Great Central Railway News and Updates

[Harvester]

I caught a glimpse of a Class 24 (D5054) south of Loughborough Central station on Saturday evening, as we passed by on the Dining Train. It was stabled to the west of the mainline and I was quite surprised to see it. Is this a new addition to the GCR diesel fleet?

Must add that we had a great evening on the GCR, with two return trips and excellent food. Strongly recommend this first class service.

 

[Mogulb]

Visiting for diesel gala.

 

[Trainlog]

It was my first time visiting the GCR last Saturday and i want to say that i really enjoyed my visit to the line and was well worth the journey up from Kent to see it!

Would really like to praise the GCR's decision to allow for locos to wait longer at terminating stations so that people can see the loco's footplate.

 

[Flying Phil]

There is a lot to see this weekend with the "Railways at Work" event. Seven locomotives are moving around Lbro before 9.30!
With the return to service of Witherslack Hall, 4 other steam locomotives, 3 diesels and a DMU. Four passenger rakes, two "Pick Up goods rakes and the Windcutters (16T minerals), on both days, means it is an intensive timetable ( latest version now on the GCR website). Lots of live parcels loading and unloading etc. to show how the railways served customers in the 50/60's.
For those who question the "Educational benefit" of Heritage railways, this event is a good reply.

 

[railfan99]

It was my first time visiting the GCR last Saturday and i want to say that i really enjoyed my visit to the line and was well worth the journey up from Kent to see it!

How busy were its trains?

 

[Trainlog]

How busy were its trains?

Fairly good i would say. Arrived late morning and so there where definitely some full tables on the trains - however, it wasn't full to the extent that you couldn't get a table to yourself.

 

[Flying Phil]

The "Railways at Work" gala was a great success with busy trains, happy visitors and a lot of activity - particularly with the freight handling at Quorn. The grubby 9F with the Windcutters were a particular delight (I am biased though!).

 

[railfan99]

May I recommend viewing of the extremely well filmed video from YouTube by Brickish Rail:

 

[MidlandT]

Is there a freight service operating at the upcoming Diesel gala , if so does anyone have a timetable or Coaching Set letter

,Thanks

 

[L+Y]

Any ideas what the timetable is likely to look like for the upcoming beer festival?

 

[Flying Phil]

The GCR website says that trains will be operating on the Friday, Sat and Sunday but timetables available closer to the date.

 

[38Cto15E]

No strike on the GCR today, I am out all day riding the rails for the GCR Diesel gala, I would have liked a Class 40, or even a Class 52 or 55 but patience is a virtue.
The throaty Class 37's will remind me of days past on the Norwich to Great Yarmouth/Lowestoft trains.

I had a great day today at the Diesel gala, incredible running schedule, just before 1630 I was in the up loop behind 50007, at the same time on the up was 6700 and on the down I think it was 6535 double heading with D123.
A fabulous Piping Hot All Day Brekkie and Two Pints of Vixen for lunch.

 

[8stewartt]

Any ideas what the timetable is likely to look like for the upcoming beer festival?

Timetables now online:

Beer Festival – Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th September 2023 | Great Central Railway – The UK's Only Main Line Heritage Railway

Live music at Quorn Fri & Sat. I’ve 68-70 cask beers coming, then some boxed beer on the trains also, along with 25 ciders. Food stalls at Quorn to compliment the music.

 

[Flying Phil]

Another 16t mineral wagon has been restored to running order. Despite looking to be in reasonable condition, when it was externally painted in private owner livery, we have had to replace much of the North end headstock, repair the South end headstock, cut off and replace 8 gusset plates on the underframe. The vacuum cylinder was removed and overhauled and the brake gear freed off. New flexible hoses fitted and brakes tested.
The whole floor has been replaced together with lower edges to the end and end door. The eight vertical stanchions have had their bottom 6" repaired on the inside. Two cracked top corner welds have been rewelded. The axleboxes have been split for pad examination and oiling.
This is fairly typical of the work needed to keep these old wagons running. They were rebodied by BR in the 1970's and sold as scrap in the 1990's.


We also had to remove the side doors, make new hinges and put new hinge beams in...

