Railway200: The Greatest Gathering. Derby Litchurch Lane. 1-3 August.

Cheers much appreciated. Must have missed that message.

 

We are ready to go!! Our engine has passed its fitness to run and we are all good to head up and join everyone at Derby for the Greatest Gathering.
We can't wait to see everyone for this historic show!

 

Ok…that was not how I wanted to start my summer vacation last night. Love getting this email 30 minutes before online check-in is supposed to open. Especially when their first solution was a flight getting in Saturday that would have meant we were rushing from Heathrow to Stratford to Wembley… we’re spending way to much to be exhausted and pass out at the concert Saturday night!

We’ve got it fixed so we still get into London on Friday, just later in the day and via Dublin, so fingers crossed our flight problems can be everyone’s bad luck for travel on the weekend to the Greatest Gathering and hopefully cross paths on Sunday with some NatPres folks!

Cheers!

Stephen

 

I'm not going, but given I said it looked a bit thin at the initial announcements, I am very impressed with what's been put together, and hope everyone has a great time and sticks photos up so we can see what we are missing

 

Has anyone seen a full list of the final line-up? I can't find one on their site or elsewhere. Not that it matters overly, I can just see what's there tomorrow.

 

Ah, didn't realise that was comprehensive. It always seemed to lag a couple of weeks behind announcements but looking now it seems to cover it. Cheers.

 

I went on the The Creighton-Ward Explorer & Great Gathering preview visit Thursday 31st July
Here’s a rough outline of the exhibits, though some further shunting was going to be done after 7pm
https://railway-photography.smugmug.com/Days-out/2025/July-2025/Derby/i-XFqdz4L

 

I'm surprised that this thread isn't full of posts from people who went. Did nobody from here go?

 

I thought the same but then haven't taken time to post until now having attended on Friday.

Given that my interests are all-things Railways and not confined to just steam nor just diesel, I thought it was almost too much to cover in a single day. The site at LL is vast (90 acres) and from Derby station and back, I covered nearly 20K steps and my feet are now paying the price!

There were (to those who didn't go...) a record number of attending exhibits including three Deltics, five Peaks, six 37s and a plethora of engines from most classes of diesels and electrics up to the new 93s and 99s. Steam was well represented too with A1,A2,A3 and A4 together (although not posed for photographers whilst I was there). 6203, 6023, 1000 & 92212 were inside U shop but others were outside for easier viewing and photographs. It was great to see 82045 again with boiler in-situ, plus see progress being made on 72010 Hengist and the Sandringham which both had adjacent stalls.

My only criticism was that I misjudged the amount of time need to see everything and because it wasn't obvious where everything had been positioned, one or two exhibits were missed. I travelled by rail and would have needed another day to do justice to the myriad of stalls from preservation societies and model railway exhibitors. There were in some ways too many locos and a few weren't even viewable - D7076, D6515 and 55019 for example. More seating would have been a real advantage for many!

I don't expect any Open Day to match this one will occur in my life time so I'm glad I made the effort!

 

That's a good summary - definitely more than a day needed to see everything with more than a fleeting glance. Wanted to have a good look at the bogie and driving wheel casting for 72010 but ran out of time to go back to that section. Will have to try and get up to Sheffield next April for their open day.

It was a fantastic event though and even the hour and a bit of light rain on Friday morning didn't spoil things. Took well over 500 photos but difficult to choose the best ones and a dust spot on the lens when shooting into the sun means they are record shots only.

Whilst the A1, A2, A3, A4 line up would have been the icing on the cake we've got a few more years for it to happen. Managed to get all but 60007 in one shot and if 73129 had been elsewhere you could have just got all four in.

Regards,

Dan

 

BR green Jubilee on maroon slam door Mk.1 stock and window hanging allowed. Who’d have thought it? Shame it was confined to internal shuttles at Litchurch Lane.

 

At the other end of time, these things are phenomenally LOUD!

 

"Psssst! You wanna Peak? I got Peaks..."

 

I loved the black shunters in the background - the correct colour for a diesel shunter IMO

 

And that was just the cooling fan. Friend of mine works for GBRf and he said when they started the fan, people thought a loco had fired up.

 

One for @Victor, of course. Love these in green with no 'orrible yellow panel.



This was something I was really pleased to see in the metal - the "Baby Deltic". Had a good chat to them indoors.



Some steam to finish off and look - there are people in the frame...

 

This weekend we took our O Gauge layout Burlish Road on tour to TGG with the 2857 Society and Steaming Around Yorkshire.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable time, and were lucky to be able to be in at 7 each day to look round before the public.

The layout of the locomotives/rolling stock was interesting and perhaps left a little to be desired. But it was so good to see. And a treat to get close to everything.

Really enjoyable all round.

 

When I bought my GBRf mug with the Falcon and Kestrel-alikes on it, I remarked upon that to the guy on the GBRf stall and he jokingly said "Pardon?" - but he said it was almost in the territory of the Deltics and their soundproof curtain, so we've come full circle. He's not driven one yet, though.

 

I'm still recovering!!
We managed to get accommodation just 20 mins walk from Litchurch Lane so got there at on the dot at 10am and left smack on 4pm.
We just about managed to see every exhibit, but could easily have spent a second day there.
Quite a remarkable event and definitely something that will only happen once in a generation. When you call something 'The Greatest Gathering' you really are raising expectations and mine were very high indeed. This met mine and perhaps exceeded them.
Hats off to the organisers, it was superbly done from start to finish, even the wives and kids in our party enjoyed themselves. Crowd control was quick but thorough, apparently they opened the gates a little earlier than on Friday. Despite the number of people it didn't feel too crowded (helped by the vast site) & it was nice to get up close to all the exhibits - a rarity these days.
Seeing Prince go past the Class 99 summed the event up perfectly!
I would love there to be a repeat, but suspect I will be waiting a long time & that's probably a good thing to keep such things special.
I'm glad I was there!!