Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: O4

A shot from the January 2012 GCR Gala. I was rostered on GCR O4 2-8-0 63601, its last major Gala before withdrawal in June when the boiler ticket expired. This was taken around 7.00am when we were prepping the loco on shed. Best viewed large and in the dark!!

With Dave on the regulator, Great Central 9K/LNER O4 2-8-0 63601 drops down the 1 in 176 into Rothley station with a goods train during the January 2007 Gala. Withdrawn from service in its 100th year in June 2012 63601 is currently being overhauled at Loughborough.

Great Central Railway O4 2-8-0 63601 gets up steam on shed at Loughborough in the early morning of the second day of the GCR's Winter Gala. I was taking a short break from prepping M7 30053 at the time. 63601 was withdrawn for overhaul later in June 2012 and currently the bottom end is in the shed at Loughborough and the boiler is on the ground in the yard both being worked on by the full-time shed staff.

British Railways Standard 2MT 2-6-0 78019 is brand new & just out of its box being in steam for the first time in Loughborough yard. Alongside is GCR 8K LNER O4 2-8-0 63601.

My first "solo" turn after passing out as a fireman on GCR O4 2-8-0 63601. No wonder I look so smug!

GCR/LNER O4 63601 departs Loughborough station on a "Windcutter" minerals train Photo Charter - I worked the morning firing turn on the same charter & after handing over to the relief crew took the opportunity to take some photos myself. This is a faithful reproduction of the train & the engine that would have passed through my home town, Thorne in South Yorkshire, when I was a child. 63601 was allocated to Frodingham shed in Scunthorpe in the 50s & early 60s and pulled endless coal trains on the GCR line between Doncaster & Scunthorpe The engine belongs to the National Railway Museum & is on loan to the Great Central Railway, the only survivor in the UK of hundreds built before & during the First World War..

GCR Loughborough shed. LNER O4 2-8-0 63601 footplate from the tender while getting steam up. I am trimming the coal forward before going off shed to pull our service train. The cab layout is simplicity itself & the engine steams on a candle. An excellent engine in many ways but perhaps not first choice for cold, wet winter days. Then again in 1912 when the locomotive was built designers didn't really care too much about the welfare of crews. Note the sheet in the tender - hooked onto the cab roof it's our only protection against the weather when running tender-first. She will be running her last trains for a while this coming weekend, 23rd-24th June 2012, as her boiler certificate runs out then. She did make it to 100 years old in steam though so come to the GCR to ride her for one last time.