East Lancs | Small Engines Gala | 21st-22nd February 2026

Well Tanks 3063 "Willy" and 48 "The King" announced as visitors
Small Engines Gala - The East Lancashire Railway

 

Working Timetable now available.

2026 Small Engines Gala Public Timetable

Guest Locomotives

We are very pleased to announce that we will be hosting a pair of Borrows Well Tanks for our Small Engines Gala, both locos are making their ELR debut!

• No. 3036 ‘Willy the Well Tank’ is fe4aturing courtesy of Bill & Dick Parker and the Flour Mill.
• No. 48 ‘The King’ is featuring courtesy of Phil Steer and the Ribble Steam Railway.

Steam

• 0-4-0 1969 ‘J N Derbyshire’
• 0-4-0 L&Y Pug 19 – No. 11243
• 0-6-0 L&Y 752 – No. 51456
• 0-6-0 Hudswell Clarke No. 32 “Gothenburg”
• 0-6-0 LMS ‘Jinty’ 47298

Diesel

• MSC Hudswell Clarke D4002 “Arundel Castle”
• Class 01 – D2956
• Class 03 – D2062
• Class 08 – 08164 “Prudence”
• Class 08 – 08479
• Class 09 – 09024
• Class 14 – D9531 “Ernest”

 

I hadn't put this on my list at all mainly because I'm working most of that weekend but also because diesel-wise I'm not a red-pen person and find shunter haulage less than exciting - but that's actually a brilliant looking timetable! Loads of different stuff going on, some really quirky workings and some proper-length running for the steam tanks. So if I wasn't already committed for work shifts, I'd definitely be heading to the ELR for this now I've seen what the timetable actually involves. Instead I'll definitely have Railcam on in the background while working so I can see what I'm missing.

 

Ignore, looking forward to the weekend.

 

Preview day with Willy the Well Tank on FXP and Fish & Chip Special duties, with Gothenburg on service trains.

 

Currently sat at Ramsbottom with the gronks, 20 late not sure what’s occuring.

 

The 9.30am service left Bury at about 10.10am. There was a bit of a 'disagreement' between staff on the platform about whether that should have been let out first or the 10.05am one, the former being a slower train. Looking at the timetable that would have made sense as that slower train would have had the benefit of an hour window on that section and could then have reversed almost immediately at Ramsbottom.

A few upset passengers on the 10.05am service who would have liked to have been told the other train was going first...

 

10:30 to Bury from Ramsbottom, 43 late currently with vacuum issues… Keep hearing whistles then nothing happens, everyone standing round the engines…

 

A few of my pics of 11456 and the pug tank willy the well tank the king and the pink barclay tank the 10:47am departure to Rawtenstall from Bury on Sunday and the quadruple header from Bury to Ramsbottom also as well when I visited I donated some old crushed drinks cans at the east lancs cos they can use them for other projects and smelt em i asked on a train while visiting last week if they reuse old alloy cans I collected on the Calder and Hebble while I were out and about cycling on my errands in mirfield and Brighouse as I volunteer to help canal and waterways trust to keep the towpaths and picnic areas tidy and recycle the glass drinks cans and plastic bottles as some of my family worked coal barges quite a good gala as I had to make do arriving late morning as I could only set out from sowerby bridge at 9am cycling some of the way from Huddersfield and then cycled from Rochdale to Bury.
Davo 56F

 

I'm surprised no-else has commented on the problems on the Suday of this event. I'm sorry to say it was the worst experience I've ever had on a heritage railway.

I initially drove to Heywood, but I was rather surprised to discover that the last train there arrived before 4pm. This seemed rather illogicial to me, given that Heywood is by far the most convenient access point for anyone arriving from the M62. Nevertheless, I decided to drive to Bury and cross my fingers that I would be able to get a space in the station car park. Fortunately I did--but I think there were only two or three left. It was as well I did, though, because I discovered on arrival that the train I would have caught from Heywood had not even left Bury! When it did leave, it was diesel hauled, so I decided to wait for the Rawtenstall train. This left about 30 minutes late, as I recall, and nobody even made an announcement to confirm that it was still running until about ten minutes after the scheduled departure time.

