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MET1's last day of it's visit to the DFR - Wednesday 13th July 2016.

Whatever can follow the excitement of the Flour Mill Steam Gala? For me this was easily the best running ever seen on the DFR and reverting to normal running is going to look a bit quiet by comparison. Thinking about it, the best moments seemed to be when two (or more) trains arrived in a station at the same time. Maybe this can be achieved soon albeit with more crossing gate congestion for motorists at Lydney Town.

At risk of boring you. Two last shots of the T9 Greyhound on Friday 8th July - then MET1 on it's final bonus fling yesterday Wednesday 13th July.

What search description did you put into Google to find that clip then?

As forewarned, I went back for the second Friday of the Flour Mill Steam Gala, to take more pictures of the little Beattie Well Tank 30587 which I thought didn't get it's fair share of attention on Friday 1st July. Whilst MET1 below was very pretty, it spent a fair bit of time broken for a number of reasons - to the point where it could not be relied upon to appear on schedule. But it is very pretty. It failed to double head the owners salon with 30587 due to brake failure. Nevertheless, unless I missed any problems it might have had, 30587 performed faultlessly. Here it is in action. I have more photos taken on the second Friday featuring the other two locos but I won't overbore you in one session - more later.

Just N gauge but I try.

The last surviving T9 Greyhound at Lydney Junction on the Dean Forest Railway last weekend.

Glad you like the photos Coppercap. I would have to confess I'm more of a photographer who happens to like trains than a dyed in the wool train enthusiast who has grabbed a camera, so quite a lot of effort goes into them before they are posted. I know more about photography by far than I know about trains - but I'm learning by exposure to DFR - I'm just an armchair member of DFR but I talk to as many of the active volunteers as I can as often as I can.

Flour Mill Gala's second Friday was superlative yet again. Got my extra photos of the little Beattie Well Tank 30587 - will post soon. The T9 makes a very good case for a large "thin" loco on DFR. A Hall that had lost a bit of girth across the cylinders would be nice but unachievable of course. Maybe paint the T9 BR green and forget to send it back.

Just copy the "travellers" to find the best tow car. A Ford Transit short flatbed. Also great for parking at work, supermarkets, and in hospital car parks.

As has been said before, the success of the original TG was down to the unique combination of the three main presenters personalities. Trying to replace them is like trying to replace the two girls in ABBA with the unique way their two voices combined. I fear TG is doomed.

Finally for the first day of the Flour Mill Steam Gala on to the little Beattie Well Tank 30587. This is a beautifully soft chuffing little engine that I reckon didn't get the attention it deserved so I shall go back again on Friday 8th July to tale pictures particularly of this loco. In all cases this was serving The Flour Mill Directors private party by way of double heading - from Norchard to Lydney JUnction with MET 1 and then to Parkend and back with the T9 which overshadowed it just based on size. Here's what I have additionally to the first post.

Glad you liked the pictures Brian. The insides of the coaches are better than the outsides and there are current fundraising efforts to do more renovations like the guards van above.

Moving on to the T9 now on Friday 1st July at the Flour Mill Steam Gala. I rode behind this for the full return trip and it really has some muscles - no struggle at the Middle Forge points like Wilbert. Again I've tried to make it obvious that these locos are on the DFR as opposed to the "could be anywhere" shots you get when only the loco is the star. Except for the one vertical shot - not really sure this is a good format for railway pictures - but I shall keep trying.

A final few choices for MET 1 at the Flour Mills Steam Gala before turning my attention to the two black jobbies. What a splendid contrast her paint makes with the Forest greenery. Come again.!!!!!

What I enjoyed about the Flour Mill Steam Gala on Friday 1st July was the grand gathering of steam locos at 1.30 at Parkend. So for now here are a few more photos - I have tried to make my pictures show more of the location rather than just the locos. More in a day or two.

Just back from day one of the Flour Mill Steam Gala. It's breathtakingly good - how I am going to prune down the photos to six or so to post I don't know. Three steam engines in at Parkend at the same time at 1.30. Yes THREE. The two Beaties double heading the Royal Forester complete with owners salon on a Flour Mill's Directors private party, plus the maroon MET 1 hauling a train for us mere mortals. I did the complete double journey by train this morning, full English breakfast for lunch at Norchard (huge), then early afternoon at Parkend by car. Photos to follow. Edit. Here's just one to be going on with.

It's the Flour Mill Steam Gala starting tomorrow so I thought I would get the last three of last weekends photos posted - at least three that other folk might glance at. I don't know this gentleman's name - perhaps someone will post it - but to me he is the quintessential heritage railway guard - looks the part, totally customer focused, and helpful. And he has a really posh guards van too.

I can help a bit more with this. This is from the front gardens of the houses behind Platform 1 in the ground that used to be a hotel and before that was the grounds of the coal mine owners mansion. The points are where the trains cross over the line when running round. The stones on the embankment on the right is all that is left of the bridge that brought coal over from the mine to feed the blast furnaces. During the winter the line gang took me up so I could see where the tracks ran to. Just past the points mentioned above are another set and just around the right hand curve past where the orange vested line gang is standing is the limit of the current tracks.

In fact apparently storage boxes for wires. But I'm probably missing the point. I rather like this 14.

Maybe even time to dig out Jet Harris.

This coming Friday to Sunday will be the most interesting in the DFR calendar for me (even more than Peppa Pig - honest!!) with the three visiting locos. I have booked a ticket for Friday so photos to follow. I took some Class 14 photos at Parkend last Saturday but I figure that only those that include enough surrounding infrastructure will be interesting to a third party - so I am only showing a few severely pruned down from the 20 "keepers" in my album - which again was pruned down from an initial 60.

Thanks for that news Tony. I hadn't realised. The windows are covered inside with brown paper and I wrongly took this as a sign of progress. This shop is in huge numbers of Whitecroft pictures going back over the years, so it's difficult to imagine that spot beside the crossing gates without it.

Saturday 25th June was a Mainline Diesel Day so I went over to pay my DFR yearly subscription renewal and took a few photos. I have more to post taken at Parkend but I thought you might like to see how close to the Whitecroft Shop (not yet re-opened) a Class 14 gets.

The studio sound quality of the new Top Gear has remained consistently poor through every episode so far and needs fixing - sounds distant and remote. I agree CE has injected nothing though Matt LeBlanc is a welcome surprise. Any "car" show that depends on the Tiff Needel format of judging cars as good only if they can be made to progress sideways is doomed - it's just irrelevant. And that short fat cockney who can't speak English properly and sponsors car bodging is low rent. Only two US shows are genuinely entertaining - Chasing Classic Cars, and Fast n Loud. A Brit equivalent of either would be better than an attempt of a rehash of the Real Top Gear which has frankly had its day.