Today we finally wrap up the articles from the Watercress Line’s Autumn Spring Steam Gala with a gallery of pictures. By now, the locomotives featured here (850 Lord Nelson, 925 Cheltenham, 9F 92212 and Black 5 45379) have featured so many times that there seems little reason to look at them again in depth. I…
This locomotive and coach combination is one of the most iconic in the history of western region steam. The autotrain is the last of the visitors to be covered here, of the Watercress Line’s Autumn Spring Steam Gala. Although the last it wasn’t the least for me, although the little tank engine was certainly the…
Good evening, I had the pleasure of attending the Mid Hants Railways Autumn Steam Gala this year with Mr LocoYard himself and had to say that the Watercress Line held another fantastic steam gala. When 2 of the scheduled visiting locomotives dropped out I did start to worry about the gala, but the four Great…
Being one of Swindon’s finest express locomotive’s, this locomotive was arguably the headliner of the Watercress Line’s Autumn Spring Steam Gala. 5029 Nunney Castle was a prestigious visitor of the event. The castle class is a classic Great Western express machine. Although superceded in power by the later King class, it’s greater route availability kept…
When it is a Modified Hall of course! Hawksworth’s Great Western Railway Modified Hall at first glance is similar to Collett’s Hall, but interestingly in some respects it was rather radical and broke the railway’s usual practice of design for two cylinder locomotives.
You may have heard the term “coffee pot” to describe a steam engine with a verticle boiler, or as a nickname for Bulleid’s Q1 class. However, this locomotive proved to be a coffee shaker…
Steam gala’s on the Watercress Line present great opportunities to explore the workshops to see how various overhauls and restoration of different locomotives are progressing. Even considering the recent departures of all but one of John Bunch’s locomotives, the railway has an impressive fleet. The fate of this one locomotive, BR standard 5MT class 73096…
In summary, I have to say that the Watercress Line held a a fantastic steam gala last weekend. With four Great Western visiting locomotives ranging from the mighty Castle to the tiny 14xx class supplemented by the railway’s home fleet, there was non-stop steam action.
Good evening, Following the popular mini series looking at the history of 35005 Canadian Pacific (which can be found here), I was lucky enough to come across one of her former fireman on Facebook. As part of the Mid Hants “Canadian Pacific – Engineering a Future from the Past” project (if the Heritage Lottery grant…
Just a quick post tonight to mention that the Watercress Line will be holding their Autumn Steam Gala from 24-26th October 2014. The event will be covered here on locoyard by Simon and I in some detail! This year there is distinctly a western theme with four GWR visitors (14xx Tank 1450, Castle Class 5029 Nunney Castle,…
Loco Yard 