GCR Winter Gala 31 Jan '09

Possibly, however.............

Frieghts do not typically visit Leicester North, and the dot's are all the way through to this destination, so I guess you won't find out until you get your tickets/programmes! Sorry I can't help further guys!

 

Not quite, there are far more freight and non-passenger trains by half than there are passenger, similar getup to last year, it's essentially "Heavy Freight Mk2".

 

Just a reminder to everybody that the event starts tomorrow morning, first train at 10am, the booking office should be open for around 9am. Services continue through till the 4.30 departure (Loughborough) arriving back for 5.44pm, with a night photo shoot on shed from 6pm till 9pm. The beer tent is also open from 7pm till 10pm Friday, as well as all day Saturday (probably from midday till 10pm).

See you there!

 

Just been to the GCR this morning and enjoyed an excellent all-day breakfast (aka greasy fry-up) on the 10am hauled by 70013.

30777 Sir Lamiel was failed this morning and replaced by the 8F for today's duties. I don't know what the problem was with 30777 but later in the morning it was being coaled up and was moving around the yard light engine, so I suspect it was very minor.

Perhaps Jamie or someone could let us know whether 30777 is out for the weekend? It would have implications for the timetable.

Incidentally, the Gala Programme for the weekend is excellent and free with a travel ticket, or £2 otherwise. There's loads of info and a full timetable including the freights. It looks like that if you combine freight and passenger trains, there's a departure virtually every 15 minutes - so it should be very busy.

If you're going I hope you have a great weekend, but beware that it's going to be cold on Sunday!

 

It is hoped that 30777 Sir Lamiel will be fit for traffic for tommorow and Sunday

 

When I asked today was told 30777 has a problem with a leaking steam gauge. Not sure how hard that is to fix, but apparrantly it'd needed fixing before it could be used.

 

I asked while in the shed tonight, they were optamistic it would be ok tomorrow, saturday. I think the photo shoot was helping as no one had thought of posting the news on a board so every other minute they were being ask. Still fingers cross, also for sunday, looks like snow.

 

Im pleased to report 30777 was in Traffic on Saturday, despite the possibility of Snow i think i picked the right day to go with some lovely morning sunshine to enjoy, think at some points the line was in the rare situation where a couple of the freights and TPO's actually ran early, how often does that happen ?, huge turnout from what i could see, which i can only put down to the event not clashing with the East lancs for a change, pretty good show from the GCR overall.

Have added some of my best efforts here if anyone is interested: http://david1984.fotopic.net/c1646171_1.html

 

this is a plea for help for keys lost at the gcr today, I know this is not the forum but I am desperate, visited woodthorpe, a6 road bridge, kinchley lane, next bridge that overlooks loughborough station, where you can see the building in background, and the sillhouette shot at quorn opposite the peg. On the keys is a black rover key, black immobiliser fob and one yale key that says sterling on it. If anybody has found then or handed them in please pm me asap. Apologies to forum for this but I am desperate for the return. Many thanks to you all and thanks for reading, do not know where else to ask, oh and thanks to gcr for a fantastic show.

Many thanks again

 

Thanks to the GCR for a great day. Got there early (And done the night shoot on Friday) and stayed till about 2PM, where the hazy sun combined with the cold made me call it quits for the day.

Now sorting out photos but will upload tomorrow

 

The sun shines on the Great Central Railway for its winter steam gala and with the double track fully signalled railway allowing considerable operating flexibility we have frequent passenger, parcels and freight traffic. As always feedback and comments welcome.
http://pics-by-john.photoblog.org.uk/c1646443.html
http://pics-by-john.photoblog.org.uk

 

An excellent day yesterday with glorious sun for almost the whole time.

Two photos...



Four videos...

Oliver Cromwell: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx3pNzNXQs4

Sir Lamiel: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rX6RCDurxMg

Q6: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ldfs0_ptyFA

GCR 63601: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2aNQnWWiq4A

If you can hear yourself talking before the train arrives don't worry - it proves to my family that I am not mad and was not alone!

 

I spent Saturday and Sunday, until the sleet and snow started, at the gala and found it to be as usual an excellent event. Cromwell storming past Quorn on the mail drop was great as was the whole event. It was good to meet Craig Tiley lineside on Saturday morning as well. Nice to see an engine smokebox first into Loughborough with 48305 masquerading as 48773 which gave the opportunity for some different photos. A big thanks to those responsible for arranging the event and those who made sure the rest of us had a good time. My photos of the two days are now on my fotopic site. The last photo from Sunday is there to illustrate why I headed for home and the safe and warm!!

Cheers,

Paul

 

3 days of action packed steam, well done all involved including the quick sub on Friday for 30777. Saturday was just perfect, was hard work line side all day so don't know you keep going on the footplate. Sunday morning was a bonus as the sun showed up after all, unfortunately went down hill around dinner so I called it a day around 1.30 ( work tomorrow).

As usual these days was mainly camcording but managed to get some nice photo's in as well, here are a few thumb nails, click on the link for the full size.



http://kenneth-f-baker.fotopic.net/c1646766.html

 

Well the weather was great, the locos ran perfectly, overall was great gala for the linesider, and i am definately returning for the 1960's gala to see the Q6 again as she is a beast. I think she is one of the best locos to have performed on the windcutters and create some good exhaust to just top off the image. Well done to the GC and it was also nice to have bumped into and met up with Tom, Dan and Kev. Regards, Martyn.

 

Excellent Gala again.Well done nobody does it better.At times there was so much happening you did'nt know where to turn next!
The weather was dry but cold with hazy sunshine most of the day saturday so this kept everyone happy.

My pics up at http://steamgalore.fotopic.net/c1646795_1.html

 

does anyone have any pictures of the driver and fireman on the saturday night dinner train?

 

A great gala, photography yesterday afternoon was a challenge with the wind! I was debuting a new camera, I probably should have chosen a quieter day and it was a bit fraught at times! A couple from me, the rest are in the usual place:

 

http://railways.mjspencer.com/gallery/m ... itemId=563

My photos from today

 

11 Phots now on my site from today:
http://mark-walker.fotopic.net/c1646928.html

Cheers,
Mark