Created 31-Mar-26
42 photos
Saturday 28th March 2026 seemed to be a good day to visit the GCR as they advertised two working steam locomotives and a diesel railcar with eight departures from Loughborough expected. The weather forecast was not too bad either with possible showers and sunny intervals. It just didn’t turn out that way. One steam locomotive, 78019, took three of the scheduled steam hauled services, diesel electric, D123, had the other two and the railcar that I hoped would be ‘Iris’ turned out to be the two car blue Metro-Cammell DMU. The forecast showers turned out to be heavier than expected, of hail rather than rain and one turned into a mini-tornado that unscrewed my umbrella, tipped-up my tripod and launched the umbrella into a tree some considerable distance away. I saved my cameras! Looking back, the photographs do not do justice to the conditions; there were more sunny periods than hail-storms!
© DAVID ARMITAGE