Roses Rivalry Steam Galas

 Some photos from one of my jollies in 2019 to keep us all amused today, when the East Lancs and the Keighley & Worth Valley Railways both held their 'Spring' galas on the same early March weekend. The inverted commas in 'Spring' doing some very heavy lifting, as you'll see we had quite a variety of weather, only a small amount of which could justifiably be described as Spring!

So, East Lancs first, with a rather impressive line-up of locomotives. We arrived at Heywood station to be greeted by BR Std 2MT 78018 visiting from the Great Central Railway, running round its train.

As I recall it was quite an aspirational timetable, and whilst I applaud the ambition, unfortunately it didn't quite work out. Combined with irregular deluges of rain and hail, and a desire to get some reasonable photos, we ended up spending most of the day at the delightfully restored Ramsbottom station:

I was a particular fan of the canopy, which just like ours at Broadway, they had to build themselves as there was nothing left when they took over. Theirs of course is to a Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway pattern, and very smart it looks too.

The way the timetable worked there was almost always something going on here which was great, here we had the unusual sight of locos on both lines facing the same direction, residents BR Std 4MT tank 80080 and, of most interest to this pre-grouping fan, ex-L&YR A class 52322:

As I remarked, the weather was rather changeable all weekend, I think this rainbow was spotted just after an intense hailstorm!

It also shows off another rather well executed scene with the footbridge, semaphore signals and signalbox behind the crossing. The view from the footbridge was perfect to appreciate a guest familiar to GWSR gala attendees, Caley tank 419:

It was very much "Doing the rounds" in 2019, I think as well as here and us, it also visited the Churnet Valley and Swanage, which made me wonder why I'd bothered to go all the way to Scotland to see it! (of which, maybe more another day, as it was worth the trip!)

Next up in the loco parade was this little oddity:

"Gothenburg", an industrial built for the Manchester Ship Canal Railway. Canal Railway, come again? Like many lines, the ELR's first train was hauled by an industrial that subsequently becomes a bit of a flagship, even if the railway ends up outgrowing the loco a little. Often it's dressed up as Thomas to earn its keep.

At some point I know we did get on a train, to go both to the end of the line at Rawtenstall and back and forth to Bury Bolton Street, but I suspect it must have coincided with it absolutely chucking it down, as the camera went away! It came back out again to snap 34092 City of Wells back at Ramsbottom though:

And for a second Std 4 tank, 80097, freshly out of the workshops I believe:

Due to the large loco lineup, double heading was frequent, and here 80080 pilots what looks to be 78018.

Finally back at Bury again and some photos were taken, another of L&YR 52322, note the storm sheet - I wonder how effective it was against some of the weather we had!

At the other end of the station was 'companion' loco Douglas:

This was originally an "Austerity" locomotive, but rather brilliantly has been converted to a tender engine and matched rather well with the A class when double heading.

The final guest was our very own 4270, which I almost managed to completely miss such was the line-up. 

It was near the end of the day and we were treated to a few rays of sunshine, but naturally they were facing the wrong way!

So, that was Saturday, 9 locos, and a new railway for me ticked off the list. It certainly had a very gritty, industrial feel to the place, particularly at Bury, which had its own attraction. The more scenic section around Irwell Vale (where the current Lloyds advert with Flying Scotsman is filmed) would probably be worth another visit on a sunnier day!

Onto Sunday then, and the KWVR. We had an excellent cooked breakfast at Oxenhope while the rain was absolutely torrential, and scuttled onto the train clutching our bacon and eggs without a second thought about taking any pictures! First stop was Ingrow West, where the Vintage Carriages Trust have their base, an absolute favourite visit for this vintage carriage enthusiast. Before that though, we caught Ivatt 2MT 41241, freshly outshopped resplendent in KWVR house colours which it wore when it ran the first preserved services on the line:

Hauling an enviable rake of L&YR coaching stock, very tasty, including this 6 wheel all first:

Onto the museum itself, which is excellent, having some vine examples of Victorian and Edwardian carriages, at least of which I believe to come out to be run on special occasions.

This GCR carriage was probably my favourite with all that lovely gold lettering, I think built before the GCR extension that we saw Dave exploring on a previous post.

They also have a fantastic record of all manner of railway and modelling magazines, and I could probably spend months in their archive room. But the peeping of whistles outside pulled me out, to see LNWR coal tank 1054 shuffling around with some wagons:

It was also joined by Black 5 45212

Then it was back up to the station to wait for our next train, where we could admire the lovely stone building, which was originally from Foulridge, but in a matching style to other KWVR station buildings:

Yes, that's snow! So we sensibly retreated to the waiting room and tried to defrost by the real coal fire within.

We did peek our noses out again to watch BR Std 2 78022 come by though:

We hopped on the next train in the other direction, back towards Oxenhope, passing the above having turned around at Damems junction:

"Junction" here being something of a Midland Railway hang-up, where a passing loop was confusingly called a junction, there's still only 2 directions here, up or down!

It also lays claim to being the smallest standard gauge railway station in Britain, with all the usual facilities crammed onto a platform just 1 coach long:

Photo from a previous, much sunnier and warmer, visit!

Passing through Oakworth station I poked the camera out of the window to catch this steam crane in operation on a demonstration turn:

Kudos for the operating gang for sticking at it, considering the weather and the fact they were only demonstrating.

Oakworth station itself:

I really do like that dark soot-stained stone seen all along the railway.

Somewhere along we the way we worked our way back to Oxenhope, probably for lunch, and to see one of the main attractions, Ex-LMS Jubilee 45596 Bahamas:

And then, the sun came out, hurrah!

And even a tiny bit of blue sky there to go with Black 5 45212

We then moved on to Haworth where the railway's main engineering workshops are located. Parked outside were these two excellent traction engines:

At Haworth they're lucky to have really quite a large goods shed in proportion to the size of the station (and indeed the whole branch!) We were told this was because Haworth was a focal point for a lot of the area's wool production, so the goods shed actually served a much larger area than you might think.

(Another photo from a previous sunny visit!)

The footbridge gives a good view of the yard and trains coming past, here the LNWR Coal tank and Bahamas. Note the coal staithes - these aren't for the railway, they're still used by a local coal merchant.

Finally we ended up at Keighley, with a connection to the mainline, and the sun was out again for a few final photos:

Always nice to see a goods train!

And that was it! Despite the challenging weather a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Hope you enjoyed the photos.