First guest steam locomotives announced for GCR Autumn Steam Gala

The Great Central Railway has confirmed two engines which, subject to availability, will be attending the line's Autumn Steam Gala (ASG) in October.

Guests

The first visitor for the ASG is London and South Western Railway (LSWR) T9 No.30120, which comes thanks to the National Railway Museum and the Swanage Railway.

Built in 1899 numbered No.120, the T9 worked for the LSWR, Southern Railway and British Railways, firstly hauling express passenger trains to lighter loaded trains by the 1960s.

Selected for preservation by the National Railway Museum, 30120 was repainted into LWSR Green as 120 to haul trains on BR between 1961 and 1963.

The T9 has visited a number of heritage lines in the UK, but is currently based on the Swanage Railway. With its boiler ticket due to expiry in September 2020 (roughly 14 months time), this could be the last time the T9 visits another line on it's current ticket.

The second guest is SR V ‘Schools' Class No.926 “Repton” thanks to the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Constructed as a scaled-down version of the ‘Lord Nelson' Class, the Schools became Europe's most powerful 4-4-0s with 25,130 lbf of tractive effort (5P). Spending most of their working life in the South-East, withdrawal took place between 1961 and 1962.

Restored in 1966, 926 moved ‘across the pond' to Canada before returning back to the UK, where today the locomotive can be found on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in SR Olive Green.

For more information, please visit the Great Central Railway's website here.

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