Home»All Photographs»Year Albums»2024»January»2024_01_26 GCR Winter Steam Gala

The three day GCR Winter Steam Gala is always a good opportunity to get out in the fresh air, see and photograph some interesting steam locomotives and meet up with friends and acquaintances as the nights begin to get a little longer. The 2024 event was essentially home based with just two visiting steam locomotives but important support was provided by two other visitors in the form of Derby Lightweight single unit railcar M79900 ‘Iris’ and North Eastern Railway Autocar 3170. There are those that are critical of the use of internal combustion engine power at a Steam Gala but these two in particular are historically significant and play a useful role in moving the visiting public between locations. The steam visitors proved to be very popular. Aspinall L&Y 0-6-0 carrying BR number 52322 was an outstanding guest that performed very well throughout the event and BR Standard Class 4MT 4-6-0 75069 was a much appreciated late replacement for the original USATC S160 Class 2-8-0 2253 that had to be withdrawn following boiler problems. I didn’t hear a single regret that ‘OMAHA’ had been replace by a proper BR locomotive. There was a problem, fairly early, involving the van formation that had to be replaced by a mixed freight for the rest of the gala. This was done well by the staff but some trains had to be cancelled and others ran quite late. That’s the way it goes sometimes.