Industrial action...
Sunshine and Steam at Foxfield
15 October 2011
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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
Florence No 2 charges the incline Florence No 2 climbs away from the colliery Dubsy and the red Bagnall Dubsy and the red Bagnall Whiston in the colliery yard Whiston and Florence No 2 Whiston in the colliery yard Whiston gets under way in a self-made smokescreen Whiston - smoke and steam A pair of Bagnalls ("dreadful colour clash" - Mrs Geoffspages) Whiston out in the fields Dubsy and Florence No 2 Last train of the day catches the light on the bank Now the day is over
...almost incandescent...