Foxfield Autumn Gala - 23rd/24th September - timetable uploaded

The Foxfield Autumn Gala is being held over the 23rd/24th September and will once again see the railway playing host to a multitude of traction engines, steam rollers and steam lorries, as well as other wonderful quirks and curiosities.
The railway will field up to 5 steam and 2/3 diesel locomotives over the weekend, with demonstration coal trains on Foxfield Bank, lifting demonstrations by Dubs crane tank at both Caverswall Road station and Foxfield colliery, and selected passenger services using the Knotty Heritage Train during the day.
The newly refurbished 'One Legged Shunter' bar will be open and serving excellent real ales alongside the buffet at Caverswall Road and light refreshments will be available at Foxfield Colliery.
We look forward to welcoming all of you to our last big event of the season.

 

The loco roster for the gala has been confirmed (subject to the usual caveats) as:
Steam: Whiston, Bellerophon, Eustace Forth, Beyer Peacock 1827, Dubs 4101
Diesel: Wolstanton, Thomas Hill 111C
With the exception of Dubs and 111C all other locos will see action on passenger and freight duties.
Dubs will be giving lifting demonstrations at Caverswall Road and Foxfield Colliery at various times during the day.

The timetable is being checked at the moment and will be published here when it is ready, it does include line freights during the day and regular freights on Foxfield Bank.

On the road steam side there will be road runs between Caverswall Road and Foxfield colliery during the weekend giving the possibilities of cameo scenes at Foxfield Colliery.

The newly refurbished 'One Legged Shunter' real ale bar and the buffet at Caverswall Road Station will be open during the weekend, and light refreshments will also be available at Foxfield Colliery.

 

The Beyer Peacock undertook a successful test steaming on Sunday 17th September following axlebox and boiler repairs which have seen it out of traffic for 18 months. Also being unveiled at the Gala will be the completed Eustace Forth sporting its now fully lined and lettered livery.


Beyer Peacock 1827 returns from its first round trip double heading with Bellerophon.

 

Timetable and guide for the 2017 Autumn Gala.

 

Expecting to arrive at Blythe Bridge by train on Saturday at either 10.21 or 11.21, does anybody have any details of the bus service running from the mainline to the railway. A first visit for me, other than popping in out of season many years ago, and really looking forward it. Thanks in advance for any info.

 

It is only about a 10 minute walk from Blythe Bridge to Caverswall Road. Not sure the colliery bus goes via the station.

 

Unfortunately I do not know if the free bus still calls at the NR station or if it purely runs between colliery and FR station. However, as has been stated it is an easy 10 minute walk to Caverswall road station. We are getting things ready tomorrow including loading two of the 16T wagons with loco coal. There were already two steam rollers on site last Sunday and more of the road steamers turning up tomorrow and Saturday morning along with other interesting items including a rather large hot air engine that travels on a trailer. So plenty of interest and good beer on offer all weekend too! Better not have too many tomorrow evening as I have charge of Bellerophon on Saturday.

 

I realise that web skills are low on the list of priorities for railway volunteers, but I am suprised by the apparent omission of some quite basic detail on the Foxfield Railway website, or maybe it is my inability to find it - not sure which. I am thinking about a visit but find these things frustrating when trying to make a decision.

For example:

Prices for the gala this weekend

Timetable for it (which I have seen here)

Car parking facilities and costs

Whether the pub is open - sure I read somewhere it was, but website says its closed until further notice.

Just the difficulty of finding the prices might well dissuade potential visitors, who might just decide to go somewhere else where this information is easier to find.

 

A video from Saturday morning...

 

This is your webmonkey speaking... (for my sins, I currently look after the Foxfield site, although a major reworking by a professional web designer rather than a boilersmith is due at some point fairly soon). Your points are taken and noted.

The fundamental trouble is that most of us have a day job, and some portion of a railway to help run too (pretty much everyone involved in Foxfield's web presence has some sort of hands one role in the fixing and running of the railway too).

Taking your observations - some of them are easier to fix than others... the pub closure was simple oversight on my part (we'd had to have the pub closed up until about a week ago for a fairly major refit, and I simply forgot when it re-opened that I'd edited all the timetable pages to show it as closed!). Thanks for pointing this out, I've been and fixed it now.

On the car parking - we have lots of free parking at Caverswall Road, and a reasonable amount at Foxfield Colliery and you are quite right, we don't mention it anywhere on the web (probably because we take it all for granted - that's one of the hard things to get away from when trying to work out what people will want to know about a place with which you are very familiar). Out of interest, where would you look on a railway's website to find out about it? It's info that I'll put up there, but I'm not quite sure where to put it...!

We have recently taken on someone in a part-time role as marketing manager - we had been living a bit "hand to mouth" on our events and marketing, so hopefully as he gets established we will get better at getting all the detail out there.

 

Noting your query re Web information, could I suggest a "Your Visit" section detailing (a) how to get to the site (b) site facilities (toilets / catering / car parking etc) and (c) link to opening days with appropriate timetables.

I can appreciate your problem of being aware of these facts, because you use them regularly, especially since in such circumstances trying to look at Foxfield from the view of a potential visitor is not an easy change to make. Having written several computer procedure manuals I can assure you that you are NOT alone with this problem.

 

Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply. It can take some courage to pop your head above the parapet, so to speak

I do realise the pressures on volunteers and hope my post was taken as constructive, as it was intended.

I agree with Fred about a Your visit type section, but short term, prior to any redesign, I would be inclined to add something detailing parking facilities to the Find Us / Our location page, beneath the map and address .

Can I also say how much I enjoyed my visit on Saturday. From what I saw and heard, my view seemed to be shared by many other visitors too.

 

I'm glad you came and enjoyed yourself - we were rather having fun too! (I was the youngest of the three crew on the Beyer Peacock during Saturday, if you're wondering - I did spot myself at a couple of points in your video!)
The spectacle of watching a loco climb Foxfield bank is quite hard to describe - the sheer effort involved is pretty unbelievable unless you've seen it. It's by no means a done deal, but there is still a decent chance it will open for passengers at some point next year, and then the public can get to enjoy some of what we get to see as crew...

 

Photos from Sunday: https://www.flickr.com/photos/frank47524/albums/72157686572104830

 

Can I thank all the staff and crews on Sunday for another (as usual) excellent Foxfield event.
I came with my 91 year old father as part of his "birthday tour" of lines in the midlands. He is now a Foxfield convert and as he wanted to ride so did I which is a change from my usual all day at the colliery. Sad to see so few people about but at least we got a ride on the Knotty train easily, which seems to make the Bluebell's Chesham set seem to ride like an HST!
However he would not be put off walking up the bank to the first crossing, so if any of the crews so an old guy in a garden chair with a camera, that was my dad!
What could be better than this?

 

The secret of the Knotty train is to pick the right coach for "comfort". One has springs which are considerably softer than the other!

 

I travelled in the one at the Caverswall Road end of the pair. I hope that was the harsh one

A small selection of photos from the Saturday morning are here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilkestonian/