Back to Black

No, nothing to do with Amy Winehouse, 'Back to Black' is the theme for this year's steam gala.  

Gala artwork courtesy of Andy Beale

 The Back to Black gala is less than six weeks away now, and frantic activity has been taking place behind the scenes to bring forth a cornucopia of delights for you to enjoy.  What can you expect should you choose to pay us a visit during the gala?  Well lets start off with the locomotives that all being well we will have in steam (the usual caveats apply; steam locos are very old and do sometimes fail, your house may be repossessed if you don't keep up your mortgage repayments etc):

From the home fleet we expect/hope to have (in numerical order):

2807

2807 at Gotherington

Wheel arrangement: 2-8-0

Origin: Great Western Railway
Introduced: 1903
Working weight: 116 tons (locomotive 76 tons, tender 40 tons)
Water capacity: 3,500 gallons
Purpose: Heavy, long-distance freight.

2807 is currently away at Tyseley having attention paid to her horn guides.  It is very much hoped that she will be back in time for the gala.

4270

4270 in the David Page shed at Toddington

Wheel arrangement: 2-8-0T
Origin: Great Western Railway
Introduced: 1910
Working weight: 82 tons
Water capacity: 1,800 gallons
Purpose: Heavy freight

This locomotive's restoration from Barry scrapyard condition is nearing the end now and is again very much hoped to be in steam in time for the gala.

5542

5542

Wheel arrangement: 2-6-2T.
Origin: Great Western Railway.
Introduced: 1927
Working weight: 61 tons
Water capacity: 1,300 gallons
Purpose: Light Branch passenger.

The more observant amongst you will have noticed that in spite of my best efforts to put you off the scent with a black and white photo of 5542, so far all of the locos listed are in GWR green of one form or another.  The rest of our line up from here on are in black livery to conform with our 'Back to Black' theme:

7820, Dinmore Manor

Dinmore Manor departing Winchcombe

Wheel arrangement: 4-6-0
Origin: Great Western Railway
Introduced: 1938
Working weight: 69 tons (loco) plus 40 tons (tender)
Water capacity: 3,500 galls
Purpose: Mixed traffic on rural routes of the GWR.

Dinmore Manor is now in regular service on the GWSR, having only entered traffic in early April after a 10 year rebuild.

 8274

8274 (running as WD348 last year) in Dixton cutting

Wheel arrangement: 2-8-0

Origin: LMS

Introduced: 1935

Working weight: 126 tons

Water capacity: 4,000 gallons

Purpose: Freight locomotive

For the visiting locomotives we will have (in numerical order):

1501

1501 on a demonstration goods train

Wheel arrangement: 0-6-0PT 

Origin: Designed for the GWR, built by BR

Introduced: 1949
Working weight: 58 tons, 4 CWT
Water capacity: 1,300 gallons
Purpose: Shunting empty coaching stock in and out of Paddington station

1501 is coming to us courtesy of the Severn Valley Railway and the 1501 Pannier Tank Association..

3850

Wheel arrangement: 2-8-0
Origin: GWR (Collett rework of Churchward's 28XX class)
Introduced: 1938
Working weight: 116 tons, 5 CWT
Water capacity: 3,500 gallons
Purpose: Heavy freight

3850 comes to us courtesy of the West Somerset Railway and her owning group Dinmore Manor Locomotive LTD (DMLL).  At some point over the gala weekend it is intended to double head the two DMLL locos.  This will be the first occasion that DMLL will have had two locos in steam at the same time and place.

45379 - Black Five

45379 at home on the Mid-Hants Railway

Wheel arrangement: 4-6-0
Origin: LMS
Introduced: 1934
Working weight: 129 tons
Water capacity: 4,000 gallons
Purpose: Mixed Traffic

 45379 comes to us courtesy of the Mid-Hants Railway.

So there you have it, with a bit of luck that will be 8 mainline steam locos in action and the majority of them in black.  For the DMLL group, it will be an event to remember as for the first time they will have two of their locos in steam at the same time and place.  They'll also have a three of their four locos present, 2874 (sister loco to 2807) is one of theirs too:

2874 patiently awaits her turn for some TLC at Toddington

This will also mark the first gala for 7820 during her current boiler ticket and of course, for 4270 it will be the first gala appearance ever, which will be quite an event in its own right.  

Our active restoration projects will be on display too.  Like last year 35006, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company will be shunted out into the car park at Toddington.

35006 in the David Page shed.

Note the shiny, newly painted smoke deflectors in the foreground, they will hopefully be fitted shortly.  Her tender has been lowered back down again after work on the brakes. It is hoped that the painting of the tender will have finished in time for the gala.

Last year we opened the David Page shed to allow visitors to see what was in there that might be of interest.  This year, the only mainline steam loco that applies to is the NRM's 4F, 44027.

44027, some while ago in the David Page shed

Rather than open the David Page shed every day to let people in just to see 44027, it is currently proposed that the last loco to go off shed each day should pull her out so that she can be seen from the viewing area which is open to the public on the west side of the yard.

Whilst the timetable is yet to be published, I can inform you that it will involve evening running on the Saturday and Sunday, finishing at 10pm. Crews and passengers alike will be pleased to learn that the final service will terminate at Toddington and not Laverton as is shown on my advance copy. 

As if that isn't enough, like last year, the North Gloucestershire Narrow Gauge Railway will be open and running on all three gala days.  Their timetable can be found online by clicking on this link.  I am informed that Justine and 1091 should both be in steam, possibly one or other double heading with Sena No. 15, which currently has no power brake.

 Although is doesn't currently say so anywhere that I could see on the main GWSR website, the cost of travel on the narrow gauge railway is included in the Back to Black gala ticket price.  Note that if you turn up for the evening running only, then a £12 ticket is all you need to ride on the late trains from 15:45 onwards (other prices for families/senior citizens/children).  Advance tickets represent not only a significant saving, but saves you from having to stand in the queue to buy tickets on the day.

Following on from the success of last year's event, we'll be doing brake van rides again, with the subtle variation that you'll now be able to buy a return ticket rather than just a one way ticket. At a £5 supplementary price in addition to the gala ticket for a one way trip and £10 for a return trip, these are excellent value for money.

The view from the Queen Mary brake van as 2807 and the freight train is about to enter Greet tunnel

Greet tunnel is 693 yards long (over a third of a mile) and curves inside, so in the middle of the tunnel,  is pitch black. You should be able to see the cosy glow of the fire from the locomotive up ahead of you though.

Again, following on from a successful start at last year's gala, we will be offering a limited number of footplate rides on the larger of our home fleet locos.  An experience not to be missed.  When last I heard, half the available slots had already been booked, so if you are thinking about it, best get your act together sharpish.

A happy customer on the footplate of Foremarke Hall last year

 If non-rail bound steam is your thing, then once again we will have a selection of traction engines at Winchcombe, with some making the occasional foray as far as Toddington.

A traction engine making its way to Toddington last year

 If you don't have a car, then for the first time, we'll be able to help you get you to us by public transport.  We will be operating a shuttle bus from the mainline Cheltenham Spa Railway station to our own Cheltenham Race Course station. Details should be appearing on the main GWSR website in the fairly near future.  Roll on the day when mainline visitors will be able to board a train at their local station and change trains at Honeybourne for the GWSR.  Again like last year, we hope to have heritage buses conveying passengers to Broadway station to inspect the excellent progress being made towards recreating the station and signal box there.

If you do have a car, then parking at Toddington will be relatively limited (best arrive early) or alternatively there is plenty of parking at Cheltenham Race Course station.  There will be no parking at Winchcombe unless you turn up driving a traction engine.  I'll make exceptions for anybody who arrives on a Vincent Black Shadow or BSA Gold Star as long as they leave the keys with me.  Needless to say, they won't see them again.

Mortons media group which publishes amongst other titles, Heritage Railway Magazine are sponsoring this year's gala. They will have a stand in the marquee in the car park at Toddington along with many other organisations and locomotive owning groups, which includes crafts, railwayana, prints, photos, model railways and projects such as The Patriot Project, Betton Grange , 813,  71000 and of course 44901.

I had intended to leave it at just mentioning the gala this week.  At short notice I found myself working at the day job on Saturday.  I arranged with the crew that I'd pop in on Friday evening and clean the 8F ready for them in the morning and then call back in towards the end of the day on Saturday to help with disposal, which is exactly what I did.  Just as I was about to leave on Friday evening though, I found George and Mark's wife Michelle in the car park preparing to surprise Tina with a birthday cake.  In yet another display of dedication above and beyond the call of duty, Tina had gone along to the steam loco dept's management meeting on her birthday.  Before anybody asks, I did a bit of investigating and discovered that Tina has now reached the grand old age of 21.

Michelle & George with the cake.  Note, George appears to be sporting an interesting new hairdo

As a fireman, Tina should be keeping fires going rather than putting them out.

For somebody who had been through the grade of fireman before becoming a driver on our railway, George experienced a great deal of difficulty in getting the candles lit.

