Great Central Railway- Railways At Work- 19th-20th August 2023

Haven't seen an entry for this one yet
Details: https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/special-events/railways-at-work-gala/

Lineup
- 6990 "Witherslack Hall" (subject to completion of repairs)
- 92214
- 73156
- 78018
- 48305
- Class 45 D123
- Class 37 D6700
- Class 24 D5054 "Phil Southern" (visiting from East Lancashire Railway)
- Derby Lightweight No.M79900 "Iris"

 

ticket booked yesterday

 

Any sign of a timetable? Would like to know first and last trains…

 

Online via the webpage now

 

They have even made a film for it.....

 

certainly a new way of advertising a event, well done GCR for originality

 

Still no info on promised bus service between the 2 Loughborough stations on website yet, less than a week to go

 

It's on the webpage under the heritage bus tours section

 

ah seen it now, thanks

 

Out of interest will the Diesel Brake Tender be used this weekend?

 

At least the weather forecast for the Saturday has changed since I last looked yesterday morning.......

 

Yeah same. Thankfully

 

Not mentioned in the program is the display at Rothley of the Windcutter project. Hopefully this will have the black "Private Owner" 16T mineral wagon on the apron in front of the C & W shed following its 8 month rebuild together with our information/sales stand.

 

A post on WNXXforum earlier said it's currently at Burton Westmore, so doesn't seem likely.

 

I went down to the GCR today for there 'Railways at Work' gala Saturday 19th August 2023
There was a lot of demonstrations going on in Quorn yard, and a visit from Dr Beeching on the station did not go down well. Police had to be called
Lots of old BR vehicles being loaded and unloaded, and some classic cars on show as well
In steam was 6988 Swithland Hall (in reality 6990 Witherslack Hall) in unlined green livery, 48305, 78018, 73156 & 92214
With 45305 rusting away outside at Loughborough

This first part features the Steam locos and activities in Quorn yard and station
https://tinyurl.com/3pnma6zb

Neil

 

The pretend Plod seem to have multiplied over the last year as I counted 14 of them at least today and I think there were only about 6 of them last year........


They did actually bring a different and more local Anglia with them this year as well (Leicester rather than Bournemouth).

Nice to see a different Mechanical Horse in attendance as well.....



This one apparently lives at Bewdley on the SVR according to the owner.

 

Lovely trip today. I've never attended anything like it, and thought it was great fun. Anti-Beeching protestors climbing the fences with banners to get support only to be get nicked, wee school boy leading the cops on a chase through the yard whilst porters and foremen ferry goods (some with comically less care than others), vintage tracks bouncing along with freight and the odd railworker stowaway, it felt very theatrical, almost like an immersive theatre piece. Trains were well loaded, the Hall doing well on what I assume were basically running in turns, it really showed the GCR at it's best. At one point I was on a steam passenger service that passed two steam goods services and a diesel passenger train in the space of a minute, very few places can boast that level of service.

Well done all, I'll certainly keep an eye out for next year's.

 

Visited on Saturday and thought this was a spectacular event. I really enjoyed all the re-enacting that was going on.

I missed last years event but this years was a marked improvement over the previous one I visited two years ago just after covid. Not to say the 2021 edition was bad, it was very good, just that you could notice the extra improvements that the organisers had put in. Everywhere you looked you could suddenly spot someone re-enacting scenes that could have taken place in the 1960's.

I thought the Police presence was a very good idea, basically allowing them to do crowd control whilst the porters and other 'BR Staff' could get on with their main tasks. They were barely present at the 2021 event but if there were less last year I can see why they upped their numbers, it worked very well in my opinion as you naturally did as they asked!

My thoughts therefore turn to what they could do to further improve next years event. I mean, if they did exactly the same as this year it would be a very very good event. However, as it's always nice to improve I do wonder what could be added. TPO's come to mind but also I noticed that Quorn and Loughborough seemed very 'in' on the re-enacting whilst Rothley and Leicester North were far less so. I even noticed that by mid afternoon on Saturday the car park at Rothley was starting to empty quite a bit.

I therefore wonder, could a van or CCT be added to one of the 'full line' set's like the A set. Then, when it reaches Rothley they can quickly do an exchange of parcels. It wouldn't be many as clearly it's a quick stop there in each direction but the parcels coming off the train could then be taken to their recreated Parcels Office. Showing the work that used to go on at such locations. Similarly, at Leicester North the Van/CCT can have a far larger number of parcels exchanged.

Clearly, you would need more manpower at those stations to handle those extra tasks. However, I do think that if you are able to attract more people into re-enacting this sort of thing it could only be a good thing.
Overall, I don't know of any similar event at any other railway and technically the GCR is unique in its ability to put on this event. It's not just the trains, it shows the jobs that railwaymen and others used to do that have disappeared and it appeals greatly.

 

Well done Great Central. This sort of event is what railway preservation is all about

 

Another nice feature was that the 9F had deliberately not been cleaned recently and so it looked much more 1960's on the Windcutters.