Dean Forest Railway Steam Gala 2016

[Dannypenguin]

Hi all,

Thought some of you might be interested in some of the photos from the Dean Forest Railway's biggest gala of that last 15 years! Four visiting locos meant that we were in for a good ride, and today I managed to get cover for the last two hours to escape on go on a photo hunt - being staff I have the relevant gear and track safety certificate to be able to go to some of the more "out of the way" places! The visiting engines were: LSWR T9 30120, LSWR Beattie Well Tank 30587 and Metropolitan E Class Met 1 (failed today with injector problems ) - home loco 5541 was also in action.

So here we go:

I arrived at Whitecroft to find the services running late due to Met 1's failure, I just had time to walk down to Scovills crossing to get this:


I then drove a little further down to Upper Forge and was greeted with 5541 on the B set following behind:


After this I headed back to Norchard and the Beattie had arrived with the Saloon, here she is a the watering hole


Then the T9 joined the party too!


I then headed back to the Upper Forge area and perched on my favourite photo spot to grab pictures of both the T9 and the Well Tank




Overall a good afternoon and I hope we can get another Gala like this in the pipeline for the next year or two!

[JMORG]

Looks good Danny! How's the Speech house road extension coming?

Interestingly enough, last week we had a discussion about the Wye valley line and the we concluded that the rest should be rebuilt as 2' gauge; using the NGG13/16s and NG15 currently at the Exmoor Steam Center!

[SapperAnt]

Great shots! Love the one of the Beattie under the water crane! Fantastic!

[Soar Valley Light]

Great shots Danny.

It's a railway dear to my heart. I remember it in it's last years under BR. The family stayed at Whitemead Park an awful lot in those years.

I also worked on the line at Lydney when the new level crossing went in.

Keep up the good work!

Andrew

[Dannypenguin]

Looks good Danny! How's the Speech house road extension coming?

Interestingly enough, last week we had a discussion about the Wye valley line and the we concluded that the rest should be rebuilt as 2' gauge; using the NGG13/16s and NG15 currently at the Exmoor Steam Center!

The answer to that is how long is piece of string! Haha only joking, we're working on it but it will be a bit of time yet. We've had multiple feasability studies which seem to come out in our favour so hopefully, one day...

That would be great if they did that, imagine an NG15 simmering at Tintern before heading down to Chepstow with the mid-morning service...yes I'd definately work there!

Great shots! Love the one of the Beattie under the water crane! Fantastic!

Thanks, that is the one that has generated the most interest, yet it was just a shot I quickly took as I walked past before heading back to my car!

Great shots Danny.
It's a railway dear to my heart. I remember it in it's last years under BR. The family stayed at Whitemead Park an awful lot in those years.

I also worked on the line at Lydney when the new level crossing went in.

Ah yes! You must re-visit sometime, let me know when you're coming and I can arrange behind the scenes tours (that goes for anyone)!

Which crossing was that? The new mainline one?

[Soar Valley Light]

I may take you up on that sometime Danny.

The crossing was the one immediately adjacent to your signal box at Lydney. I think it was when the by-pass was built. Our contract was with GCC if I remember correctly.

Andrew

[Dannypenguin]

I may take you up on that sometime Danny.

The crossing was the one immediately adjacent to your signal box at Lydney. I think it was when the by-pass was built. Our contract was with GCC if I remember correctly.

Yeah carry on, best thing to do is give us a couple of months notice so I don't book myself for a turn!

Yes it was they that paid for it I believe, didn't do a bad job too ;-)