Everything That You Wanted to Know About the Gala...

...but were afraid to ask!

Normally at this point, I'd kick off the pre-gala blog post with a run down on the locos... and yes, it's coming... hold on.  I intend to start instead with a bit of an appeal.   The steam loco dept's rag store for cleaning locos with is lamentably low... dangerously low even.  At this point, all the line side photographers will be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of prototypical grubby locos running around at the gala, however they would be wrong.  Cleaning rags once used are then recycled as lighting up rags and if we can't light the locos up, then we'll end up with a static collection of locos parked in the yard going nowhere.  The collecting point is to be found by the white gate at the yard entrance at Toddington in the form of a green wheelie bin:

You can always combine dropping off the rags with a trip to the loco viewing area

Even your humble blogger, who is known to cling onto favoured old clothes for many decades (not joking here) and often far past the limit of social endurance will be scouring the contents of his wardrobe for suitable items.  Please note, labels that say "fire resistant" or "flame retardant" are not a problem, they all burn quite nicely when suitable accellerants are liberally applied.  By way of example, the following item, here modelled by Ian was just about the only thing left in the cleaning rag pile on  Sunday morning:

Ian... with the other blue engine that we'll be having later this year

Ian was removed from this cleaning rag before it was eventually used for lighting up... no drivers were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Note Sam in the background trying desperately to evade being caught in this uncool photo!

OK, now we can talk about the locos.

I made a cryptic comment a blog or two ago about line side rumours being exaggerated etc.  I can now happily say that the leaking tube in 6023, King Edward II's boiler has been replaced and steam tested and all is found to be in good order.

6023, King Edward II in the yard at Toddington yesterday

 I have had the pleasure of a footplate ride on 6023 before, but that was a few years ago now, so I took the opportunity of reacquainting myself with it on Sunday.   The starter for 10 is the legendary King firebox, I'm not saying that it is long, but if you shout through the fire hole door, it takes quite a while for the echo to come back to you.

Lit up for a steam test yesterday

On the diver's side it's all pretty much business as usual... well apart from the dial where the hydrostatic lubricator would normally be

There's a mechanical lubricator out on the running plate

 Though this thing on the vac pipe isn't standard GWR equipment.

I suspect that it operates the air brakes when the steam brake is applied

 I have never tried using an exhaust steam injector before, they depend on running at a fair speed before they will operate reliably and have consequently been removed from the majority of steam locomotives operating on heritage railways. I have read the document that has been distributed to crews though and am keen to give it a try.

It's the one in the middle

TPWS fitted for mainline use...

...as indeed is the OTMR

Lots of waggly bits for the drivers to oil up

No hydrostatic lubricator though, there is a mechanical one on the running plate

Yesterday, I was down for a prep turn in the morning and had an engagement in London that I wanted to attend in the evening.  I had wanted to arrive looking clean of course, yet I had just about enough time to go direct from Toddington, with nowhere near enough time to detour via home and have a shower first.  The prep turn involves lighting up not one but two locos, followed by a quick couple of trips from Toddington to Broadway and back.  My cunning plan was to get Sam who was the cleaner to fire both of those, I'd just loiter in the cab and keep a watchful eye on him from a safe (and most importantly clean) distance.  My cunning plan came to nought as the lure of watching the owner's rep light up 6023 was greater than the lure of firing both 35006 and Dinmore Manor.


Also already arrived and undergoing a steam test on Sunday was the S160, 5197. Whereas 6023 is very much like any other GWR loco (albeit on steroids),  5197 is so alien you could be forgiven for thinking that it was discovered in Area 51 after a particularly busy period of visitation by airborne devices of an inexplicable nature.

5197, being lit up for a steam test

 On the fireman's side, you get two water gauges.  I know that only one was good enough for Gooch, Armstrong, Dean, Churchward, Collett & Hawksworth, so who am I to argue, however if a gauge frame glass ever blew out on the footplate whilst running, I'd prefer to have a second one rather than depend on the test cocks until I had managed to change the glass.

Safety in numbers!

 There appears to be a rocking or drop grate mechanism in there, always welcome.

Apply the happy handle here!

 The firebox is wider than the King's, but nowhere near as long.

No echoes in here

 I had to ask about the injectors.  You have to pull the lower red handle in the photo below and that applies both water and steam to the injector in one go.  I think the upper one might have been for trimming the injector if needed  

Apparently they work like magic

 As for the diver's side, what can I say, the regulator is like nothing else that I have ever seen.  It looks like a prop from Game of Thrones.

Nothing like a GWR one, or 35006's

 The reverser on the other hand is a dinky little thing, I presume that it is steam operated, but I don't know.

The reverser is on the left, I have no idea about the rest

As if there was any doubt that it wasn't built in Swindon

 6023 of course was vacuum braked only when in GWR/BR service, but for modern mainline running, somewhere discretely hidden away there is an air pump.  5197 makes a bold statement by having its air pump mounted on the front of the smoke box.

