Industrial action...
Sunshine and Steam at Foxfield
15 October 2011
Last year’s visit to the Autumn Steam Gala at
Foxfield proved to be a most successful and
enjoyable outing - could this year’s event
match up to it?.
There were fewer locomotives in steam today -
five in total, though only four of them would be
venturing out along to the line to the old colliery.
Four very different locomotives though - the little
bright red Bagnall 2842 of 1946, Giesl-fitted fellow Bagnall
“Florence No 2", 3059 of 1954, Hunslet Austerity
"Whiston" 3694 of 1950, and the Dübs 0-4-0 crane tank
4101 of 1901.
Once again I chose to stay in the freight-only stretch of
line between Dilhorne Park station and Foxfield colliery,
where the gradient, at its steepest a fearsome 1 in 19,
makes the locos work really hard despite their light
loads.
The day passed far too quickly. As sometimes happens at
such events, the timetable went somewhat awry, and the
penultimate train came up the
bank at about the time the last one
should have run. Many of the
gathered photographers, muttering
about the light going, headed for
home. I went back to the colliery
site to see how things looked. Very
shortly after that second-to-last
train, the little red Bagnall came squealing around the
curves, brakes hard on, and pulled up in the colliery
yard. Glowing almost incandescent in the low autumn
sunshine, it quickly disposed of its short train, collected its
replacement, and steamed vigorously back up the bank,
providing me with what I felt was the day’s best shot.
What a great show the Foxfield people put on for us!
Links:
•
Foxfield Railway
•
Last year’s visit
Geoff’s Rail Diaries
