More October Outings
Somewhat belatedly, an update on what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks.
On October 13th I went to the Severn Valley Railway as they were putting on an intensive service for their Members and Shareholders Weekend. I had recently decided to become a member, and as I also wanted to 'invest' in their current share issue, attendance was pretty much compulsory! Things didn't happen exactly as I had expected as the advertised double-header working featuring visiting ex-LSWR T9 4-4-0 no. 30120 didn't happen. We got U class mogul no. 31806, as shown in the above photo, in it's place, but as I also got to see the T9 on shed at Bridgnorth, I can't complain too loudly.
On the 14th I had a very early start to make the long journey down to Bodmin for the Railmotor Weekend at the Bodmin & Wenford Railway. Once again, things weren't exactly as advertised as the railway had suffered a couple of failures the previous day which meant that the scheduled three train operation was replaced by a two train emergency timetable. Fortunately, GWR Railmotor no. 93 was not one of the casualties, and it and small Prairie no. 5552 put on a good show for the final day of the event.
I have to admit to being rather envious of those who will be able to travel in the railmotor when it visits the Looe branch next month. Not only is travelling in no.93 an interesting experience, I now know that the steeply graded Looe branch will give it quite a challenge.
I had originally planned to attend a two day photo charter at the BWR, arranged by Don Bishop, on the 15th and 16th, but after booking my accommodation, the charter was postponed by a week so I had to find something else to do. As I had never travelled on any of the Cornish passenger network before, I decided to do a track bash on Monday 15th with the aid of a day rover ticket (£8.30 with my Senior Railcard) and managed to visit (for between three and ten minutes each) Looe, Penzance, St. Ives, Falmouth Docks and Newquay. The day started out with brilliant sunshine, but ended in typical British fashion by almost blowing a gale. I won't be publishing any of the photos from the day here as the mode of transport was exclusively diesel multiple unit, but I would recommend the experience to anyone. Having seen them briefly, I certainly want to go back and spend a bit more time in Looe and St. Ives.
What looks like being my final gala event before Christmas was at the East Lancs Railway on the 20th. With five locomotives in action, the ELR gala was certainly a numerically smaller event than the WSR or GCR Autumn steam galas, but it was an interesting event nonetheless. As usual, I planned to extend the range of locations visited. One or two will definitely be on my list of spots to use in future, but as I ended up to my ankles in a mix of mud and cow doings at Spout Lane bridge, that will be one that gets a miss from now on.
That's about it until the end of November when Tornado ventures up the Marches line to Ludlow. That will be her first outing after a repaint into BR blue livery, so is not to be missed. As well as Tornado, rebuilt Bullied West Country class no. 34046 Braunton will also be travelling that route that day, on a run to Shrewsbury. Watch this space!