GCR WINTER GALA - FRIDAY 27 JANUARY 2012 TO SUNDAY 29 JANUARY 2012

I too would like to offer my thanks to everyone at the GCR who played a part in putting on a splendid show over the weekend, your efforts are very much appreciated.

I spent most of my time on Saturday on the lineside with my cameras. As expected, I did have my permit checked, but when I offered my day rover ticket for inspection I was informed that the GCR doesn't expect lineside permit holders to also purchase tickets. This surprised me somewhat, and no doubt others will feel differently, but I for one feel obliged to support the railway by paying for the pleasure that I get from photographing the trains rather than travelling on them. Juding from the sheer number of hi-viz jackets that I saw during my perambulations along the line, the GCR could be missing out on quite a bit of extra revenue.

Probably the weather helped, but it was also apparent that the event succeeded admirably in attracting the travelling public as virtually every train that I saw during the day was well filled, with many passengers seen standing in the corridors. Quorn & Woodhouse station platform in particular was also jammed with people when I passed by. Perhaps the GCR is becoming a victim of its own success in attracting more visitors than it can comfortably carry in its trains, and I would hope that the developments at Leicester North alluded to in the introduction to the gala programme are intended to allow the railway to operate a more freqent all-line passenger service during galas - something that would benefit both travellers and linesiders.

 

I think, as already mentioned, the stock formations don't help. On Friday one set had a BG and a kitchen in it, the other a kitchen and a buffet. Ok the kitchens and buffet have seats, but not a huge number.

 

My video of the M7 storming through Quorn yesterday evening is online now:

M7 no.53 Storms through Quorn with the TPO 29/01/12 - YouTube

Cheers,
Mark

 

Me and 5 other ELR working members came down on Sunday and we all enjoyed our day riding the trains so thank you to the GCR for putting on such a good event.
One thing I noticed was the unusual working of D3101 and 45491, why did this occure?

 

It was caped actually, at one stage it was to be sent to Quorn to enable visitors to look at it, and go on the footplate, however it was buried in the shed.

 

The rest of my photos are now also available:


47406 by Teenage Steam Photography, on Flickr


78019 by Teenage Steam Photography, on Flickr


30777 Sir Lamiel by Teenage Steam Photography, on Flickr

The rest: Flickr: Teenage Steam Photography's Photostream

My video from Saturday too: Great Central Railway Winter Gala 2012 - The Big One - YouTube

Thanks,
Lewis

 

Another excellent Gala at the GCR.The weather on friday and saturday was good and the light on Friday afternoon before the raina nd sleet came was fantastic.My pictures can be found at Zenfolio | SteamGalore | GCR Winter Gala 2012 Day1 and Zenfolio | SteamGalore | GCR Winter Gala 2012 Day2

 

As the day unfolds we see trains every 10 minutes at times. A absolutely magnificent show!

Gallery 3 now uploaded: ChrisKempster Photography | GCR - 'The Big One' - The Weekend Unfolds

 

Some fantastic images and video footage there, chaps - thanks for sharing.

I was there for a lot of Saturday and a few hours on Sunday and I have to say that it was a fantastic event - well done to all at the GCR for their time, skill and dedication in putting it all together.

I think the weather on Saturday was perhaps too kind and simply brought out huge numbers of people. I heard that they were queuing outside the booking hall at Loughborough before 7am, and inevitably this was always going to stretch the resources of a mainly vounteer-based organisation. The comments on this thread about the possiblilty of booking in advance via the internet are very valid and I hope the GCR management will look into this for the future.

They did start running late on Saturday afternoon and apparently this was due to the sheer number of people wanted to get on, get off and cross the line at Rothley. Frustrating, but I suppose that in any operation such as this public safety has to be the first priority. It's probably quite correct that volunteer staff are instructed to do things exactly by the book. It would only take one small accident and one injury to have a knock-on effect for the whole heritage movement.

Otherwise, it was just great to watch. You could have turned up at Quorn at 9am on Saturday and sat next to your car all day watching ten locos, countless train movements (passenger & goods), four fast TPO drops, locos being turned on the new turntable and then the twilight steam show until around 8pm. And the cost of this? £5! No wonder the 'Car Park Full' signs were up at Quorn station car park by 10am!

As a matter of interest - perhaps someone at the GCR could tell us in total how many loco movements there were through Quorn on Saturday? There seemed to be something about every five minutes and it was never ending.

Well done again, chaps - how on earth are you going to top this?

 

This year was a lot busier than last year. I travelled to Loughborough by train both times ( and arrived a similar times )and the number of people walking between the station and queuing it was noticeably busier this year( a lot more families than last year, probably due to the better weather).

