This weekend (19-21st September) is the Epping Ongar Railway Southern Giants Steam Gala.

This gala sees three days of steam action, with three visiting locomotives joining 4953 ‘Pitchford Hall’.

34072 ‘257 Squadron’ visits courtesy of Southern Locomotives Ltd, and 926 ‘Repton’ will be making the visit from North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

Finally, Hunslet 3781 will visit for the weekend courtesy of The Watercress Line.

An intensive timetable will be in operation, with trains running into the evening on Saturday.

With parking limited at both stations, the railway will be running a fleet of vintage London buses to provide connections to Epping Underground and Shenfield railway stations.

Want more out of the day? The railway is running footplate passes throughout the weekend as well as various exhibitions at Ongar station and a display of Malcom Root’s artwork.

For an additional charge, you can also travel in the Shark Brake Van, which will be attached to one of the coaching sets.

A timetable can be found by clicking here, and tickets for the weekend can be booked here.