Special Guests have arrived at GCR 16th Jan 2025

The Great Central Railway Winter Steam Gala is only two days away and the special guests arrived Wednesday 15th and Thursday 16th January 2025. Reid's Freight Services delivered GWR 6880 "Bretton Grange" and it's tender to Quorn and Woodhouse rail yard on the Wednesday and on the Thursday an Austerity saddle tank is waiting to be unloaded. Later Thursday morning Alleys Heavy Haulage arrive with GWR 3850 Heavy Freight Loco, which will join in with the heavy haulage unloading day.
Due to other commitments I could not personally attend but second in command Ryan Mg steps up for us all and captures the unloading of these beasts on Thursday morning starting with Austerity. A wonderful surprise when the 08 Shunter and another Special guest GWR 6695 Pannier Tank from Swindon and Cricklade Railway rolls up in -steam to the railyard with the GCR Shed Works Crew onboard for some very rare shunting movements. I've never seen a turn-table in action, let alone with an in-steam locomotive using it.
Thank you to Ryan for filming and James M for the heads up. Pat yourselves on the back crews of Reid's Freight, Allelys Haulage, GCR Shed Works and anyone else working out of sight to make this all happen.
For more information about this up-coming four day steam gala, visit the official GCR website
https://www.gcrailway.co.uk/
Facebook page for Reid's Transport Services is   / reidfreightservices  
Website for Allelys Heavy Haulage is https://allelys.co.uk/