East Lancashire Railway October Steam Gala 22nd/23rd October 2011

And last week quintuplet Deltics on one train.
I remember the humble beginning when the first ELR steam gala ( in january) had 76079 double headed with 75078 on loan from Keighley, and early visitors including 30072, 5820, 7298, 7828 Odney Manor, WD 193 and 34072.

ELR and J94's have never been far apart

That said going further back I remember the 1980 DMU from Victoria to Heywood and Rawtenstall and being a slippery 5 year old at the time making may way to the cab and being allowed to sound the horn at Townsend Fold.. I wrapped the trip with the BR badge from the drivers cap, which I still have to this day, along with the special Victorian style tickets issued on the day, Imagine that happening today ? (funnily enough the ELR had J94-alike no 62 Ugly come from the KWVR to Bury, later replaced by J94 3776 (no 8 from Bickershaw).

there was a definite buzz and excitement, lots of hope and everyone willing to make positive progress.. Everyone wanted it to happen, both in 1980 and lasted right through to the early 1990's. I have thousands of pictures and memories of the early days of the ELR and Bury Transport Museum and the "extravaganzas" that followed every may bank holidaym from 1981 leading up to the mega gala of August 1993.

 

You know it's not actually that difficult to change a blue/grey livery to carmine/cream in photoshop?

 

Finally got round to uploading some footage from Saturday and Sunday if any one want to see it .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PEqmlWPQCI

Dave

 

I'm dead!

 

How can a rake of LNER teaks being hauled by a BR built A1 be authentic?

 

removed

 

Am I missing something? Have we got a BR built A1? Dear me, in that case the Tornado boys wasted their money!

Seriously though, as I've said in an earlier post (which std tank has presumably not read) there were plenty of teak coaches around in 1949 when the A1s were in traffic. I could post my own images but a quick search of the Internet will show several others. Some vehicles retained teak livery way into the 1950s owing to difficulties in finding paints that would adhere to the teak finish!

I'd prefer to stay on topic about the ELR gala. Hopefully the comments on here will persuade the powers that be that matching locos to the most appropriate stock is important. The galas on the ELR have certainly lost a lot of their former appeal, and coincidence or not, this began at a similar time to the departure of Mr Coward.

What concerns me most is that enthusiasts will begin to vote with their feet and the ELR galas, far from improving, will be allowed to die a death - so instead maybe next year there will be two Halloween weekends as mentioned elsewhere in this thread!

 

My video from the Spectacular Event:

[Youtube]EuFTuoh5bQ8[/Youtube]

Thanks,
Lewis

 

Depending on the livery of the A1, far more authentic than Mark 1s! When 60163 ran with Teaks on the NYMR and later SVR, it was in LNER style Apple Green with "BRITISH RAILWAYS" in full on the tender, this would be totally accurate (given the different number from any A1 of that era!). It's first day operating on the NYMR teak set had a Thompson CL as leading vehicle to recreate an actual photogrpah of a brand new A1 on Ripon Ure viaduct. In this condition, I would be surprised if any A1 ran with any Caramine & Cream Mark 1s - I suspect they would have been repainted into trhe livery 60163 currently wears before the first Mark 1 appeared in 1951. BR experimented with various liveries (and one has to suspect that Cararmine & Cream was arrived at as being most different from all the pre-Nationalisation - it certainly isn't particularly good at keeping clear or avoiding fading!) While they did this, coaching stock continued to be built to Big Four designs and adapted versions of the liveries. I believe Thompson stock would be the first Caramine & Cream coaches to be seen behind an A1 or any other LNER Pacific and probably "Porthole" LME stock for Duchesses, Hawksworth coaches for Kings etc (as just released by Hornby) and Bullied for Merchant Navies.

You look at photgrpahs well into the BR era, and full trains of Mark 1s are pretty rare - at best, they tend to be mixture of Big Four (or older!) and Mark 1. Only in the last few years of steam, did Mark 1s largely dominate and even then some LMS stock and a number of Gresley Buffets made it into Blue/Grey!

