| The annual Foxfield Railway Steam Gala in Staffordshire took place over the weekend of the 18th/19th of July 2009, and this year we were in attendance at Day One of the event. This gallery contains a number of images that were taken that day.
The event boasted a fine collection of small industrial steam locos, and these were used in various configurations to carry passengers between the stations at Caverswall Road and Dilhorne Park, whilst a number of freight departures featuring both single and double headers kept us well entertained as they worked hard up that steep (1 in 19 in places) embankment from the Foxfield Colliery. Locos on duty on Day One included: Meaford No.2, Bellerophon, Beyer Peacock, Florence No.2, and ex-NCB blube locos Wimblebury and Backworth 47. When you consider that some of these little locos are well over 100 years old, it was certainly impressive to see them still more than able to make this steep climb. What an impressive sight this will be when passenger trains eventually run down to the colliery. Considering the busy timetable the staff did a great job in keeping them pretty much to what was a fairly hectic timetable, with many turnarounds at Dilhorne Park as locos were switched from Passenger to Freight duties. After the extremely miserable and wet weather of the previous day, we got away with just one major shower (which actually produced some nice effects), and apart from the dull skies of the morning, the later part of the day and the final 'long frieght' train worked mostly in bright sunshine and fine conditions. The staff and volunteers of the railway should be congratulated for all their hard work, and for putting on such a good event, and the only small criticism I can make of the day (and one that seems to happen with many of the smaller railways), was the lack of detailed information regarding the proposed timetable, ticket prices and start time on their website. Like many travellers from further afield, if you are planning to make a several hour or several hundred mile trip you at the very least need to know what time the first train departs, and were it is departing from and going to, we didn't find out this information until we had arrived on site (way to early), with no idea whatsoever about whether or not you had to buy a ticket first, and without knowing what time the first train would depart until after we'd purchased a programme/timetable. Now I appreciate that these events cost of lot of money to put on, and that making the timetable only available in something that you have to buy does bring in some badly needed revenue, but it does cause some inconvenience to the visitors who are coming there to bring that money, and that doesn't seem like a very good idea businesswise. Entrance to the Gala was £12, which included an all day rover ticket, and I doubt anyone could argue that it wasn't excellent value at that price, so why was it not mentioned on their website that this was so, I doubt it would have put anyone off going there? Like many people I like to plan my day and know exactly where I'm heading for, and how much money I need to take with me, and it would have also been useful to know that there was a shuttle bus running between the colliery and Caverswall Road as well before deciding where to park. At the very least details of prices, time of the first and last train (visitors by rail and bus need to know when to depart to catch these), and some basic information would make the day's outing a whole lot smoother for many of us poor travellers! Grump over, and it didn't spoil my day too much and I had a good time and enjoyed it very much, and I just think a little more information would have made it even better that's all (and we wouldn't have had to get up at 5am!) 
I'm looking forward to next year already, thanks Foxfield! |
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