Whilst kicking about in the car park before the management meeting had drawn to a close and it was time to appear with the cake, for some reason or other the topic of conversation drifted round to the topic of death.  When his time comes, George doesn't care which chimney he goes up, but he is keen that it's while which ever loco it turns out to be is being given some "second valve treatment" up towards Greet tunnel, the idea being that his ashes would land in the pub.  Michelle volunteered that Mark would not care where it was as long as it was one of his (ok DMLL's) locos.  Personally, I'm rather torn.  As somebody who views the Lake District as his own personal adventure playground, joining Alfred Wainwright by Innominate Tarn on Haystacks appeals, as does Westmoreland cairn on Great Gable.  

Wasdale as seen from Westmoreland Cairn

If it's a case of going up a chimney, then I'd settle for 6000, King George V being thrashed driven in a spirited fashion southbound up towards Ais Gill summit on the Settle and Carlisle line, with my ashes coming to rest upon Wild Boar Fell.  It will never happen of course, KGV is stuffed and mounted in the NRM and is highly unlikely to turn a wheel under her own steam again. She was the first steam loco that I ever stood on the footplate of, more years ago than I'd care to admit to at Bulmers sidings in Hereford.  4079, Pendennis Castle was there at the same time, which would be a much more likely alternative.

6000, King George V (and 7819, Hinton Manor) in 1985 near Bristol

I know it's a bit morbid, but feel free to comment on which chimney you'd like to go up and where, when the time comes.  Feel free to ask questions about the gala too. I will of course add more details/announcements regarding the gala over the coming weeks. Most of all, do come along to the gala and hopefully you'll have a very good time indeed. 

Confessions of Winchcombe Signal Box

If pressed to describe myself, the phrase 'keen amateur photographer'  would probably be in there somewhere.  That is of course a euphemism for somebody who spends a lot of time and money taking photos but isn't very good at it.  One of my preferred forms of photography is railway photo charters.  I was asked to describe what a 'railway photo charter' was to a lady friend some years ago and I said that it is similar to when a camera club hires in some scantily clad models to practice taking photos of.   A whole bunch of people club together, hire the model and grab a set of photos.  This is the same sort of idea, except that you hire a steam loco (not necessarily scantily clad) and get it to run up and down a line all day whilst you take photos.  The key fact being that if you miss a shot at one location because the sun chose that moment to pop in behind a cloud and not emerge again until the tail lamp has just passed you, then you can simply call it back and re-do the shot.  If need be, you can just keep it sat a little way up the line whilst you wait for the sun to reappear.   Another benefit of these events is that you can within reason choose the stock that you run with, freight trains being popular as you don't often see them running otherwise.  The big idea is to try and recreate scenes from the age of BR steam or sometimes even earlier and photograph them.  There are worse things to do with your free time.  I'm struggling to think of one right now, but I'm sure there are.

The GWSR hasn't run any such photo charters since before the landslip at Gotherington, at least six years ago now.  Whilst on charters elsewhere, I have been nagged approached by several charter organisers who would be keen to see such events staged at the GWSR again.   Getting the ball rolling has proved to be a fairly lengthy process which has involved what in effect was a risk assessment process wherein the procedures for running charters was defined stating what sort of things could be accommodated by the railway and those that could not.  Eventually after several iterations a document that stated how such charters would operate in a safe manner and a contract document for charter organisers was arrived at.   We were ready to dip our toes into the waters of the photo charter market once more. 

The arrival of Dinmore Manor on the railway has generated a great deal of interest amongst the general public and the photo charter community alike and so a couple of dates using Dinmore Manor were arranged with Martin Creese of 30742 Charters, the first day with a freight train, the second with a three coach maroon rake.  The dates were the Wednesday & Thursday of last week.  This is how it all went:

I had a slight panic the night before the first one, when it suddenly dawned on me that although I could get into the car park at Toddington, none of the charter participants would be able to without me standing by the electric gate all morning to let them in.  A strategically placed empty crisp packet sorted that one out.  I now know how to keep the gates open without having to recourse to employing litter for a purpose for which it was never intended. 

Crisp packet 1 : 0 Electric Gate

The Operations Manager was as good as his word and the freight train was ready and waiting in platform one

A fair proportion of the attendees on photo charters are of an age that can remember BR steam in the fifties and sixties and want everything to look as if it was from that era as much as possible.  In particular, they like locos to look uncleaned and unloved much as they did back then.  To that end, a request not to clean Dinmore Manor beforehand had been made, but the last time I had seen her, she still looked pretty much as if she had just emerged from Swindon works.   I noticed when I set off in the morning that my car had acquired another coating of Saharan sand dust and of course, so too had Dinmore Manor.  Good for the charter of course, but this Saharan dust is definitely a mixed blessing.

