GCR Winter Gala 31 Jan '09

I may have gone a bit far, wasn't meant to have a go at the photographers (i'm one of them too!) or volounteers. I guess I needed a chill pill. Anyway to those who volounteer at the GC, please except my apologies. I attend most galas and enjoy them. Pity the Q6 can't do an earlier train if not a second trip but never mind.

 

It is difficult to know how to respond to this debate. I prefer to watch and video from the lineside, usually from the public side of the fence but I do have lineside passes for two of the preserved lines and I intend to add a third. Having said that I also feel that having membership and a lineside pass is not enough and it is especially not enough just to watch from the public side of the fence, for free.

The problem then is what to do. I don't have the time to be a volunteer, and I don't have enough money from my pension to be constantly filling the tank in order to get to the local line in order to be a volunteer. In addition some of the volunteers I come across from time to time on different railways are not the sort of people I would wish to spend my leisure time with and that view is negatively reinforced by many of the posts I read on NP.

I have in the past made visits to the tourists traps that most railways run in order to buy a dvd or a book. This does offer some sort of 'thank you' to the railway and it assuages my guilty conscience. As the GCR management have made Loughborough a closed station for this event and it is no longer possible to order goods on-line from the GCR this is no longer achievable. Basically I'm stuffed!

Now I agree that the present GCR management is vastly better than any of its predecessors but it still doesn't seem to quite understand that the market for railway enthusiasts is not uniform. There are out there people who have widely differing approaches to expressing their interest in their hobby. Volunteering is one (and this is very much the most useful to the movement), membership, donations, riding on trains, riding behind particular engines, photographing them, cabbing them, modelling them etc.

The present controversy over the number of passenger turns the Q4 will take is an obvious indication of this misunderstanding, as is the fact that lineside passes for the GCR are so expensive which puts them out of reach of all but the affluent. There is also an issue surely that why put on so many freight trains during a weekend when the only possible revenue stream for that weekend is the passenger trains? It's daft!

I think the railway's management has to put its thinking cap on. It good, in fact it's marvellous that it is motivated to put on a gala like this but it also has to think about how to encourage the enthusiast to part with their money to fund it. I'm quite sure that enthusiasts will part with their dosh if they think it's worthwhile.

Can I suggest that the creation of a viewing gallery at Loughborough and Swithland would be useful, that day lineside passes would be useful and that perhaps even asking for donations at Kinchley Lane would bring in some revenue?

Come on chaps, think creatively!

Regards

 

I suppose the railway wouldn't run so many goods trains at galas if they felt they weren't making money from the event. Also having the great advantage of a double track line creates so many paths that probably allows them to do this. A railway that can only dispatch a train every 45 minutes, for example, probably wouldn't be too keen on running any goods, or not more than one during the day at the most.

Regards,

Paul

 

I am only going beacuse of the freights. There are 11 passenger trains too - surely something for everyone and that is why the events are so popular!

 

Llangollen has the answer, namely provide brake van rides for a small extra fee on top of the day rover. On the last GCR gala I remember seeing passengers on the brake van, I assume these were volunteer staff, probably some of the cleaners.

 

Just a quick question about next weekend. I'll be arriving in Loughborough on Friday afternoon. Will I be able to purchase my two day runabout ticket from Loughborough booking office on the Friday night after I've checked in at my B&B?

Also, will the booking office allow photographers for the night shoot even though I won't be travelling on the trains on the Friday?

Replies to my message or PM would be greatly appreaciated.

 

GCR website states that the Friday night shoot is free to ticket holders for ANY day.

 

Hi,

Could I ask if anyone knows what the TPO rake will consist of? It was a tiny bit dissapointing to see Leander breeze through with only 3 coaches at the SR gala, though I appreciate this may well have been due to coaching constraints.

I see that the parcels rake and the TPO rake are never out at the same time, so I wonder if the powers that be will combine the 2 for the drops perhaps?

 

Unfortunately the length of the TPO rake is generally limited by the length of the siding at Rothley Brook, exceptions being if the set is booked to run to Leicester North, or theoretically if it were to have a loco change and depart from Rothley Brook without an other train in section.

 

Ah yeah, I'd forgotten that aspect. I spose at the SR gala it was limited by the fact that the Brook siding was out of commision leaving only the carriage works for stuff.

Don't spose you know if they've got the siding in operation again now, do you?

 

With so many pages I hope I haven't overlook this in an earlier response, of so sorry.

Just wondering will there be a comprehensive time table available to purchase, including goods trains for the gala?

 

There's gona be a gala programme, which will be free with runabout tickets (or usually a couple of quid max separately).

It's ususally quite a good read with various articles and updates from around the railway as well as the timetable.

 

The siding is in operation and trains will be recessed either in there, or the C&W yard; as well as at Quorn in the Lie-Bye.

Working Timetable will be available from Tuesday onwards, inclusive of timetable for Friday and the weekends plus various information about locos, the railway and the supporting groups.

You should be able to purchase a two day ticket on Friday evening as long as the ticket office is still open.

Lastly, as for brake van rides, we never let passengers onboard unless we've offered it as a prize in a raffle, or staff have specifically requested to the guard to travel on the train, it's mainly because they don't run into platforms and it's too dangerous to have people walking around lineside with trains flying everywhere.

 

That would be cleaners/volunteers on the brake van because I was one of the riders', unfortunately we do not allow members of the public to ride in the brakevans.

 

Brakevan rides used to be allowed. I remember being on one behind 92212 on a windcutter at Swithland.

 

Hoping to come to the gala Sunday, a couple of questions, does the 9.15 and 10.00 from Loughborough both have griddle car services for breakfast ?, and how many freights will there be on the Sunday?,

regards George

 

FREIGHT TRAIN WORKINGS @ GCR Winter Gala 31 Jan '09?

I shall be coming to the GCR on Saturday, to travel, to meet up with old friends and, above all, to phot the Q6 on a real freight train! Having invested large amounts of cash into both this loco and the J27 during those now almost forgotten days when NELPG was desperate to raise money - by any means - to acquire them, opportunities to view such a fine loco, doing the work it was designed to do, have since, for me, been few and far between.

I intend purchasing a day rover upon my arrival and, hopefully, a lineside pass as well, if any are still available, but, as I am travelling to Loughborough from quite some distance, I need to plan my journey ahead. Can anyone over there give me some idea of when the freights will actually be running?

 

Timetable (without freight) >>>here:<<<


9:15 has RMB (Restaurant Miniature Buffet)
10:00 has RB (Restaurant Buffet)

 

I think the RB set (i.e. the 10.00) is the set with the Griddle Car.

The RMB set only has light refreshments.

 

Reading between the lines (literally!) in the GCR timetable that is attainable through the link that 'Cunni' has now kindly provided, can we assume that the freights will occupy the paths in between the passenger workings that are indicated in this on-line version as merely blank columns of dots?