Home»All Photographs»Heritage Railways»GCR»2024»2024_10_04 Autumn Steam Gala

What a difference a day makes! On Friday the 4th October 2024 I visited The GCR Autumn Steam Gala for less time than on Thursday 3rd but returned home with more than twice as many photographs from effectively only one location. It was simply too busy to move! Everything was very well planned; the locomotives were all well prepared and looked their best, the two freights were of reasonable size and appropriate for the location and the passenger stock were relevant to the period although the blue/grey coach was pushing it a bit on a secondary route. Someone complained about diesels at a steam gala but both D8001 and M79900 were pure 1950s origin and I thought deserved their place. I frequently whinge about the practice of DMU crews displaying ridiculous and impossible locations in the destination blind windows but almost the highlight of the event was to see IRIS heading to COLNE! If they had turned to the next location then it might have been either BARNOLDSWICK or SKIPTON! Now that would have made the day for me. Overall, it was very enjoyable; almost every train, passenger or freight, ran very close to booked time with the rostered motive power performing as expected.