Arriving at 10.00am last year 5 minutes to buy a ticket, this year about 20 minutes( even the cash option was slow due to hand writing of tickets). I was standing on the 10.40 departure, plus a local from Rothley but managed to fine a seat on later trains.

I spent about an hour and half taking photos at Woodthorpe ( Walked from Quorn, then walked to Loughborough). Managed a run behind the 04 ( Thanks for putting loco allocations on the website).

Enjoyable day,weather permitting will back next year, just need to find some different locations to take photo's( what is the public footpath between Quorn and Kinchley road like?)

A selection of my photos can be found at Zenfolio | Paul Simpson | Great Central Railway Winter Gala the ones of the M7 ( 6 of 10) and the Jinty(9 of 10 ) are my favorites.

 

Hi,

I also paid a visit to the GCR, what a fantastic sight all those steam locomotives were. Congratulations to all concerned.
Here are my photos from the weekend, please visit Zenfolio | Photographs by T.F. | GCR Winter Gala 2012

Trev

 

I visited on the Saturday, and it was my first visit for a Steam Gala (although I have done diesel events in the past). I was, once again, blown away by the effectiveness of the double track, timetabling and gala atmosphere. The fact that a 15 minute wait between some form of movement is the longest you'll ever come across is just remarkable. The usual full marks go to the clanking rakes of goods and mineral wagons.

My only criticism is not of the GCR, it is to us enthusiasts. There were simply too many of us enjoying the event! I travelled on various trains from 9:30-20:00, and didn't get a seat until the very last round trip with the M7. The "best" trip was the 46521/78019 double header, where I squeezed into the full brake with many many others! I have now decided that the GCR is simply going to have to extend to 18 miles, so that there is simply somewhere else to put all those trains and people!! Perhaps when Swithland opens, two 8 coach trains can be filled with people and looped there for an hour or two to free up some space. I would also agree that C&W has to be a priority if these events are to be grown. There were more than enough engines to make an excellent event, and it would seem that any number of carriages put in service will be filled to capacity.

This minor issue leads me to praise the GCR for the general handling of the event. Being "one of the crowd" at several stations throughout the day, I felt the staff did extremely well and were very polite when they required people to stop hanging off the edge of platforms seconds before the TPO was due to run past! Many other railways would fall down if faced with even half the number of people. I queued at Loughborough for my ticket from about 9:00-9:25, which for me was perfectly acceptable in light of the sheer rate of people joining the back of the queue.

Personal highlights for me were the TPO run with 4953 (what a noise!), the last round trip with the M7 (lots of Sparks from Quorn-Rothley and a much quieter train after most folk had gone home) and the "putting to bed" of the mineral wagons with 63601 in the evening at Quorn (oozing atmosphere despite the number of spectators).

In summary an excellent event, I certainly hope my attendance helped make it a success story for the GCR and encourage future growth of the railway and its enthusiast events, I just wish the Diesel Events were operationally anything like as busy (although I understand the reasons why they're not - 90% prefer haulage and not mineral trains etc so I'm in the minority there)

Images Available Here

 

Video footage of the event : Great Central Railway Winter Gala 2012 - The Big One - YouTube

 

I was only able to get there on the cold and murky Sunday. My photos from then can be found here Great Central Railway - Sunday 29th January 2012 - Paul Gildersleve's Photos | SmugMug

Cheers,

Paul

 

My final gallery is now up at ChrisKempster Photography | GCR - 'The Big One' - The Last Trains

Thanks to everyone at the Great Central for an excellent weekend. I look forward to the next.

Previous galleries at ChrisKempster Photography | GCR - 'The Big One' 2012 Winter Gala

 

[youtube]mdGKCZYNtHE[/youtube]

January 2012

My photos and videos from the Sunday

 

An excellent day. This departure from Loughborough was something special...

GCR Gala January 2012 Pitchford Hall at dusk - YouTube

 

Well done to the GCR for laying on a winter treat, I attended on the Saturday and had a fantastic day, even if the timetable fell to pieces a little later on in the day (an observation not complaint). Would be interested to find out attendance figures for the weekkend and how they compare to previous events.

 

Indeed it was! I filmed it from the first droplight, and it can be seen at the start of this film:

Great Central Railway Gala "The Big One" 28th Jan 2012. Part 3 - YouTube

 

Video from me...
[video=youtube;a1M_s6lKqqQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1M_s6lKqqQ&list=UUGFNdfJve_GBt2SY5pGHJ0g&index=1&feature=plcp[/video]