Great Central Railway Winter Gala...

Amidst arguably the worst case of January blues I've ever had, I was very tempted not to go out again this weekend. The cold weather has really bitten me this year and has sucked all of my enthusiasm away. However, thanks to a welcome bit of blue sky and sunshine, I summoned the strength to wrap up and drag myself over to Quorn & Woodhouse station this afternoon for a look at the Great Central's Winter Gala line up. The 2018 event featured six of the home fleet, boosted by two visitors: Holden B12 No8572 and Hughes Crab No12065. I arrived at around 1pm and duly met up with Batesy and the crew in the Quorn yard. The sun was shining and the air was still, making for much better conditions than in recent weeks...

All in all it was a quiet and enjoyable afternoon: we had a pint of good real ale, chatted about all things steam and watched many movements pass through the station. The GCR gala's always provide plenty of intensity with little more than 5 minutes between each move. Standard 2 No78018 strides through on a freight train...

I had about 2.5 hours at Quorn getting the Winter steam fix before deciding it was time to head for home as the temperature dropped again. The Southern-built 8F and its GWR stamped wheels was the last departure we saw...

We did see the two visitors briefly as they stomped through Quorn on a non-stop express. The Crab sounded a treat - clearly wound out to make some noise. Unfortunately my total lack of photography skills resulted in a blurred mess so David (who visited the gala on the dreary Friday) kindly sent in some images of the pair. I love the lines of the Holden B12 - a wonderfully quirky looking machine...

"8572 Heads for Loughborough" (Pic - D.Hanks)

The Hughes Crab is also a fine machine - I love the livery...

"The Crimson Crab" (Pic - D.Hanks)

Overall I was glad to have got out today for some steam and fresh air: it was a good couple of hours spent in good company. The GCR certainly seemed to have done well out of it as the trains were absolutely rammed. It was certainly an antidote for my rapidly increasing CFS - 'Cold Firebox Syndrome'. For those not in the know, CFS is a debilitating condition whereby the patient becomes desperate for the sight and smell of an engine in steam. Common around this time of the year when most railways have shut up shop, CFS is a very real condition and awareness should be raised of its symptoms! Thank you for reading, Sam...

The Statfold Barn Cleaning Day...

Every January the Statfold Barn Railway holds its annual 'Cleaning Day'; a chance for the volunteers to come down and scrub off some of the dirt created during the previous season. In wintry conditions, I arrived at the Oak Tree roundhouse at just before 8:30am. The traditional McDonalds stop had been performed on route and I was soon at work with my rags and brass cleaner on my favourite: "Isibutu". The ex-Tongaat Sugar Bagnall was sat between "Harrogate" and "Trangkil" on her usual turntable road. With the help of new volunteer Ben, "Isibutu" was spruced up to a mirror shine over the next couple of hours. She was absolutely gleaming...

All around, the rest of the 21-strong operational fleet of steam locomotives were being steadily polished by their respective cleaners. The cleaning day is always a good Winter crack and a chance to catch up with those you don't often see outside of the operating season. Despite being an active volunteer at Statfold for a few years now, I never cease to be amazed when I see the fleet standing together - it has to be the worlds biggest toy box! Here, half a dozen of the British built locomotives stand together...

After a few hours cleaning and polishing we left the SBR at around 2pm as we had to get over to Tyseley for a meeting. I must admit I can't wait for the first Statfold open day in March: cold firebox syndrome is setting in again! If you want to visit Statfold in 2018 then click here for the website. Thanks for reading all, Sam...

A New Year Start at Tyseley...

Hello all. A belated "Happy New Year" to you and I hope you had a great Christmas and festive period. Today I was over at the former 84E at Tyseley Loco Works for the first volunteer Saturday of 2018. It was a quiet day - mainly Christmas chat and a few bits and bobs to do. Not a lot to say other than it was a typical bleak midwinter day spent in good company! Cheers all, Sam...

Happy New Year: Dropping The Fire - The 2017 Review...

As the embers of 2017 gently cool there is time to sit and reflect on another great year with heritage steam. Despite ever tightening time constraints on my behalf, the blog has managed to finish the year with 69 posts. Long term readers will of course realise that this is actually down on previous years but I will say that so much more effort has gone into the depth and quality of the posts this year rather than just adding a few for the sake of it. I'm very happy with this years content and its a pleasure to hear that people are still reading all of this dribble so thank you for that - it is much appreciated. I'll try not to ramble on too much in this post but I think its fair to sum up with the following. 2017 has seen:

• 14 Tyseley Trips
• 2 Tyseley Open Days
• 3 Statfold Open Days
• 1 Giant Miniature Weekend (one is enough!)
• 8 Shackerstone Turns (who'd have thought it)
• 2 CMES Turns
• Plus a handful of Evesham jobs

On top of all this we've done days out, the odd special jaunt to crew a loco somewhere else and of course plenty of Tyseley shed days. Its been another mammoth year and even writing this post "I'm all train-ed out" as Ed used to say before he sadly departed. He's still with us by the way, just departed...to Norfolk (selfish). Anyway, now for a brief roundup of the places I've volunteered in 2017 starting with the main one: Tyseley Locomotive Works and its main line steam fleet...

Tyseley has been a pleasure to be with once again this year and its a privilege to be a small part of a great team and what it stands for. A centre of Great Western engineering excellence, the chance to work with engines such as "Earl of Mount Edgcumbe" is something that I never thought would happen, let alone the chance to travel with this engine at 75mph and experience a bygone age which the younger volunteers such as myself can only imagine ever happened! I can't thank the 84E team enough for everything I've learnt this year and during 2015/2016 because its invaluable knowledge that will stick with me. The experiences I've had have been, to put no finer point on it, life changing and have certainly made me appreciate the skills of a proper locomotive driver and fireman. I've done 14 trips with the team this year, if you combine the day excursions and "Shakespeare" jobs, and we've been all over: York, Llandudno, Salisbury, Cardiff! All in all another great year and lets hope 2018 brings more experiences like this. Moving on: Statfold Barn...

"Driving HC 'Fiji' In September" (Pic - B.Bryan)

Statfold Barn Railway is another of those lucky to be involved with places. Over the years we've had some amazing days on the footplate there aboard locomotives rescued from around the world. Its a fabulous set-up that seems to grow year on year and you can never cease to be amazed by what the place has to offer. I've driven for them three times again this year at all three open days. I think September has to be the highlight when we were given the pride of the fleet: Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 "Fiji" - what a cracking day that was. I hope to continue with SBR into the future, not least for the sake of "Giant Miniature Weekend" and I hope 2018 brings more of the same. I am most grateful to Mr Graham Lee and his family for continuing to allow us to play with this marvellous collection of engines and to enjoy them in the best way possible: from the footplate! Keeping with narrow gauge, lets talk Evesham...

"Driving 'Dougal' Back In June"

The 15" gauge Evesham Vale Light Railway never fails to provide a pleasant, enjoyable and stress-free day out on the engine. Adrian & Sandra always ensure a warm welcome and you can never have a bad day at Evesham: its just lovely. Good track, happy passengers, immaculate locomotives and everything where you want it. Just nice. Back on standard gauge, 2017 surprisingly saw us doing 8 steam turns at the Battlefield Line: our old stomping ground...

"On 5542 with David and JB"

Two turns in the spring on the NRM T9 were followed by a summer go on the Austerity and then finally five turns on the visiting Prairie No5542 to bring the year to a close. Dare I say its been nice to be back, particularly when crewing the very nice Western product. Did I hear someone say "Giant Miniature Weekend"?...

"Sunday Line-Up at GMW 2017" (Pic - M.Ranieri)

The mammoth gathering of miniatures returned to Statfold in May and totalled 94 engines on the Saturday. It will return this year over May 12th/13th and I'm hoping to achieve over 100 engines in 1.5" - 9" scales. Oh how its grown over the years and the constant support from exhibitors is very much appreciated. Tickets are already available on the SBR website - we'd love to see you there. Talking of Miniatures...

To my greatest shame neither of my own two locomotives have turned a wheel in 2017 and this is simply down to time constraints and laziness on my part. Both have sat in the workshop cold since the previous summer - I've tried not to make eye contact with them! They're both lovely machines and I do feel bad that they haven't steamed for a good while but I'm confident that in 2018 they'll run again - I hope so anyway!...

To fill in the gaps in this years steam calendar there has of course been some days out too. We've been all over the place. A few highlights...in June we had a very sunny day on the Severn Valley Railway with 7714...

Moving into July I accompanied my old friend "Sir Gomer" on her visit to Foxfield where she returned to her colliery roots. Despite being past her best, the old Peckett did well and managed to defeat Foxfield bank and its punishing 1 in 19 gradient - just about. Nevertheless another good experience and another railway ticked off on the footplate. It was good fun and an eye opener...

We returned to Welland to crew "Roger" the Wren for Statfold at the end of July...

In early August we celebrated Mick & Julia's wedding day in style on the Great Central Railway, along with 48624 and 777 "Sir Lamiel"...

There was of course the annual visit to Devon and the Dartmouth Steam Railway where Tyseley's own Pannier 7752 (as L94) was pulling the trains...

Well, as the Looney Tunes used to say - "that's all folks!". That's enough rambling for one year. Thank you all very much for reading again for another year, thank you to all of the photographers who have been involved, thank you to everyone that has rostered me and to anyone else that has contributed to this years blog in any way. If you're reading, why not leave a comment and let me know where you're reading from - I'm always interested to hear! By the way, everything that is mentioned in these posts is available to read about on the blog so why not grab a cuppa' and bore yourself silly for half an hour! Finally, as 2018 draws ever nearer - HAPPY NEW YEAR. Until next...year...regards, Sam...