Steel Steam and Stars III

Very belatedly, I have finished editing and captioning my visit to this event on Friday 27 April

Steam Stars at Llangollen 27 April 2012

Although living in North West England, I had never visited the Llangollen Railway, but their third Steel Steam and Stars event finally prompted me to make the trip. After a quick and easy drive I arrived on the banks of the River Dee (or Afon Dwfrdwy), swollen by heavy rain and roaring past Llangollen station.

The first train of the day was headed by the resident Manor and banked by a gleaming black GWR tank. I was delighted to find the magnificent Thompson buffet in the train, which had run in the famous Elizabethan express, and made this my home for the journey right up the new extension to Bonwm, not far from the ultimate destination of Corwen. The train was pulled back by the tank to Carrog, where I alighted to watch a procession of interesting visitors, including two auto train coaches sandwiching a pannier tank, the magnificent Caledonian 0-6-0, and finally, a very old friend from Dinting days, the LNWR coal tank. I rode back to Glyndyfrdwy and walked in the rain round the tented exhibition until the next train arrived headed by the magnificent Britannia, in Brunswick green but without its white roof for the Royal Train.

She took me the short ride back to Carrog where, after a pass of the shuttle up to Bonwm, the next arrival was an even bigger engine, the new Peppercorn Pacific, Tornado. She brought me back to Llangollen where I had another chance to see many of the locos before making my way on to Birmingham, for the next day's trip over the Devon banks to Plymouth with Tyseley's Castle. But it had been a magnificent introduction to the impressive Llangollen Railway, which will certainly be worth another visit.

35 photos are at Zenfolio | Peter Hewitt's Transport Pictures | Steam Stars at Llangollen 27 April 2012

Peter, on a changeable morning in Manchester
Zenfolio | Peter Hewitt's Transport Pictures

 

Zenfolio | Peter Hewitt's Transport Pictures | Steam Stars at Llangollen 27 April 2012 | DSCF2241

You caught glynsgirl in that picture.

 

You might want to check the name of GWR 78xx 7822 Foxcote Manor not Lydham

 

Thanks for this - captions now corrected. Apologies for the careless error.

Peter, on a chilly Manchester evening
Zenfolio | Peter Hewitt's Transport Pictures | Steam Stars at Llangollen 27 April 2012

 

That's right, you and I had a brief chat and I remember Glyn's girl and Mia as well.

That must have been some stint you guys did in the Thompson buffet over the gala, but what wonderful surroundings!

Peter, on a damp Manchester evening
Zenfolio | Peter Hewitt's Transport Pictures | All my photos

 

Hi could I possibly ask if anyone has any hi res pictures of me in stormtrooper armour. All mine are low res and have been asked for a high res picture for a article.
Thanks
Ashley

 

That was a long rewarding week, volunteering to help out the cause, i miss being behind the bar and meeting people and what a great job to do where your surroundings differ every few minutes
nice to meet you all, mia enjoyed it xx

 

See they still have some brochures left.....too many ordered in the first place?

Souvenir Brochure & Timetable | Betton Grange 6880

Who wants a brochure after the event?

 

There was a surplus of brochures following the SSS2 event.

The brochures then were original £3.00 each. Much of the surplus were sold at a reduced rate or with a donation from the 6880 stand when it attended various events and this proved popular, especially with the children.

 

Steam Railway reports this month that the figure was £43,322 with some further positive adjustments likely over the coming weeks. They also report that the coal bill was an eye watering £27,500.

On a much sadder note there is an article reporting that the braking problems experianced throughout the gala was down to sabotage. This came to light when the LR carriage & wagon engineer conducted an end of gala inspection and found some cleverly concealed but very deliberate acts of sabotage had taken place. The article carries on explaining that the dump valves on coaches in all the train sets had been opened. If someone pulls the emergency chord, it drops the train vacuum from 21 inches to 15 and causes the brakes to come on. Someone had gone through each coach and tugged the emergency chord by just a few fractions, not enough to stop the train, but enough to lose a few inches of vacuum and cause the brakes to drag on.

Make of it what you will, but haven’t there been incidents of sabotage at Llangollen railway in the past? Very sad if it's true and isn't just sensationalist journalism.

 

6880 has made £30k profit with an estimation of between £10-15k extra through Gift Aid, as speaking with the Membership Secretary he told me directly the final figure hadn't been reached for the final GA figure.

As for the sabotage, do not believe everything you read in SR. Just because some people are looking for excuses doesn't mean others are!

 

I was there. The incident was certainly very strange. You could hear Tornado's draincocks opening in the station then shutting off again and the moment it came into view of the gallery of photographers they came on again and then tuned off the moment it went out of shot. However, the suggestion that this was somehow deliberate seems quite rediculous to me. I don't suppose the driver, who had probably never driven 60163 before, as this was the first train on the second day, would have been thinking a hundred feet from the station, "let's annoy the photters"!

 

That was you! I was in the compartment with the guy who shouted, "May the force be with you" in the morning.

 

As I cannot understand the link between draincocks operating and brakes dragging, has a post been removed?

 

Must be, but I'll hazard a guess it had something to do with Mr W's 2-page article on 60163 draincocks being opened at Goods Junction which covered him in steam. Not that he missed his shot mind, seeing as he published that in the article too.

 

Please correct me if I am wrong, but at the ends of a coach, just below the guttering there is a latch used to test / apply the brakes, doesn't this twist Vertical if the communication cord is pulled ? In which case it would be easily visible to the guard, and also easy to corroborate by looking at all the pictures taken during the week ?

 

And also one of the most obvious things to check if brakes are problematic?

 

I just opened the last page and saw a comment on sabotage and SR and thought you were on about the 2-page spread. As it happened, his orange jacket would have ruined my shot anyway!

 

Finally had my laptop connected to the internet for long enough to upload my video compiling my footage from Saturday, Sunday, Thursday (LNWR double headers) and the final day (including the cavalcade).
[video=youtube;_NM11liB0ds]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NM11liB0ds[/video]

 

Very late too but I've finally uploaded my best photos from Steal Steam and Stars. I was hanging on in case any were published...but they weren't. Hope you like them though.

Flickr: DaveStubbings' Photostream