Bluebell Railway | Giants of Steam | 16th-18th October 2026

Two fantastic days at the gala, after the pouring wet start on Friday it was wall-to-wall sunshine from then on, albeit it did slightly ruin the line-up as the sun was too bright

Some photos below, more at https://railwaygalleries.smugmug.com/Bluebellphotosets/Giants-of-Steam-October-2026

 

Someone reported a trespasser to the station staff and the guard while we were at Kingscote - so we were held there for 10 to 15 minutes while that was investgated.

 

Big thanks to the Bluebell for a fantastic gala, I made a fairly last-minute decision to get up early and go yesterday after looking at the forecast. I understand the weather wasn't ideal for photographers, but for everything else it was perfect! The first GoS I've been to for several years and I thought it all worked amazingly well, kudos to those who came up with the timetable.

I agree that the railway was busy (more so than many significant Bluebell anniversary events I've attended over the years!) but that tended to be exaggerated further by a lot of people wanting to be in a particular place at once. Either going to-from EG to make the connection at the start and end of the day, at HK for the lineup, or all trying to get a ride behind 71000. Elsewhere things seemed fine. I got a spot front window behind 34059 in both directions for a full line trip, and then same again for 92134. I suppose my one bit of feedback would be having a 5 set including the Obo didn't help. Even extending that by one coach to 6 would have made a difference, although obviously depends on what's available and what's pulling it.

10/10 in any case and very much looking forward to the 2027 events!

 

Video now up

 

Sounds like someone need to Awake the Giant

 

Quite the testament to the timetable that it was back on time by the last train. 45 minutes is a significant amount of time to make up.

 

My Giants weekend did quite end up as I'd hoped. I met up with my best friend today (who has a mild interest in steam thanks to his Grandad) and kept an eye on the webcams so we could pop down to Freshfield Bank in the way to his, to see 71000 and 92134 on the T&T, alas we made it slightly too late as the train came up the bank as we walked down to the footpath, so we only got to hear it rather than see it, but made a great noise and could her it accelerating away nicely afterward.