Great Central Railway (GCR) 25th October 2014

Normal diesel running at the Great Central Railway had 31563 rostered to work on Saturday 25th October. This had been my first visit to the GCR for a couple of years; during which absolutely nothing seemed to have changed, other than the prices in the station buffet appearing to have gone down!

‘563 was on the stock early, and cold stock it was. Thankfully the GCR now seem to have a set of stock with working ETH, as seen on the C&W shed at Rothley, and 31563 can revert to an ETH example and work with it as 31463 instead! I look forward to it…..

There wasn’t much thrash during the day, the driver not seeming to be up to giving the 31 much and the poor rail head conditions on the bank up from Leicester North put pay to any thrash that would have had to occur as the train ambled up the bank with the driver trying to prevent the 31 from slipping; I didn’t hear any sand being applied to the rail head so maybe that would ultimately solve the problem?

31563 worked the following on Saturday 25th October:

1100 Loughborough – Leicester North, 1145 Leicester North – Loughborough, 1300 Loughborough – Leicester North, 1345 Leicester North – Loughborough