Worse was to come, however. On the return journey, I decided to alight at Ramsbottom to take some photographs and wait for the next train back towards Rawtenstall (which should have been the well tank double-header). I waited...and waited...and waited. In the end, I waited more than two hours with no sign of any train. When I asked platform staff for information, they were unable to give me any--they didn't seem to know any more than I did. Finally, at four o'clock, I decided to cut my losses and catch a bus back to Bury. I arrived back at Bolton Street to find the the quadruple-header still in the station! So, I managed to get a ride on that, at least, but overall I still felt that the gala experience had fallen far short of what I paid for.

Hence, I wrote to the ELR that same evening to request a refund. I've never before asked for a refund from a heritage railway, and I hope I will never have to again, but I felt that the railway's handling of the event fell far below the basic standards of professionalism I would expect from any visitor attraction. One week later, they have not even given me the courtesy of a reply. I am very reluctant to publicly 'shame' the railway but I feel I have no choice now.

So, if anyone from the ELR is reading this (and I'm sure somebody will): sorry, but this isn't good enough. Yes, things go wrong on gala days, but this was on another level. You MUST do better.

 

There was a post on wnxxforum.co.uk that Ramsbottom didn't see any northbound arrivals for three hours on the Sunday afternoon, so looks like getting the bus was the best option.

 

There was a comment somewhere that each day there was a gap in the timetable to accommodate the dining service, and the afternoon's well tank double header was cancelled Sunday so as not to delay that. While I appreciate the railway needs to encourage revenue in as many areas as possible, my personal thought is a dining train on a gala day makes things very difficult for those coming for that main event. From memory, the NYMR used to do this and that too left people stranded for hours, and with the small locos here necessitating a timetable that already limited how much you could do (e.g. go back and forth to Ramsbottom all day to get loco variety or enjoy one and a bit full round trips with the same loco), then it does leave people questioning value for money.

I think one contributing factor is, as far as I am aware, the bay platform at Rawtenstall can't be used for regular passenger services, which puts a chokehold on that section of line. I think for me on the Saturday it was communication that was the bigger issue; when the 10.05 to Rawtenstall was held at 10.10 to let the late running 9.35 to Ramsbottom out ahead of it, nobody said anything and passengers on the former sat there bemused as the latter started off. I can tolerate and accept late running - it's a given at a gala after all - but I don't like not knowing what is happening. I even asked platform staff beforehand which train would be first out and they were at a loss, as too was the driver I asked; it wasn't until a stationmaster was literally shouting at the loco crews of the 9.35 that (to paraphrase) they were booked out first and would jolly well do so, that anyone seemed to find out, by which time it was too late to change trains as they were almost immediately given the right away.

All that aside, I thought as an event it was a really good idea and heard many others around comment same. Many heritage lines started off with small locos such as these so it is nice to see them making something of a resurgence with events like these. There is only so much variety in the ex-BR fleet out there, but when it comes to industrials few are the same, be that in livery, mechanics, performance etc. Hopefully future events are slightly less plagued with issues.

 

I must admit, I had the same thought re. the dining train. It certainly limited one's opportunities to get haulage behind a variety of locos. No. 32 only worked one trip on the Sunday, and I couldn't get there early enough, so I completely missed the opportunity to ride behind it. That was frustrating, as I was particularly keen to see her in her new MSC grey livery--sadly I wasn't able to make the previous events where she appeared thus.

And, yes, it was all the more galling to have to wait two hours at Ramsbottom for an ordinary service train back to Bury, after having watched the diner and its well-heeled passengers go sailing merrily past...!

Your anecdote about the train dispatcher at Bury is interesting. Somehow it just seems to sum up the attitude of most of the staff I encountered that day. It all seemed a bit too laid-back and amateurish. Nobody seemed particularly perturbed by the chaos unfolding all around them. I understand that it's a hobby and people don't want to take things too seriously, but when you're open to the public, I'm afraid you have to. When I used to volunteer at Ruislip Lido, we took pride in operating the railway with the same level of professionalism as the main line network (indeed, many of our volunteers worked on the 'Big Railway' in their day jobs). We had full radio signalling--there was a single controller in charge of the whole operation, and everybody had a radio so they knew what was going on. And there was no way we would ever have left passengers stranded without information for a full two hours.