5197's smoke box

 Note too, that the smoke box door is not secured in place by a pair of locking arms in the centre, but by a series of clamps around its periphery.  You'll need a decent sized spanner and a bit of time to gain access and clean/check inside.

There is a similarity between the 6023 and 5197 in that they both have mechanical lubricators, though 5197's are tucked away underneath the running plate, in fact the running plate is very high, allowing for easy access for oiling up from the outside.

Mechanical lubricator

A major difference from the firing point of view is that 6023 has four dampers available to control the flow of primary air through the fire bed.  5197 has a number (I think it was 6) of dampers on the ash pan, that can only be operated from the ground, you can't change them on the move.  This will be interesting.

By the time that you read this, Collett 0-6-0PT 6430 should have arrived at Toddington and the usual suspects our keen volunteers will be hauling it into the yard for fitness to run and steam tests.  

6430 at the West Somerset Railway some years ago.

6430 is timetabled to haul our class 117 DMU around as its coaching stock.  This effectively provides us with a very useful fourth rake of coaches.  Failed DMUs being pulled around by steam locos was a fairly regular occurrence in the early days of dieselisation and I noted recently that one of our current firemen (Chris) who had been a fireman based at Honeybourne in the latter days of BR steam once had a turn on a BR standard 75XXX class hauling a failed DMU around.

That brings us to our final visiting loco which will be arriving later in the week, 70013, Oliver Cromwell.  

Riddles BR standard, 40602, 70013, Oliver Cromwell at Crosby Garrett on the S&C mainline

Part of the national collection, Oliver Cromwell has its place secured in the history books as one of the four locomotives to haul the famed 15 Guinea Special on August 11th 1968 which brought the curtain down on BR owned and operated mainline steam.  Keen mathematicians amongst you will have spotted that the 50th anniversary of this event is looming vary large on the horizon now.

I shall look forward to bringing you more news of 6430 and 70013 later in the week.

Of our home fleet, as has previously been mentioned, 4270 will not be returned to us in time from Crewe, but the four guests listed above along with our resident Merchant Navy, 35006, 2807, 7903, Foremarke Hall and 7820 Dinmore Manor will give us 8 locomotives to operate the timetable.

More information on the guest locos and the home fleet can be found on the main GWSR website by clicking here.

For those of you with a photographic or video inclination, GWR designed tender locos will be facing smoke box into Broadway (north) and everything else (including 6430) will be facing smoke box into Cheltenham (south).  This has involved turning 7903 Foremarke Hall using one of the low loaders that brought one of the guest locos.

Foremarke Hall, now facing towards Broadway

Referring once again to the exaggerated rumours that I mentioned before, Foremarke Hall has had her new piston rings fitted and has been tested on a service train during last week.  She is ready for action in the gala.

As usual, cost of entry to the gala includes free access to our narrow gauge cousins at Toddington who will be running on all three days.  For more information, please follow this link.

The last I heard, the footplate rides were almost completely sold out, just 2 remaining.  If you want to experience the gala from the sharp end of one of our trains, this is your big chance.  Just click on this link.

So now that we have covered the locos, what do we need to know about the rest of the gala? Well for one thing, we won't be having a freight train this year.  This is a great shame and in the normal run of events, it is the only outing that the freight train gets each year.  It's a particular blow to the people in Carriage and Wagon who have been working hard on the LMS brake van and to the 2807 group who had hoped to have their Siphon G included in the rake for the first time.  We hope to be able to run the freight train again at next year's gala, so all is not lost on that front. 

Please do not trespass on the lineside unless you have a lineside permit, which is only available to members of the public who have undertaken the GWSR's PTS (Personal Track Safety) training.   One location that is usually open to the general public is the footpath over the aqueduct between Toddington and Laverton.  I regret to inform you that the footpath isn't safe to walk on and has been blocked off, you won't be able to get onto it.  There are other bridges over the line that make suitable vantage points with in a few hundred yards in either direction which you are welcome to use.

Access to all stations is only with a ticket, you can't just pop into the Flag and Whistle for a cup of tea and a slice of cake I'm afraid.

If coming by car, the majority of parking spaces will be available at Cheltenham race Course and that would be the preferred place for you to arrive.  The main car park at Toddington will be a pedestrianised area, however the two fields to the East of platform 2 will be available.  If the weather turns inclement over the weekend and we get a lot of rain (it seems unlikely as I type this, but weather forecasts are as about as trustworthy as politicians in my experience), then parking in the fields may not be an attractive option, check the weather forecast before hand.  There is no parking available at Broadway and precious little at Winchcombe.

Pump trolley rides and refreshments will be available at Gotherington however if alighting there, please remember the trains can only stop at one platform.  A consequence of this is that you can alight from a Cheltenham bound train and a minute or two later catch a Broadway bound train from the same platform, but you can't do that in reverse.

And finally... go on, admit it, you had already forgotten about the cleaning rags hadn't you.  . Here is a gentle reminder:

Many thanks in advance