Over the Weekend of 11/13th September 2009, the Great Central Railway held their annual Autumn Diesel Gala, this year featuring star guests Deltic No.55 019 and Class 50 No.50 007. The visit of the Class 50 made GCR history as this class had never operated on the line before so this was a first. The weekend was also supposed to be a chance to rise behind the newly arrived Class 03 Shunter D2158 but that failed on the Saturday before I had got chance to film it! Darn! The Gala also saw the return to service of resident Class 20 D8098 after a lenghy engine overhaul.
The final line up was:
-Class 20 D8098
-Class 25 D5185 'Castell Dinas Bran'
-Class 27 D5401
-Class 31 D5830
-Class 33 D6535 working in push pull with...
-4-BIG Unit 7059
-Class 37 No.37314 'Dalzell'
-Class 45 D123 'Leicestershire & Derbyshire Yeomanry'
-Class 47 D1705 'Sparrowhawk'
-Class 47 No.47714
-Class 50 No.50007 'Sir Edward Elgar'
-Class 55 No.55019 'Royal Highland Fusilier'
To add to all that, the DPS (Deltic Preservation Society) allowed the Great Central to run the Deltic with both engines working. A rare chance to see that indeed, those classic V shaped exhaust fumes (which I would just like to add, made plenty!)
