if you visited the great central railway betweeen the 28th and 30th of january you might've mistaken it for the busy railway junction of banbury on the great western reigion. and with 5 westerners, 1 LNER, SR & LMS loco surprisingly nothing built after 1948 you could easily have been mistaken. leading the pack in this mighty event were 3717 City Of Truro in it's new livery, 2-8-0 3850 also in a new livery painted especially for the event/appearance at the GCR, 5526 & 1450 sharing auto train/local/freight duties, with 4953 Pitchford Hall, black 5 no. 45305, 30777 Sir Lamiel and scottish interlude 61994 The Great Marquess (BINGO!)
as a fan of the western reigion you might think i'm slightly biast here but in general the GCR does such a great job at organising galas i have no choice. it was a brilliant gala. my highlights were 3850 on the minerals, 3717 & 45305 on the TPO, 5526 on the short freight and the super timetable for the event with atleast 30 departures from loughborough central on both saturday and sunday however some down points that need to be raised are that the timetable ran 20 minutes late, the earth that makes rothley bank ate my watch when i fell over up there, 1450 did no auto train workings on the saturday when i went (it also faced the wrong way) despite these small niggles it was still a brilliant gala. photos and videos are now up on the appropriate sites
as a fan of the western reigion you might think i'm slightly biast here but in general the GCR does such a great job at organising galas i have no choice. it was a brilliant gala. my highlights were 3850 on the minerals, 3717 & 45305 on the TPO, 5526 on the short freight and the super timetable for the event with atleast 30 departures from loughborough central on both saturday and sunday however some down points that need to be raised are that the timetable ran 20 minutes late, the earth that makes rothley bank ate my watch when i fell over up there, 1450 did no auto train workings on the saturday when i went (it also faced the wrong way) despite these small niggles it was still a brilliant gala. photos and videos are now up on the appropriate sites
