chasewater railway industrial gala march 16th & 17th 2013

its gala time again and this year its a little different, our industrial gala which usualy happens in september has been swapped with our steam march gala. the gala will show off our home fleet of diesel and steam locos the locos intended to star are as folows:
RSH "Neachels No4" 7684
Hunslet "Holly Bank No3" 3783
Andrew Barclay "colin McAndrew" 1223
North British "D2911" 27876
Hunslet NCB 6678
Baguley "Bass No5" 3027
English Electric BR class 08 D3429

And providing that there are no hitches in the final stages of its overhaul the gala will debut our 1945 Taylor & Hubbard Steam crane
Plus our narrow gauge railway will be in operation at the back of our heritage center (separate fee to ride)
the gala will include our usual passenger train, passenger bay to bay break van rides, coal trains, and as usual one hell of an intensive timetable! with shunting action at brownhills west and chasetown church street, our accredited museum will also be open in the heritage center on both days, hope to see you there for a cracking weekend! (a little tip for photographers and people taking videos the top of the causway bank is always a good spot to hear the engines at work, especially on the coal trains)

 

How will the coal trains be operated? From what I understand, the line doesn't have a rake of coal wagons available (unless one has arrived recently...)

 

This kind of depends on two things,
1st is, how many coal wagons makes a rake.
2nd is, exactly what is your capacity for "Understanding"

The Melter

 

Unless things have changed, there's at least 8 coal wagons and hoppers there that have been used in the past.

 

Aren't they mostly tipplers and dogfish though? Neither commonplace on coal trains!

 

The ones the NCB rebodied were pretty common in collieries on coal trains

Just because they're internal user wagons and not 16T mineral wagons doesn't mean they're not coal wagons. They can still make up a decent looking rake of at least 8 wagons plus NCB brake van without including any dogfish.

 

+ they're not going to be carrying any coal either, so you're pretty much photographing a collection of a pres line's wagon fleet any way you look at it?

 

Industrial Steam Sunset | Flickr - Photo Sharing! classic NCB steam

Across the Causeway | Flickr - Photo Sharing! a good view of the wagons
Staffordshire Blue - a set on Flickr more general views

The railway has an excellent set of former coal carrying wagons. These include a number of ex NCB Nottinghamshire Area rebodied vehicles, a 16T, a long wheel base 21? tonner and some hoppers plus a good copy of the former Littleton Colliery brake van. For me Chasewater is getting as good as Bowes, Foxfield and Tanfield in recreating industrial scenes of the past. Will try to make the gala this year.

 

Does anyone know if the steam crane will be running as this was rumoured to be included in the line up .

The Melter

 

chasewater railway industrial gala march 16th & 17th 2013

All is looking well for the steam crane to be included just a few more bits and prices to fit on, gauge glasses, main steam pipe and regulator and the all it needs is a quick lick of paint and LNER numbers and lettering to be put on, looking promising at the moment

 

gala timetable

There you go everyone the gala timetable, there will be more locos than whats on the timetable shunting around the yards

 

whats a bay train?

 

Train arrives into bay platform at Chasewater Heaths Station.

 

It is a train that goes from bay to bay and is made up of various mixed goods wagons and brakevans,
and is very hectic at times.

The Melter

 

Re: gala timetable

Thanks for the timetable. Will there be other steam locos running but not on service trains? And what is the latest on the steam crane?

 

Anyone going to Chasewater Gala may be interested to know that the Aston Manor Road Transport Museum are are running buses between the railway and the museum and a number of oher routes on Sunday - see www.amrtm.org

 

Really is a railway that I want to go to a Gala at, visited a couple of years ago and that was a great day, maybe a gala later in the year I will visit again.

 

I hope they're aware the timetable they've got noted for the railway - and therefore for their buses to connect with - is wrong?

 

Thanks to everyone who put on a good show yesterday. Shunting of the coal train is a particular highlight. Completely loose coupled and unbraked just as it should be! But I would say that the pauses by the passenger train were quite boring although I appreciate there needs to be some recovery time in the timetable and a lot of waiting around is caused by the need to reform the freight at each end of the line. A better connection between the 3C and 1C trains at Brownhills would be better if the timetable writers can take this into account. ie the 3C train arrives and 10 minutes later the shuttle to the Bay departs. Would allow much more riding and less waiting around. Also the cafe at Brownhills must have had a good Saturday as by 2pm Sunday all they could produce was a cheese sandwich (which still went down well mind)!

Thanks again for a great event - and the rain even held off while I was there at least.