Swindon Built - Fifty Shades of Green (Part 1)

Yes, I know, the gala is all ancient history now, but the real world (that part of the world that pays me for doing stuff) has been getting in the way again.  

It didn't occur to me until relatively recently that with the exception of Dinmore Manor, all of the standard gauge locos running were in one form of green or another, hence the title of this post.

All eight gala locos in front of the David Page shed (photo courtesy of Mark Young)

Your memories of the gala may involve fine weather for all three days, but that is definitely not how it kicked off for the steam loco dept on the Saturday morning.  The first crews clocked in at 04:30, heavy rain clocked in very shortly after that.

Alex sheltering from the rain under the running plate of 35006...

....others chose the David Page shed to shelter in

 Fortunately, the down pour was relatively brief and after it was done, the weather stayed fair for the whole of the rest of the gala.  I am more than a little grateful for that, a run of decent weather (or probably more importantly decent weather forecasts) always helps to persuade visitors to come.

There was the little matter of raising steam to attend to, that didn't appear to be a problem for some:

Steam to spare here!

 You might imagine that being the chairman of the gala committee, I'd get to spend the entire gala swanning up and down the line on the footplate of gleaming exotic locos.  Well ok, there was a little bit of that, but not on the Saturday. I was rostered as gala controller (along with Ade).  That might sound grand, but what is basically means is that we had to stay around the Toddington area and make sure that everything was going to plan.  There is a lot of essential things going on, car parking/ticket & brochure sales/brake van rides/footplate rides/crossing monitors etc that all need to be working perfectly for the gala to be a success. If something went wrong with the smooth running of the gala, it was our job to get it fixed.

As usual, we had a few traction engines

 I managed to satisfy myself that most things were running smoothly enough, to be able to skive off for a few minutes and disappear off down to Didbroook to photograph some of the more interesting workings.  A sight that many were keen to see was the two Manors double headed:

Dinmore Manor pilots Erlestoke Manor past Didbrook

A little later, the freight train passed through, with 2808 (AKA 2807) in charge.

 Pete Young forwarded a collection of photos that he took during the day:

Visiting locos, 92214 & 46521 (photo courtesy of Peter Young)

A rather nice B&W study of 2807, running as 2808 on the freight train (photo courtesy of Peter Young)

Visiting loco, Erlestoke Manor (photo courtesy of Peter Young)

B&W view of Dinmore Manor departing Toddington (photo courtesy of Peter Young)

A cause of concern in the week leading up to the gala, was if 7903, Foremarke Hall be available in time.  Well as it turned out, she was:

Foremarke Hall, appropriately wearing a Cornishman headboard, sets off from Toddington

Trains often worked north to Laverton, but top and tailed as the run round loop is no longer available there.   You'd be forgiven for thinking that the crew in the photo below of Foremarke Hall had put out the wrong lamp code, whereas, it is a red tail lamp for the train, which is heading away from the photographer towards Laverton.  You might also point out that having reporting numbers and a headboard on the tail vehicle of a train is rather unusual, but I expect that it was done to save time when setting off back on the return journey.

Foremarke Hall, going rather than coming (photo courtesy of Chris Ardy)

Unfortunately, the joy regarding the availability of Foremarke Hall turned out to be slightly premature, and she was failed at the end of the day, once again with issues with the connection of the superheater elements to the header.  She was placed in the David Page shed and left to cool down, before remedial work could take place on the Sunday.

Foremarke Hall in the David Page shed

On the Saturday only, we ran a special 14 coach train, top and tailed with 35006 on the north end and 92214 on the south end.  

Steve does some last minute checking of temperatures before we set off

 It was quite a spirited run, and 35006 sounded rather good with a decent load of carriages behind her.  Those of the gala committee that were present on the train conspired how to (amongst other things) deal with the loss of Foremarke Hall.  The answer was to skip the driver for a tenner at Cheltenham Race Course (which we had only run for the first time that day). The anticipated double heading of Foremarke Hall and Dinmore Manor obviously wouldn't be able to take place either.

35006, just about to set off north from Toddington (photo courtesy of Chris Ardy)

Giving you some idea of how long the train was (photo courtesy of Chris Ardy)