Hence, "recreating the past" is always going to a compromise - but hopefully, there can be signs that Railways do try to think about it. The problem can be it is a lot of work to produce say a 1T57 style mixed Mark 1/Maroon rake for a Gala when it is generally agreed that oridinary visitors expect a train in a uniform livery as a sign of a professional outfit.

Steven

 

I think they already are. From my observations over the weekend, about 80% of the seats on many trains were empty.

 

Don't know what you were looking at, my observations were that the trains were extremely well-loaded, especially on the Saturday. Indeed, earlier in this thread standing passengers could be seen on one of the photos of the evil blue/grey rake with 49395.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. ELR reports visitor numbers up by around 30% to the end of August - even allowing for the return of a little blue engine. That's rather impressive...... but will no doubt lead to another Nat Pres ELR bashing session.

 

The trains I rode on in the morning and evening were packed - standing room only!

I thought it was a brilliant gala, not really sure what all the fuss is about.

Thanks,
Lewis

 

One thing people are missing is that the timetable had a major re-write on the Wednesday night before the event. The Duke would have originally been on the air brake set all weekend but with it's non-appearance a further set of vac stock had to be found at the last minute. This was why the shuttle service was changed from passenger to freight. Lack of available coaches. Exams and maintenance are planned in advance, taking into account ALL event requirements, but can mean late changes to event requirements will result in 'unauthentic' vehicles having to be used. As for simply switching sets, well it isn't that easy. There is limited space for stabling stock, bearing in mind that two sets were in use on the Friday, as well as an evening Diner. Stock is diagrammed as to where it starts the day and where it finishes in order to minimise start of day and end of day shunting. The more shunting at either end of a day the greater the chance of delays to the service.

The comment about the Deltic Event is interesting. There were certainly Blue Deltics on Blue/Grey stock and Green Deltics on Maroon Stock as well. A look through any of the picture sites will back this up.

If anyone out there can do better they are more than welcome to take the job on.

 

My contribution
Despite what some trolls/nutters are saying on here, it was an excellent gala, well worth the trip back from South Staffordshire late on saturday night!
[video=youtube;NDyJ336y4d8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDyJ336y4d8[/video]

Maybe I never saw what stock a Super D pulled pre 1968, but who cares? The fact that there's still a Super D pulling trains nearly 100 years after it was built is more than good enough for me

 

And therein lies the problem with trying to have a discussion on here at times... If people offer constructive criticism, of course the railway is under no obligation to take any heed, but surely it's better to make suggestions than to simply not turn up the next time? We're all well aware that it's a volunteer effort, and things are always more complicated than they seem, etc, but there's quite often a definite air of 'Yes of course you're allowed an opinion, but the correct opinion is that anything any pres line does is perfect'!

Trolling involves making statements purely to irritate, and to get a reaction; making suggestions as to how to improve certainly doesn't fit into this category! If you consider the ELR to be a business, then, as per any other, it'll do well to listen to its customers. That doesn't mean blindly following every suggestion, but most businesses will at least consider its customers' opinions. Yes the gala won't have made as much as Thomas or Santas, but it's still part of the business plan - I'm sure it wouldn't carry on if it didn't break even!

Nothing personal, incidentally, just that your post highlights well the mantra of many.

 

I'd go as far as saying posts # 38 and # 71 could be interpreted as trolling, be it intentional or not.

I went on Sunday, and enjoyed, though I did only go to see the Super D, having yet to see it in the flesh. Trains were certainly not 80% empty from what I saw, though I agree that more thought needs to go into creating a better enthusiast event. Maybe they need someone on hear to engage National Preservation members for ideas in the future.

 

Fair point, have to admit the former did raise my eyebrows!

 

They have someone here(hear)already-in the form of a board member.Even though he tries to disguise this in his postings.