Farewell Foremarke Hall

Yesterday, Sunday 29th December, was the last day of Foremarke Hall's boiler certificate and the first day of the 2 day 'Christmas Cracker' mixed traction gala.  I hadn't been rostered for any particular duty, so I took full advantage of the situation and decided to spend a day by the line side recording the event for posterity.  Conditions for photography were perfect; clear blue skies, little wind and it was pretty cold.  Every box was ticked.... well ok, all bar the box that has Julia Bradbury acting as the photographer's assistant.

Here's a bunch of photos that I took (with a few additions from Dan Wigg) during the course of the day:

The diesel contingent of the mixed traction gala

Foremarke Hall shunting in the yard

Shunting in the yard

Steve, the rostered driver for the day

Emerging from a cloak of her own steam

Preparing to back onto the stock

 The other steam loco out on Sunday was 2807:

2807 heads onto her stock

24081 leads 2807 on the first train of the day. Chris prepares to receive the token

 There were a few photographers on the far side of the signal box.  I overheard one of them say what a good job that we'd made of painting up the mess coach.  It was nice to know that our labours had been appreciated.

2807 sandwiched between 24081 and the chocolate and cream set.

Foremarke Hall was off on the second train all by herself as far as Cheltenham at least.  I had suggested to John a few days ago that it might be apt to dust off 'The Cruxonian' headboard and use it for the day. It turns out that he liked that idea.  Ben was responsible for the chalk markings on the smoke box door.

L-R, Steve, Dan and John

At this point, I drove over to Gotherington.  The timetable showed that Foremarke Hall and 2807 would cross each other there, both without diesels attached and both running chimney first.  It was the obvious place to be:

2807 pulls into Gotherington loop

Looks like Chris has taken the opportunity to put on a shovel full or two

 I asked the signal man to refrain from wearing hi-viz for the token exchanges and he kindly complied.

The signal man receives the token from Chris

 Having had the opportunity to chat with John and Steve earlier, I'd let them know where I was intending to be and that a decent bit of exhaust would be nice.  I'm not sure which one of them was driving at this point, but they made a good job of it:

Foremarke Hall pulls out of the platform at Gotherington

 Meanwhile, Dan took the following two photos at Gotherington:

John opens up the regulator

Stood in the platform at Gotherington

Speaking of Dan, here he is in action:

Dan swaps tokens with the signal man

2807 then pulls out of the loop.  Note the signal man in the box preparing to hand over the token

Next, it was back into the car and off to the aquaduct a bit north of Stanway viaduct.  It wasn't a location that I'd visited before, but it yielded the following shot of 2807 heading up to Laverton:

2807 from the aquaduct

Soon after that, Foremarke Hall would be coming back from Laverton across Stanway viaduct, so as the sun was still on the east side of the line, I headed over to Stanway.  Once again, I'd primed John and Steve about where I was going to be and they were all set to get her to steam a bit over the viaduct.  Unfortunately the outer home signal for Toddington was against them, so they ended up coasting much of the way.

Foremarke Hall on Stanway viaduct

 I think that it was shortly after this, that Dan took this rather excellent shot from the footplate of Foremarke Hall as she was passing the north head shunt at Toddington:

Dan's view from the fireman's side

A swift examination of the timetable suggested that a decent back lit shot of 2807 coming up the straight from Bishops Cleeve to Gotherington was on the cards, so I headed back to Gotherington:

I'd have preferred it if the sun had been a bit lower, but I was pleased with this

Shortly afterwards, Foremarke Hall turned up heading to Cheletenham.  She was pushing 37215 as she went:

37215 with steam assistance

Foremarke Hall and 37215

Then it was back to Stanway for a few shots of 2807 on the viaduct. 

2807 on Stanway viaduct

...and a bit further along on the viaduct

47376 was lurking at the back waiting to pull the train back from Laverton

You wouldn't believe how much mud I got on my boots whilst standing in a field taking those last three photos.

The timetable showed that there would be no steam movements facing the right way round for a while, so I took the opportunity to go back to Toddington for a cup of tea in the mess coach, it was the first break that I'd had all day.  

Later on, it was off to three arches bridge to hopefully grab shots of both Foremarke Hall and 2807 before the light faded too far:

Foremarke Hall in Dixton cutting

John leans out the driver's side for a view of Gotherington's outer home signal. Dan leans out the other side

Gotherington's outer home signal was on, bringing them to a halt

A bit later, 2807 heads the other way

By this time, the light had faded too far for any hope of decent photos, so I once again went back to Toddington to await the return of the locos:

The last photo of Foremarke Hall attached to coaching stock and in steam during her first boiler ticket

There is something rather symbolic about the next photo.  She's in better condition than many locos with far less time on their boiler tickets. Here she is, steamed up and ready to go, but the signal says no!

All revved up, but no place to go

  Meanwhile back out in the yard, 8274 waits in the wings to take part in the second day of the 'Christmas Cracker' mixed traction gala:

8274, warming up.

All that remained was to put Foremarke Hall to bed in the David Page shed and celebrate 10 extremely successful years with some chocolate cake and orange juice:

Cake eaten and orange juice quaffed, Formarke Hall simmers in the background.

Here's hoping for a swift rebuild and acquisition of her second boiler ticket followed by another equally reliable and successful 10 years on the GWSR.