123. A day out on the Great Central Railway - Open Extravaganza

At the start of the year (2024), Steve, John & myself got together at Steve’s farmhouse in deepest Buckinghamshire to plan a year of expanding our railway visit horizons. We wanted to visit a few interesting heritage railways, other than our usual couple of visits each year to the Blubell Railway in Sussex.
One of the venues that matched our combined calendar availability was the Great Central Railway’s Open Extravaganza weekend (11 & 12 May 2024). We decided upon Saturday 11th.

John had been to this heritage railway in the past on a steam engine driver experience, but Steve & myself had never been there. So along with fellow Chesham Model Railway Club (CMRC) member Ray, we duly arrived at their Leicester North Station on a lovely sunny spring morning. I was immediately impressed with the place & their other stations with there interesting & spacious centrally placed platforms.

We also did a guided tour of the Loco Shed at Loughborough where I noticed locos being worked on which belonged to other heritage railways & mainline running organisations. One star was LNER A1 Tornado’s tender 60163, which was a surprise. Maybe the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust didn’t have the space at their own workshops with them currently building the new Gresley P2 loco. However, I didn’t film anything in the Loco Shed, it being a bit cramped & the tour rushed. Outside the shed, I recognised Southern Railway‘s N15 Sir Lamiel under covers having its asbestos lagging removed.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day at the GCR & I’m sure we will be visiting again in the future.

Starring :
• Great Central Railway (GCR) – Its stations at Leicester North, Quorn and Woodhouse, Rothley & Loughborough Central.
• Ex LMS - Stanier Class 8F 2-8-0 Steam Locomotive - BR No. 48305.
• BR - Standard Class 2MT 2-6-0 Steam Locomotive - No. 78019.
• BR - Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 Steam Locomotive - No. 92214.
• BR - Class 45/1 ‘Peak’ Diesel Locomotive - Leicestershire and Derbyshire Yeomanry No. D123 (45125).

Also Featuring :
• Friends :
o ‘Farmer’ Steve Bateman.
o ‘Lofty’ John Harman.
o ‘Gypsy’ Ray Prentice-Garner.
• BR – Class 08 Diesel Locomotive – No. 13101 (D3101).
• BR – Class 20 Diesel Locomotive – No. D8001 (20001).
• BR – Class 25 Diesel Locomotive – Castell Dinas Bran No. D5185 (25035).
• BR – Class 31 Diesel Locomotive – No. 31108 (D5526).
• BR – Class 50 Diesel Locomotive – Royal Oak No. 50017 (D417).
• BR – Standard Class 5MT Steam Locomotive – No. 73516.
• Cowans Sheldon – 76 tonne (75 Imp ton) Diesel Recovery Crane – No. ADRC 96709.

Venue :
• Great Central Railway, Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, UK.
https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/

Filming :
• Camera – Sony Xperia 1 II (Mk2) smartphone.

Video creation :
• Software – Microsoft HD Movie Maker PRO.
• Background sounds :
o Freesound - 118733__acclivity__bluebellrailwaytrip-110402-001.WAV file by acclivity
https://freesound.org/people/acclivit...
o My own sound file of Class 45 Peak D123 idling & pulling away.