Great Central Railway Autumn Steam Gala: 29th September - 2nd October 2022

Basically from 1000 till 1600, doing runs between Loughborough and Rothley although starting and finishing at Swithland. All locos running on Friday should get a turn pulling them.

 

Had a good day at the gala yesterday. There's a WTT in the guide with freight timings and loco allocations so managed to get the J27 on the windcutters as hoped.

The train that was timetabled as a double header in the morning was rammed (but ended up running with just the 9F as it seems 78018 had already gone to Rothley LE.) After this loadings seemed fairly evenly spread throughout the day, though the trains hauled by the J27 always appeared the most popular.

Only downside was the rain that set in from early afternoon. Today looks better, and I dare numbers will be further up too.

 

Wasn't as busy as I was expecting yesterday - possibly the Rail Strike may have discouraged people from attending on the Saturday. First time I've been to a Gala there and not had anyone check my ticket though - and that's with travelling on 9 different trains during the day. The single car Derby Lightweight railcar "Iris" seemed a rather popular attraction from what I saw of its runs and I had a couple of trips on it. I assume D6700 failed during the afternoon as it ended up parked at Rothley after its 13.00 goods run.

A few photos from the day......

 

Yeah the rail strike and expensive rail tickets on the Thursday and Friday discouraged me from visiting sadly. Particularly at a time money is precious.

 

Thanks for posting those pictures Johann and Martin - I too wasn't able to get there as I had a car breakdown en-route

 

I did actually see if you were about on the Windcutter Group stand at Rothley yesterday morning, so that explains that then.......

 

Visited on Saturday and Sunday, J27 was the highlight for me. Numbers in attendance seemed comparable to previous years, certainly on Sunday when I travelled on the trains.

 

Lovely set of pictures David - obviously the last one is my favourite!

 

What a fantastic atmospheric Gala. I was there Thursday / Friday and even managed a beautiful walk along the canal from Loughborough to Quorn on Friday morning , Walk 1 in the GCRs little booklet.
Oh and 78019 did put in an appearance..just !