 

[WesternLancer]

Another 16t mineral wagon has been restored to running order. Despite looking to be in reasonable condition, when it was externally painted in private owner livery, we have had to replace much of the North end headstock, repair the South end headstock, cut off and replace 8 gusset plates on the underframe. The vacuum cylinder was removed and overhauled and the brake gear freed off. New flexible hoses fitted and brakes tested.
The whole floor has been replaced together with lower edges to the end and end door. The eight vertical stanchions have had their bottom 6" repaired on the inside. Two cracked top corner welds have been rewelded. The axleboxes have been split for pad examination and oiling.
This is fairly typical of the work needed to keep these old wagons running. They were rebodied by BR in the 1970's and sold as scrap in the 1990's.
View attachment 142283View attachment 142284View attachment 142285

Great to see those pics. It's v impressive to see the efforts put into this fleet so keep it running for people to view, enjoy and understand. Wagons that would once have been so common as to not merit a second glance I suspect. Well done to all involved.

And it's not just the visible dimension this work restores, but the sound of such trains too, which to my mind is very evocative of the world they operated in.

The detail of the work you listed @Flying Phil , shows what a beating they would have undergone during operational use too.

Are there many / any more of these at the GCR unrestored on the 'to do' list as matter of interest? (or indeed many more on other preserved lines for that matter)

 

[Flying Phil]

Hi Western Lancer
There is a list of our wagons on the GCR website but we have 30 on site (with 6 more on loan to the P & BR). There is only one of these that is unrestored, which is at Quorn, but we have started on that. All 29 of the others have run on the GCR, but 5 now need work doing (3 major and two minor). We are going to do the Fitness to Run annual exam for the running rake over the next two months and that may alter the picture!
The aim is to get all 30 running, then have a rolling program of two wagons "in works" each year for overhaul and repaint. At present there are still 3 or 4 wagons that only have had one check and paint when they arrived in the 1990's.
There are quite a few odd ones around the country, but the Foxfield and Blaenavon railways have several each.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi Western Lancer
There is a list of our wagons on the GCR website but we have 30 on site (with 6 more on loan to the P & BR). There is only one of these that is unrestored, which is at Quorn, but we have started on that. All 29 of the others have run on the GCR, but 5 now need work doing (3 major and two minor). We are going to do the Fitness to Run annual exam for the running rake over the next two months and that may alter the picture!
The aim is to get all 30 running, then have a rolling program of two wagons "in works" each year for overhaul and repaint. At present there are still 3 or 4 wagons that only have had one check and paint when they arrived in the 1990's.
There are quite a few odd ones around the country, but the Foxfield and Blaenavon railways have several each.

Thanks for such a helpful answer!

 

[Flying Phil]

The 9F has been allowed to "weather" and is looking far more authentic....


still not quite as dirty as some seen in the 60's though...

 

[WesternLancer]

The 9F has been allowed to "weather" and is looking far more authentic....
View attachment 142771

still not quite as dirty as some seen in the 60's though...View attachment 142773

Thanks - nice! Can I ask where the older image (92116) was taken? Interesting coaling tower in view.

 

[Hairy Bear]

That's Leicester, running round on the down goods by the look of it.

 

[WesternLancer]

That's Leicester, running round on the down goods by the look of it.

Ah thanks - I knew that big retaining wall looked familiar!

 

[Flying Phil]

This was the view in front of the GCR shed today - getting ready for the Autumn Gala (Sept 5-8th). Witherslack Hall running as Swithland Hall and one visitor - 2999 Lady of Legend in the shed.

 

[Flying Phil]

Unfortunately our Windcutter rake did not run at the Autumn Gala as some of the 16T mineral wagons could not be passed for their annual "Fitness to Run" (FTR) exam and there was not enough time to do the required work. So there are another 6 wagons in the yard at Rothley.
One B279711 will need a new floor and other repairs (This was a known expectation following last years FTR). B 551846 had some minor brake rigging adjustment and pad exams now ready for FTR, B 570618 pad exam and ready for FTR, B589163 has two failed Oleo buffers at its South end (we have replacements which need fixing holes drilling), B555696 has a corrosion hole in the vac pipe where a bracket holds it below the headstock and B556456 which had a pad exam and is ready for FTR.
In other news, it is confirmed that fundraising for the "Factory Flyover" section of the "Gap Project" is going very well with nearly £2M in the bank. A lot of vital paperwork is being done before work can start.



Double headed GWR 4-6-0's "Lady of Legend" and "Witherslack Hall" running as "Swithland Hall" at the Autumn Gala.

 

[Swimbar]

Every railway has a duty of care and whether the GCR has met this duty will be covered by the investigation. Highly desirable to avoid too much comment before publication.

