Great Central Railway (GCR) 21st August 2015

The Great Central Railway did something on 21st August 2015, that hadn’t been done by them in a good 10 years; put 31563 out for 6 round trips! While back in the early 2000’s, mainly due to lack of steam, it was quite common that 31563 would do 6 round trips a day, it actually wasn’t possible with the timetable that the railway now operated. So with a nice late start, at 12:30, it wasn’t surprising, even though it was a Friday, that quite a lot of people turned up; and more than made use of the real ales on board the set that was used for the day.

31563 was as good as it always seems to be these days; and to think that at one stage in its life it was going to donate parts to 31418 and be scrapped eh!? A thoroughly enjoyable day was had by all in attendance, both 31 bashers and those that just turned out to have a ride behind a decent engine for the day. Fingers crossed that another such running day will be repeated in 2016……!

31563 worked the following on Friday 21st August 2015:

1230 Loughborough – Leicester North, 1315 Leicester North – Loughborough

1400 Loughborough – Leicester North, 1445 Leicester North – Loughborough

1530 Loughborough – Leicester North, 1615 Leicester North – Loughborough

1700 Loughborough – Leicester North, 1745 Leicester North – Loughborough

1830 Loughborough – Leicester North, 1910 Leicester North – Loughborough

2005 Loughborough – Leicester North, 2045 Leicester North – Loughborough

My feeble attempt at photos for the day can be seen below: