More gala pictures

 Well I think we've just about recovered from an incredibly busy and successful weekend, enough for me to pop some photos up for those who haven't been deluged already on other social media.

To kick us off, one of the Pug performing brake test duties on the main goods set the day before the gala. A fantastic little machine this!

The pug had its own wagons to play with though at Winchcombe, the shorter BR set.

It also pinched one of either the Toad or Queen Mary of the main set as it went past in the morning to do some brake van rides round the station.

Later on I was the guard that brought the short goods set up to Todd to transfer a brake van back to the main set, which provided a different viewing point to watch a couple of double headers - firstly the Hall and Castle Northbound to Broadway pass.

Followed by the U-boat and the Manor in the other direction.

We were blessed with good numbers and weather by Saturday afternoon as Pendennis Castle approaches going North again, this time by itself.

The start of what was a perfect evening for me guarding on the goods, beautiful light with the U-boat up front as we wait for an ECS in the other direction gave me time to amble over the footbridge for the photo!

Arriving at Cheltenham and the U class bathes in the evening sunlight.

The Castle then arrives with the evening passenger train which the U-boat takes back...

Which means we did indeed get a Castle on our goods train!!

It was a superb run back as the last of the light faded giving some great views as we curved past the sidings at Winchcombe.

Back on shed after a cracking run, big smiles all round.

Back the next day, little and large as the Castle passes the Pug.

The turn of the Std 2 on the freight.

Disappearing into the distance and still going!

Tuesday was back to normal running but the fun wasn't over as some of us fancied a bit more time with the U-boat, so a day waving flags behind it was called for.

More sunny weather.

And the first of the gala guests ready to depart.

Apologies for a rather brief report of what was an ambitiously busy and amazing weekend. If you weren't there, you really should have been! Huge thanks go to everyone involved - from the C&W perspective it involved an awful lot of shunting to get everything ready in time. Over the weekend we had 24 carriages in 4 rakes and 19 wagons in 2 rakes in use, a total of 43 vehicles out, a phenomenal achievement for us all. Such a spectacle wouldn't be possible without all departments coming together and pushing the boundaries.

As you know, I am slightly biased towards the freight side of things, so after the gala I picked out a few of my favourite images from other photographers who managed to capture much better images than me of our goods trains, and I shall leave you with those, many thanks for all the photographers for allowing me to share them: