Great Central Railway- Autumn Steam Gala 5th-8th October 2023

A bit late, but here's my footage of the gala on Thursday featuring three Great Western Engines, 2999 Lady of Legend, Pannier Tank 7714, and 6990 Witherslack Hall running as 6988 Swithland Hall. I hope you enjoy the video.

 

Thank goodness! A proper theme at last.
So much better than the 'Green Region' themes that have been happening the last few years.

Can I also just say, so nice to see two GW 4-6-0's on a [almost] perfect set of brown and white mk 1's?

 

A short video featuring the trio of Western engines

 

Not much coverage about this gala on this forum so thought I'd add something. Very good day at the gala yesterday. There were some problems in the afternoon which brought everything to a standstill for a while and trains were running nearly an hour late by the time I left at 5.30. Not quite sure what went wrong - there were stories of points failures, signal failures and a loco failure (7714). I'm not sure the last is true as 7714 re-appeared and continued to work it's booked turns. So what do you do when there is a delay? Head for the real ale bar at Quorn!

I think the Great Central is a bit under-rated. It's not the longest of lines, it's not the prettiest of lines but where else can you see steam locos passing each other on double-track? No other railway can produce such an intensive timetable and they have a loco fleet that other railways would be envious of, plus whatever visitors they add.

Star of the show I suppose was 2999 but all the locos looked good, especially "Swithland Hall" which seems to have had a new paint job and looks fantastic. I even had a little ride behind the Class 37 but don't tell anyone! Well done to everyone for putting on a good show.

 

Welcome to the EE 12tCSVT club my friend

 

Thanks for the kind comments! Apologies for the delays on Saturday afternoon, first off the non-stopper with 7714 had to stop in section between Loughborough and Quorn for about 20 minutes due to issues with the fire which also resulted in it needing some shed time when it got back to Loughborough. Unfortunately this was then compounded by a signalling issue at Quorn which resulted in trains having to be kept at a stand whilst it was resolved which took around 30 minutes. It was certainly frustrating that these issues occurred within a few minutes of each other which pretty much scuppered the timetable for the rest of the day despite a couple of attempts to claw back some time. I think the last train arrived back around 35 minutes late.

I hope it didn't detract too much from the enjoyment of the day however and thanks for posting some nice photos!