The English Electric Light Orchestra Presents:

A symphony is 15 parts, with contributions by English Electric, Sulzer, Brush and General Motors. Yes, diesel mania comes to the Nene Valley Railway!

Barely had the last tank rumbled out of Wansford as the WW2 armies retreated (story here) than the yard was filling up with diesels, ancient and modern, for the autumn Diesel Gala. It just shows how proactive the NVR is at putting on events and pulling punters in. I’d started my week off at the railway, so decided to visit the Gala for a change of pace on Saturday, the highlight of the staggering four day event. Unfortunately, when I woke up bright and early, I found that the skies were leaden and the tree in my garden was bent double by a fierce biting wind. As I planned to spend the day linesiding on foot and by bike, I thought – am I going to be put off by a little bit of iffy weather, just because there’s a hurricane and looks like rain? Of course I was. I’m not that daft, am I? So I didn’t go.

Sunday, however, was a different story. 7 am, and the sky was clear, the wind had dropped and I still had everything packed up in my Grumpy Git Productions bag. Even two sausage rolls that couldn’t be refrozen according to the instructions – well, I couldn’t let them go to waste. So the matter was decided.


I parked up near the former station at Castor, as I wasn’t bothered about shooting film at Wansford – it would be crawling with folk all getting in each other’s way while trying to get the same picture. For me, it was the open countryside for a bit of peace and quiet and some nice views. All the regular vantage points would be occupied by photographers anyway, and I wanted to avoid filming everything from the usual ¾ coming-at-you angle for variety. I was surprised, however, to find that there were more people on the line – the actual trackbed I’m talking about here – than on the public side of the fence or on the trains themselves. I assume it was permitted as they all had on bright orange hi-viz jackets that could easily be seen from Jupiter – problem was, everybody taking shots from the public side of the fence got lovely views like this:

At least have the decency to stand behind a tree. In Cornwall.

Fortunately, most of these photographers travel everywhere by car and will only walk about 50 yards to an easily accessible vantage point; jump over the fence and take a shot. I planned to spend the entire day on walkabout to get as many different views as possible. It’s odd, but sometimes you can take a photo, move 50 yards and get a whole new perspective on the same scene. It also helps pass the time to walk from place to place as well, and it’s healthy. Luckily I had a good supply of biscuits, coffee and Mars Bars to counter this latter effect.

Not that there was much waiting around – the NVR pulled out all the stops for this gala and should be commended for what must have been a huge amount of planning. Three rakes of coaches would be in service, running no less than fifteen return diagrams (17 on Saturday) up and down a 7 mile line! Nine mainline locos were booked, plus two shunters operating a top and tail shuttle up on the Yarwell end.

The coach rakes were a 5 car red and cream MK1 set; the four car Danish rake in Olive green and the beautiful Wagon Lits (Orient Express) coaches, also in a four car rake. Unusual; but in a free for all like this, it just added to the festival atmosphere. Although why the Wagon Lits couldn’t have been used last week during the war re-enactments is a question that needs answering…

Seen last weekend at Wansford. Lovely vehicles.

What was gratifying was that the NVR did match locos and stock when possible, so that, for instance, green D5185 (class 25) and D306 (class 40) both had turns with the MK1 set independently and then double headed, which was a nice touch.

Railfreight grey 37518 rather suited the green DSB set ...

... whilst Alycidon looked very much at home on the Orient Express rake.

Double heading was kept to minimum, and sensible couplings were made on those services that featured it – the pair of grey class 31’s and the 25 / 40 combo mentioned above. Locos and stock were constantly switched during the day, so you never saw the same combination twice.

An excellent point well worth mentioning here is that unlike some preserved railways - who won’t even tell you what loco is running that day and treat diagrams as state secrets - the NVR published the full working timetable on it’s website so that you knew what was operating, with which coaches, and when it was running. You can seek out more information about the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Programme* than find out which loco the North York Moors Railway plans to use on any given day. As I said earlier, an awful lot of work went into this Gala, and I hope that it was a financial success for the railway.

Apologies for the low-res pictures. These are screengrabs from film clips, and I hope to create the Diesel Gala movie shortly.


* President: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has asked me to point out that there is no such Iranian Nuclear Weapons Programme, and these massive atomic facilities are for peaceful purposes only, once the west has been annihilated. Er, ok.