Avon Valley "London Transport" gala

[Andrew]

Hello all,

I spent Sunday afternoon at my local steam line, the Avon Valley, enjoying their London Transport gala. It's a small line, pleasant rather than spectacular, but they do put on a good show for galas, this year hiring in "Met 1", "L92" (to go with "L150", already on the line) and some Routemaster buses.

It was a great afternoon, with a very intensive timetable. While we were there the three LT red engines handled most of the passenger trains while resident Austerity "Earl David" busied itself on a lovely goods where it really looked the part, despite being the only "namer"... With lots of shunting moves at the stations there was some pretty brisk running to ensure the timetable was kept to, with the deeply lovely "Met 1" putting in some particularly impressive performances - I stood at a window at the back of a train as it banked "L150" up the gradient from Avon Riverside to Bitton, absolutely fantastic...

Our last run was with all three red locos - we picked sloes at Avon Riverside as they ran round and have now bottled what my wife has christened our "Triple Header" sloe gin ready for Christmas...

I'll add some links to some videos (not mine) - and if you like the sound of it then it sees that "Met 1" and "L92" will be in action again this coming Sunday, on passenger and goods trains respectively. I think I'll be back for more...

Andrew.

"Official" highlights:

https://video-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvide ... e=56264767

"L150" banks "Earl David" on a goods train - as seen from the brake van:

https://video-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hvide ... e=562639F1

And a longer clip, from YouTube:

https://youtu.be/HxSgqHoe1WE