The new guest will star at the GCR Winter Steam Gala this month in the place of the previously announced ‘Omaha’ 2253.
BR Standard 4 75069 will visit the Gala in the place of ‘Omaha’ 2253, which is unable to visit due to a mechanical fault before it was due to be transported to the GCR.
GCR announced that BR Standard 4 75069 will star in the Gala instead thanks to the Severn Valley Railway and ‘The 75069 Fund’.
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L&Y A Class will also join the Gala straight from its appearance at Embsay, appearing with permission of Andy Booth.
GCR’s three day Winter Steam Gala takes place 26th to 28th January 2024.
75069 is a BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 locomotive designed by R.A. Riddles. The Standard 4MT was designed for mixed traffic use on secondary routes where the BR Standard Class 5 and its predecessor, the ‘Black Five’, would be too heavy. 75069 was one of the final batch allocated to the BR Southern Region which were built in 1955 with a larger tender. This gives greater coal and water capacity, but restricting the weight and route restrictions to that of the Standard Class 5.
Malcolm Holmes, general manager said “We are of course disappointed to be changing our plans so close to the date, but we are grateful for wonderful colleagues in the sector who have enabled us to offer another visitor to join what is sure to be a great weekend to start our 2024 season”
The two visitors will be joining six of the home fleet along with guest railcars Derby Lightweight ‘Iris’ and the NER Autocar to provide an intensive timetable of passenger and goods trains over the three day weekend.
Passenger timetable details and fares can be found here.