Once the crew had Dinmore Manor ready, we were off to Stanway Viaduct for a few runs past.  This is probably the GWSR's signature shot, and one that wouldn't have been available the last time charters ran.  Helpfully there was an Easterly wind which carried the exhaust away from us.

7820 with freight on Stanway Viaduct

 Unfortunately the light was rather flat all day, with no sign of the sun at all. In such conditions, black and white photos tend to work best.  At least in spite of the forecast it didn't rain at.  

Transportation between photo shoot locations was of course in the brake vans. 

Jack Boskett relived a misspent youth sat on the only seat on the Toad's verandah

Jack is a 'keen professional photographer', which means that he is somebody who is so good at photography that he can make a living at it.  He does take some extremely good photos indeed.

The next stop was at the popular Didbrook 2 location  (second bridge at Didbrook). 

Crossing over Didbrook 1

Approaching Didbrook 2

 The idea of course is to stage shots where nobody is in anybody else's way.  If you step back from the gallery a bit, this is the sort of thing you'd see.

Dinmore Manor in a sea of hi-viz vests

 Next stop, Chicken Curve:

Silhouette at Chicken Curve

 The next shot is one of a couple being considered for use by DMLL on a series of promotional mugs.  I'll provide a link to the location that they can be ordered from when it's available.

7820 mug shot

Jonathan was the driver for the day

Fireman Andy damps down his coal

 After lunch in the Flag and Whistle, we were unexpectedly held up for a couple of minutes by the permanent way gang who were doing some spot re-sleepering near Hailes.  It turned into a photo opportunity for the crew as well as me.

Red flagged at Hailes

Given the green flag and we were off again

Andy at work in the office

What is the collective noun for lineside photographers?

Leaving Winchcombe

Leaving Winchcombe in B&W

And again in colour

 The photographers weren't allowed to enter Greet tunnel for safety reasons.  That doesn't appear to have deterred Pink Floyd though.

Wait for it...    Another Brick in the Wall!

 There was no sign of their legendary light show though.

Roaring into Greet tunnel

 Ok, perhaps not 'roaring into Greet tunnel', 7820 was stationary at this point.

Down in Dixton cutting, we had a rare opportunity to get photos of her approaching a functional distant signal.  I'm not sure that too many other railways have distant signals that are operational.

In Dixton cutting

A few shots of Dinmore Manor bursting through Three Arches Bridge were on the cards too. 

Three Arches Bridge

Three Arches Bridge

 That was pretty much it for day one, on to day two.  Martin Creese was unavoidably unable to run the charter however Simon Hopkins deputised and did an excellent job of keeping the whole event running seamlessly.

Normally points are deducted if a fireman creates too much black smoke.  If you bung some coal on and the smoke becomes too black to see through, then you're supposed to open the firehole doors a bit or stick the blower on to clear it.  Woe betide the trainee fireman who causes such clag as to besmirch the washing hanging on the lines of the houses alongside the railway.    Photo charters are an exception however as the photographers are keen on anything that can make the loco's exhaust stand out from the background sky.  The Fos-Y-Fran coal that we are using at the moment is very clean and generates little black smoke, so I decided that testing out a few smoke bombs would be in order.  I filled an old water bottle with contaminated oil which could be thrown onto the fire at a strategic point.

The Mk I smoke bomb, primed and ready to go.

 The first stop was at Didbrook 2 again:

Didbrook 2

 This day was rather colder than the first day which helped the exhaust stand out from the background sky rather better anyway.

Didbrook 2

I'm a fan of pan shots, but only tried doing the one over the course of the two days.  It wasn't quite as sharp as I'd have liked.

Pan shot at Didbrook 2

 Given that we'd lose the nice exhaust when the day warmed up, we elected to go to the South side of greet tunnel for some tunnel exit shots:

Dinmore Manor bursts out of Greet tunnel

 Later on back at Winchcombe we did a few staged cameo shots on the platform

The guard (Mel) with Clive and Stephen relax on the platform at Winchcombe

The guard takes it easy, the crew share a joke

 I really rather enjoyed that session, the rebuilt Monmouth Troy station building at Winchcombe is a gem and nothing in the scene says that it wasn't shot in the late fifties or early sixties.  The location has particular associations for Simon Hopkins who was running the charter on this day.  Apparently his dad had been a signalman at Winchcombe in the late fifties at around the time he started courting Simon's mother.  Simon is of the belief that his brother was conceived in Winchcombe signal box.  Sadly the one we have now is not the original, which like so much else on the line was demolished by BR.

