The start of the year is a notoriously quiet time in heritage railway calendars. With the close of festive ser vices at the end of December (or of ten, at best, the new year), the nation’s preser vation railways go into hibernation for a while, carrying out much-needed maintenance work on rolling stock and infrastructure that cannot otherwise be performed when running ser vices. A big hole lef t in the enthusiast calendar before the respite of Februar y ha lf-term trains to combat withdrawal sy mptoms, any railway running a ser vice, let alone a big gala during this window is bound to reap the rewards – and that cou ld certainly be said to be the case for the GCR Winter Steam Gala.
The lure of double-track running, upwards of four departures an hour and an interesting mix of ser vices operating proved immeasurable this year as the masses descended upon the 8¼mile Loughborough-Leicester line to get their steam fix. Many ser vices during the middle hours of the days departed with not even standing room lef t available!
