned earlier the weather was the main problem.

My pics from the Sunday: http://daviddepperphotography.zenfolio.com/p1021354262#h826a48fe You can see how the weather went downhill as they are ordered from first to last in time order.

 

"Mixed traffic" might be a better description; they were hardly strangers to passenger workings in their pre-preservation lives.

I can see the logic of not using it on freight at a gala - I've been to a few galas in my time because of a specific loco, and then been disappointed when said locomotive gets very few trips along the line. I remember one gala in which a Bulleid pacific, at the time newly out-shopped in what was I think it's first period following restoration from Barry condition and bought in as a visitor over a distance of a good 100 miles, spent one entire day as the "spare on standby" - unfortunately, the day I chose to visit. Hardly endeared that railway to a considerable number of people who had chosen to visit primarily because of the presence of that loco.

Tom

 

I expect the logic is that if you are going to the expense of bringing in a loco, you might as well use it on revenue passenger trains rather than the "sideshow" freight workings. It may dissapoint the photographic brigade, but it was nice to watch it on the one freight it did, after dark, on the Saturday evening passing through Quorn platform whilst waiting for the somewhat delayed TPO to come through.
As an aside, does anyone know why they kept clearing the signals for the TPO and then putting them back to red - at least twice. Was there a signalling problem?

 

Doesn't the TPO need a double signal section cleared to run rather than one ?

If your read my post again you'll see I'm not saying the Q shoulden't have done any passenger runs, But it did at least 3 per day to my knowledge, could not at least one have been a freight ?, Certainly with previous freight visitors like the Q6, 38XX, Super D etc they did enough freights.

 

My footage from the Sunday. A good day all around, despite the grim weather conditions from the afternoon onwards.