Steel Steam and Stars III

I've been asked by the press officer of SSS if i'd post the following press release and also to note the timetables for 'SSS III' are now on the Betton Grange Society website (the really proper timetables which show specific locos are part of the gala brochure which sells for a fiver) - all enquiries should go through the BGS website - Home | Betton 6880 - or Llangollen Railway (01978-860979).


FAO: Broadcast Media/Press/All editors/TICs


Tornado about to hit Llangollen in
'Steel, Steam & Stars' whirlwind

G'day All,

STEAM locomotives from the four corners of Britain have begun converging on the superbly-scenic Llangollen Railway on the Shropshire/Cheshire/Denbighshire borders, arriving in convoys by heavy road transporters, in readiness for 'Steel, Steam and Stars III' - the biggest and most spectacular event in the national railway calendar.
Witnessed by an expected 10,000+ visitors from throughout the Wales/England border counties, the Midlands, the Wirral and the North-West, the nine-day steam 'megagala' will see the Eisteddfod town transformed into something more akin to Crewe during the summer Saturdays of the 1950s, with steam locomotives everywhere - almost 300 trains, both passenger and goods, running for more than 14 hours a day on the busiest days and covering more than 2,500 miles between 'day one' on Saturday April 21st, and the grand finale on Sunday April 29th.
Leading the charge will be two great British engineering icons: Tornado - the first express steam locomotive to be built in Britain for nearly 50 years, and Britannia, the first express steam locomotive to be built by the nationalised British Railways regime back in 1951.
The country's best-known steam buff - pop producer Pete Waterman - gets proceedings under way a week on Saturday, rediscovering his roots as a locomotive fireman, on the footplate of Britannia, which works the first train out of Llangollen at 9am.
The attached press release has all the details of this amazing event, which is being run in support of the £1 million project to build a new GWR 'Grange' class locomotive, in the workshops of the Llangollen Railway, by the 6880 Betton Grange Society. The partly-completed locomotive, expected to run in 2016, will be on public display throughout the nine days of 'SSS III'

 

Full text of the press release (sorry David)


It’s the final countdown to the ‘Steel, Steam & Stars III’ nine-day
‘Supergala’ at Llangollen from April 21st - 29th

‘Tornado’ hits as Llangollen
becomes epicentre of steam

THE Llangollen Railway becomes the epicentre of live steam in Europe for nine days from Saturday April 21st to Sunday April 29th, when ‘Steel, Steam & Stars III’ – the biggest event of its kind in the 2012 railway calendar - is rolled out to an audience expected to exceed 10,000.
Three years in the planning, the nine-day ‘SSS III’ supergala is importing ‘celebrity’ main line steam locomotives from the four corners of the UK – including the A1 Class locomotive No.60163 Tornado – the first express steam engine to be built in Britain for almost 50 years (famously ‘tested’ by Jeremy Clarkson on BBC TV’s ‘Top Gear’ programme), and BR’s pioneer express engine No.70000 Britannia.
Merged with the Llangollen Railway’s ‘home fleet’ of engines, at least a dozen locomotives will run an intensive - almost giddying - train service of up to 17 departures a day from Llangollen, making the North Wales steam heritage line seem more akin to Crewe during the summer Saturdays in the 1950s.
Pop producer Pete Waterman, Britain’s best-known railway enthusiast, will formally open the event a week on Saturday (April 21st), taking the fireman’s shovel on the first train, hauled by Britannia, and later taking a footplate ride on the National Railway Museum’s LNWR ‘Super D’ locomotive No.49395, an engine whose restoration he personally sponsored to the tune of £700,000.
The first visiting locomotive - the shimmering blue Caledonian Railway ‘Jumbo’ 0-6-0 No.828 normally based at the Strathspey Railway in the Scottish Highlands - arrived at Llangollen by low-loader on Wednesday (April 11th), signalling the start of a procession of heavy road transporters delivering locomotives from the four corners of the UK to the steam heritage railway beside the River Dee.


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Flashback to ‘Steel, Steam & Stars II’ in 2009, with the legendary Royal Scot (nearest camera) making up a breathtaking 10-engine cavalcade during the grand finale at Carrog. David Wilcock

‘SSS III’ visitors will have the chance to drive a full-size main line steam locomotive for themselves, ride in the guards van of a goods train, experience a footplate journey over the full length of the line, or even take a ride on famous locomotives from the Ffestiniog and Talyllyn narrow gauge lines, which uniquely, are coming together for the first time to run on a specially laid ‘mixed gauge’ track, some 60 miles from their ‘home’ railways on the Welsh coast.
They include the 1866-built Fletcher Jennings engine No.2 Dolgoch which made history by hauling the Talyllyn Railway Society’s - and the railway preservation world’s - very first train, after enthusiasts took over the running of the decrepit, run-down slate line at Tywyn, Gwynedd in 1951.
The two weekends (April 21/22nd and 28th/29th) plus Friday April 27th will be the busiest days of the gala with at least eight engines in steam, but even the four less hectic midweek days (Monday April 23 – Thursday April 26th) guarantee at least three in steam each day, following specific themes – Scottish locomotives, the West Midlands in the 1950s, Little & Large, and North West England in the 1950s.


