| Mention the words 'ELR' and 'Diesel Gala' in the same breath and what you usually have is a rain-making ceremony it seems, and the first day of this year's 'summer' event gave us just that - at least for a good two thirds of the day that is!
After a week of scorching sunshine and beautiful light, it was back to very wet, gloomy and miserable - typical ELR weather in other words. After starting out fine for a brief period, in which D6525 'Captain Bill' took the first shuttle up to Ramsbottom, it was pretty much a non-stop deluge after that, so most of the time we were confined to areas were there was at least a little shelter, such as Irwell Vale and Rawtenstall. Typically, by 5pm the rain clouds had finally departed and the Deltic arrived in bright sunshine and blue skies, as if to add insult to injury and rub salt in our already soggy wounds and show us just what we had been missing all day. Not to be put off though (and having already spent a fair chunk of my life photographing locos on the ELR in conditions such as this - well this is East Lancashire what else do we expect?), it was still nice to see a fine selection of diesel locos on display, and a number of 'visitors', all which I was seeing in action for the first time. Following 'home' locos D6525, 37109 and 50015 it was the turn of the visitors starting with D7629, and followed by D1062, 37248 and 47843. We should also have seen the other visitor 47292, but in spite of being listed as doing the penultimate run of the day, it was instead 47843 that appeared, and, according to a post just received from the 'PresGen' mailing list, this was due to a leaking header tank, and the loco should be in service on Day Two (though D1062 is now reported to have a problem, so it will remain to be seen if it runs again or not). Last loco up was the Deltic 'Royal Scots Grey' 55022, which is always pleasant on the eye, and this time appeared in bright sunshine, which was a major contrast to the conditions all of the others had arrived in. Thankfully Day Two proved to be a very different day weatherwise than Day One, and in spite of a few splashes at various times, it was fairly warm and dry for most of the day, up to around 5pm that is, when of course we finally had the inevitable shower. In spite of this the day was quite an enjoyable one, with lots of impressive traction, both visitors and home fleet, on display, and 47292 did make its appearance, and very impressive it looked too. The one no-show on this day seemed to be 40145, which should have appeared late afternoon, but was replaced by 50015 instead (which arrived at Rawtenstall just as the skies blackened and the rain started!). Day Three was probably the warmest and brightest of the three days, and this time I was mostly down at the Bury end, and only able to attend for the latter part of the afternoon unfortunately. This was still a useful visit though as quite a few of the locos were seen changing ends at the station, and I also caught several of them coming over the 'ski jump' on their way back from Heywood. For the final run of the day (and the highlight of the whole event for me) the Hymek D7076 was on duty, and this loco (being called a 'wesmek' by some folks), was not only notable for having the engine from the ELR's Western installed in it for the event, but also for a most impressive display of clag as it rounded the curve at Townsend Fold on its last run of the day - a good candidate for 'Carry on Clagging IV' if ever I saw one! 
To sum up the three days: "Quite a few miles walked, 14 locos photographed, severe nettle rash, two good soakings, one good roasting and two sore feet - priceless, I loved every minute of it!"
My thanks to all the volunteers at the ELR and Bury Diesel Group, who must have put in a phenomenal amount of time to make this event such a success, and they should feel rightly proud of their efforts. What a pity it is though that the ELR steam events just don't seem to be anything like up to this very high standard these days now that they don't seem to have many steam locos left there. |
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5th July 2009 - The 'Wesmek' auditions for 'Carry on Clagging IV'! 1024x727 IMGP0881.jpg |
5th July 2009 - the final run back to Bury at the end of an enjoyable event.. 1024x706 IMGP0882.jpg |
