Twist & Shunt

It was back to the swinging sixties at the Great Central Railway this weekend, with an impressive line up of motive power and workings to keep visitors entertained. Steam and diesel locos were rostered together with a two-car Met-Cam DMU, and along with passenger services the GCR ran some freight and parcels diagrams.

There was plenty of action during the day with five steam locos, two diesels and the DMU in operation. Notable amongst the line up was class 25 D5185 that I last saw, ironically enough, in the Nene Valley sixties gala back in September. Standard 2-6-4T 80072, recently returned to steam was looking great, along with my personal favourite 5690 Leander and, top of the bill, 60163 Tornado which is an enjoying a short holiday on the line before taking up mainline duties after Easter. Not having seen Tornado before (am I the only one left?), this was a must-see. And I have to say that I’m very impressed by this awesome locomotive.

My day began at Kinchley Lane in very dull and threatening weather, but the rain stayed away even if the wind didn’t. When things improved I ventured down to Woodthorpe before rounding off the day at Quorn station. I was pleased to see that all trains were well patronised, but surprised at the rather low number of photographers who turned out. Mind you, this was a good thing for me personally as it meant that many good vantage points were available and I didn’t end up photographing elbows, backpacks and beer bellies that so often occurs at such events.

My plan was almost entirely based around videoing the trains, so still photos had to take a back seat. The end results of the shoot are extremely good on the Quicktime player, but inevitably suffer from loss of quality after conversion to a format suitable for editing. Not an easy problem to get round while Microsoft and Apple refuse to allow cross-compatibility between their products. As I started with a Beatles song, I’ll end on one – Help!