East Lancashire Railway's February Steam Gala - Part 3

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Some of David Rodgers photos of this event have already been posted in Parts 1 and 2.

David writes....

Last weekend (20/21 February) was the East Lancashire Railway's February Steam Gala and as the railway was able to bring in 2 mainline certified locos for the event - BR Britannia 4-6-2 No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell and SR King Arthur Class 4-6-0 No. 30777 Sir Lamiel in addition to using their own No. 71000 Duke of Gloucester, Black 5 4-6-0 No. 44871 and Jinty 0-6-0T No. 47324.

Unfortunately the 2-day Gala clashed with Warwick Falconer/Matt Allen's 2 days of charters on the Churnet Valley Railway in Staffordshire and rightly or wrongly I decided to stick with the ELR primarily because of the 2 visiting locos (which were only there for the weekend). Despite a fairly good forecast the weather on Saturday started very cold and dull but fortunately by late-morning the sun was appearing and overall we had an excellent day.

Some more highlights of the trip follow as I have time to post them..........

For now here is, on Saturday, the double-headed combination of 70013 and 71000 on the 08.55 from Bury - Heywood seen on Broadfield bank

[John Ashworth]

What a superb sight to see these two locos thundering along! It must have sounded terrific too.