RAIB report published this morning

Report 13/2023: Serious injury to a passenger alighting from a train at Loughborough Central station

Serious injury to a passenger alighting from a train at Loughborough Central station, 14 January 2023.

www.gov.uk

'RAIB identified two underlying factors, that Great Central Railway did not have effective processes for learning lessons from operational experience, and had no effective process to support the identification, management and monitoring of risk'

 

[Paul Hitchcock]

RAIB report published this mo

https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/rep...-from-a-train-at-loughborough-central-station

'RAIB identified two underlying factors, that Great Central Railway did not have effective processes for learning lessons from operational experience, and had no effective process to support the identification, management and monitoring of risk'

This would prevent operating trains longer than platforms and thus requiring passengers to change compartments or carriages before detraining. Good!

 

[1Q18]

This would prevent operating trains longer than platforms and thus requiring passengers to change compartments or carriages before detraining. Good!

Or, it would mean appropriate safety mitigation might have been applied for operating longer trains, to avoid customers being hospitalised.

 

[james_the_xv]

89 Steam locomotive drivers at GCR are judged against various criteria when being assessed. One of these criteria is the ability to accurately stop trains. GCR uses a standard of stopping ‘within ten feet (3 metres) of an ideal position’. Drivers who can achieve this consistently are considered to meet the required competence. In terms of this criterion alone, the fact that the train involved had passed approximately 1.6 metres (5 feet, 3 inches) beyond a safe position (with all doors platformed) was within this standard. Even if the driver had intended to stop so that the passenger coaches were positioned centrally along the platform (with approximately 1 metre of level platform at each end) the final position was still within 10 feet (3 metres) of that point. GCR reported that the ‘ten feet’ requirement was a historic British Railways standard for vacuum braked trains. GCR and other operators of vacuum braked trains hauled by steam locomotives consider it reasonable and achievable by a competent driver.

90 Although the risk assessment for platform 1 at Loughborough Central recognised that trains with more than six passenger coaches could not be safely accommodated, it did not recognise that the allowable margin for error when stopping a six-coach train was small (paragraph 57). This meant that the risk assessment did not specifically recognise there was also a risk of a door on a six- coach train not being safely accommodated or arrange for any control measures to be put in place for such occurrences.

This is the bit that gets me, did no one put 2 and 2 together? Or does the person who manages the risk assessments and the person who manages driver competency just not talk? I'm sure this would have been well known to the drivers that you need to to stop on a dime there, but I cant imagine that information didn't make it up the chain at some point?

Can Mk1 doors be individually (manually) locked OOU?. Seems like the obvious solution to have the two end doors of the train locked at Loughborough Central (at least on arrival). If not I'm sure they can be retrofitted with a bolt (a garden shed one for example).

 

[1Q18]

Can Mk1 doors be individually (manually) locked OOU?. Seems like the obvious solution to have the two end doors of the train locked at Loughborough Central (at least on arrival). If not I'm sure they can be retrofitted with a bolt (a garden shed one for example).

Mk1 coaches can have the doors locked individually very easily with a T-key/carriage key. It occurred to me as well that locking out the end doors would be a reasonable solution.

 

[D Williams]

This is the bit that gets me, did no one put 2 and 2 together? Or does the person who manages the risk assessments and the person who manages driver competency just not talk? I'm sure this would have been well known to the drivers that you need to to stop on a dime there, but I cant imagine that information didn't make it up the chain at some point?

Can Mk1 doors be individually (manually) locked OOU?. Seems like the obvious solution to have the two end doors of the train locked at Loughborough Central (at least on arrival). If not I'm sure they can be retrofitted with a bolt (a garden shed one for example).

No doubt this event will have considerable ramifications for all heritage railways that regularly stop services at stations where platforms are shorter than the train. As you point out, a bit of forethought and a simple door locking procedure would have prevented a nasty accident and a lot of expense. Ten feet is a generous margin of error given the low operational speed of heritage railways but in this case the brake was not behaving as expected.

 

[Flying Phil]

This information has been given to Boscastle Shareholders and BOSClub members

"Boscastle insurance claim update....
The Board of the Boscastle Locomotive Ltd. are pleased to be able to announce the following: “Following the major theft last year, of parts and material, from our storage container on the Great Central Railway, a claim for the loss has been pursued and, it is with considerable relief, that a down payment has been received from the insurers to enable us to start placing orders for replacement parts, particularly for the inside motion.
There is still a lot of money needed to complete the work on the boiler and then the final assembly of the locomotive, but the day that Boscastle returns to steam is getting closer. Thanks are due to many people from the GCR, Boscastle Locomotive Ltd. and the Loss Adjusters, who have worked very hard to quantify and process this complex claim."