Further on down the line, we tried a few runs past at Gotherington station.  It was here that we tried using the smoke bomb.

Mk I smoke bomb in action

The effect was rather limited as the smoke lasted a very brief while and was gone by the time that 7820 reached the point that most people were clicking their shutters.  Not to be deterred, the crew had their own smoke bomb made up of bits of oil soaked carpet and so on in a plastic bag:

That did the trick

 After lunch, I made up a few more:

Mike with a couple of the mk II smoke bombs

 Stanway viaduct is normally a 'morning shot' i.e. the line runs north to south and the only side with open views is on the east.  If you don't want the train to be in shadow, you have to be there in the morning.  Given that we had no sign of the sun and therefore very diffused light, there were no shadows to fall foul of, so we set off up to Stanway viaduct:

Approaching Stanway viaduct

Leaving the viaduct

And somewhere in the middle

One of the mk II smoke bombs in action

And again

 The tender was already full, but we staged a cameo shot of it being over-filled for a few seconds.  Heaven knows why they thought to stage this, we seem to be able to do this perfectly ok without having to try.

Clive keeps his feet dry

 A few departing shots at Toddington:

I've lost track of the number of times I've done this in the past, but it still works.

 We finished off the day with a few departure shots at Winchcombe:

Departing Winchcombe

And again

This is another mug shot possibility

That was that, I had a marvelous couple of days and I very much hope that everybody who joined us did as well.  I was nice to catch up with a number of old friends who I regularly see out on the photo charter circuit.

The list of people that I need to thank is extensive, and I'm always loathe to say who as I will be guaranteed to miss somebody important off, but here we go, in no particular order:

Colin Fewell for working out the commercial aspects of the charters.

The staff of the Flag and Whistle for opening specially for breakfast and lunch on both days.

Carriage and Wagon for assembling that rather nice freight train.

Whoever was involved in the shunting operations required before and after the charters.

Martin Creese for bouncing ideas off of and for getting the interest of so many photographers to support the event as well as organising it.

To the photographers who paid to join us.  I very much hope that they all enjoyed themselves.

To the lineside clearance team who have kept the undergrowth at bay.  There's no point paying to photograph trains from the lineside if you can't see them for trees & bushes.

To the crews, guards & signalmen; Jonathan Windscheffel, Andy Webber, Stephen Burnett, Clive Norton, Mel Curnock, Malcolm Hector, Peter Giddins & Peter Smith.

To Simon Hopkins who stood in for Martin Creese as organiser on the second day.

As always to the myriad other groups who do all the work that keeps our railway ticking over from day to day.  Can't do this stuff without track, stations, carriages etc.

A big vote of thanks to all the good people of the Dinmore Manor Locomotive Group who have pulled out all the stops in order to get Dinmore Manor ready to run in time for the agreed charter dates.  Looking back it was a scarily close run thing, the two charters were her first two revenue earning days in traffic during this boiler ticket, a loaded test run having taken place just a few days beforehand.  In particular I'd like to thank Mark Young and Mike Solloway for keeping me posted on developments with the restoration and reassuring me that all would be ready when the charter dates arrived.

Thanks also to the Bluebell Railway for the loan of the Dukedog's tender.

Finally, my thanks must go to our Operations Manager, Neil Carr who provided invaluable assistance in helping me draft the document that describes the terms under which we will operate photo charters as well as making sure that the stock was checked to run (remember the freight train hasn't been used since last year's gala) and shunted to the right starting points before the charters started, as well as making sure that it all got put away where it was supposed to go afterwards. Most especially, I am grateful to Neil for coming to our assistance at the end of the first day, when a signalling failure had us all stranded at Winchcombe and unable to get back to Toddington.  He quickly turned up and fixed the problem, even though he had already gone home and was relaxing in the bath when the call came in.  Definitely dedication above & beyond the call of duty.

Now that we have something of a template as to how it will all work going forward, it should be easier to roll out more photo charters.  We already have another sold out event with one of our visiting locos for the gala and the prospect of more being scheduled for the Autumn.

Remember that Saharan dust, well I turned up on Saturday expecting to have to clean it all off of Dinmore Manor before she could go out on a regular service train for the first time.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that Mike, Dan and possibly others had already made a good start on cleaning her up on Friday, leaving me with little to do.  Quite a few other people turned up on Saturday to help as well, for which I was very grateful.  Kenneth Sims the chairman of DMLL was one of them. He kindly sent me this photo of the assembled throng of cleaners & crew taking a tea break.  He's clearly cottoned on to how to get his photos published in here as it doesn't include me.

Breakfast Tea Party, photo courtesy of Kenneth Sims