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In total, gala-goers will get to see live steam on now fewer than six different gauges, from 3in, to 4ft 8 ½ in (the standard main line gauge) – but this wall-to-wall steam show is actually only one element of a multi-faceted event.
The event field beside Glyndyfrdwy station, five miles down the line from Llangollen, is the venue of an amazing ‘steam and vintage’ vehicle festival where more than 100 classic cars, motor cycles, traction engines, stationary engines, tractors, lorries and light commercials will line up, and it seems there’s almost ‘one of everything’, from an Aveling & Porter Steam Roller of the 1920s, to a GWR Scammell ‘mechanical horse, and little-known classic cars of the art deco era (ever heard of a Lea Francis ‘P Type’, for example?). There’s even a Thames launch!
Glyndyfrdwy will also be ‘Mecca’ to railway modellers, with a heated marquee (sponsored by Hornby magazine) which will host at least 12 fabulous layouts from N gauge to G scale. They include St.Stephens Road, an ‘OO’ gauge Cornish-themed layout built by Hornby Magazine editor Mike Wild, and ‘Wheeler’s Lane’, an OO gauge layout making its first public appearance, which gala visitors will be able to operate themselves.
Carrog station, 7½ miles down the line from Llangollen, turns the focus on the narrow and miniature gauges, headlined by the working appearance of Dolgoch, and its Ffestiniog Railway counterpart, the 1864-built Palmerston, but with live steam rides also offered on 3 inch, 5 inch and 7 ¼-inch gauge lines.
Llangollen station will be the focus of ‘SSS III’s’ own Beer Festival, majoring on many of the weird and wonderful real ales produced by the micro breweries of North Wales (try ‘Dark Side of the Moose’ from Purple Moose Brewery, Porthmadog, or ‘Betton Bitter’ from Jolly Brewer of Wrexham).
There will be at least 50 different real ales on tap throughout the nine days, and ‘landlord’ Richard Pumphrey promises at least 18 different brews on keg on any one day. Based on the Henry Robertson suite at Llangollen station, the bar opens from 11am – 11pm every day from Friday April 20 to Saturday April 28th
It’s a happy coincidence that ‘SSS III’ rolls out at the very same time that the Llangollen Railway is building its long-awaited £4.6 million 2½-mile extension to Corwen, and gala trains will be the first to run on the newly laid ‘first half’ of the extension – the 1¼ mile section of line from Carrog to Bonwm, which was closed by BR back in January 1965.
The climax to the ‘Supergala’ comes on the final day, Sunday April 29th when a ‘grand cavalcade’ of locomotives - more than £10 million worth of Britain’s finest railway heritage hardware forming a pulsing 500ft-long strand of steel - will be paraded on the line, now extended to 8¾ miles.
‘Steel, Steam & Stars III’ is being run not by the Llangollen Railway, but by the 6880 Betton Grange Society, the Llangollen-based group which is building, from scratch, one of the


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‘missing links’ in locomotive preservation – a GWR ‘Grange’ class locomotive, all 80 of which were sent for scrap by British Rail in the 1960s.
It’s a £1 million project, which aims to have the ‘81st Grange’ – No.6880 Betton Grange completed and in steam by 2016. The ‘Steel, Steam & Stars III’ supergala has one key mission:- to raise at least £60,000 to cast new cylinders for the locomotive.
The partly-completed Betton Grange can be viewed during ‘SSS III’ in the LR’s workshops, alongside two other part-built new locomotives.
Says Betton Grange Society Chairman Quentin McGuinness: “This is the third major gala that we have run in the last six years, and we are really pushing the boat out this time. Just shipping in all the celebrity guest engines, leaves us little change from £30,000.
“When we ran the first ‘Steel, Steam & Stars’ gala in 2007, it attracted around 5,000 visitors. At ‘SSS II’ in April 2009, we doubled that figure to 10,000 people. I’m making no predictions, but 10,000 visitors this time would be a pretty good starting point.”
The full timetable of trains and events is published as part of the glossy A4 event brochure (£5) which can be pre-ordered and posted to visitors home addresses ahead of ‘SSS III’, or bought on the day.
Travel tickets start from £16 adults, £13 senior citizens and £6 children (5-15 years) for the midweek days, and £22, £20 and £6 respectively for the all-day ‘rover’ ticket covering the two weekends (April 21/22 and 28/29, plus Friday April 27th) – but there are discounts for tickets bought in advance.
Bookings and full details: Home | Betton 6880, or write to SSS III, 4 Bryntirion Terrace, Llangollen, LL20 8LP.

 

All of them!!