Bad luck Besets North Norfolk gala as ‘caley’ tank fails
Cancelled guest locomotives, mechanical problems, points failures and thick fog all resulted in a “challenging weekend” for the North Norfolk Railway as it held its Spring Steam Gala on April 5-7.
Fresh from its guest appearance at the Swanage Railway’s ‘Scottish, Southern & Sulzer’ gala the previous weekend (see story above), Caledonian Railway ‘439’ 0-4-4T No. 419 stood in for Ivatt ‘4MT’ No. 43106 – which was unable to attend the previously dubbed ‘That’s Yer Lot’ gala owing to over-running valve and piston work at its Severn Valley Railway base (SR490). The McIntosh engine was the sole guest locomotive, following the premature withdrawal of the Bluebell Railway’s SECR ‘P’ No. 323 ‘Bluebell’, which had been previously expected to attend.
On the Saturday, however, the ‘Caley’ tank “refused to steam properly and had to stop on a number of occasions; we had a Scottish Railway Preservation Society representative on the footplate and he couldn’t work out what the problem was either,” said NNR General Manager Andrew Munden.
“On examination, we found a problem with a steam leak inside the smokebox when the regulator was opened, which was affecting the draught, but it was not something that could be fixed immediately during a gala, so I took the decision to remove the engine from the rest of the weekend. The Class 20 worked the rest of its gala diagram.”
Ongoing repairs to minor fissures in the firebox of resident ‘9F’ No. 92203 ‘Black Prince’ meant that the 2-10-0 was also unavailable, leaving ‘B12’ No. 8572, ‘Y14’ No. 564, ‘7F’ No. 53809, BR ‘4MT’ 2-6-0 No. 76084 and WD 2-10-0 No. 90775 as the NNR’s resident operational locomotives at the event.
Motive power problems were not the only issues affecting the gala. A defective electricity cable left many of the points in Weybourne yard without power on the Friday morning, which meant they had to be operated manually for every movement, while thick fog on the Sunday morning initially delayed services by up to half an hour.
Mr Munden said: “Conditions were challenging with such restricted visibility, but safe operation must always come before punctuality. It didn’t seem to deter visitors though, and Sunday accounted for most of the ticket sales of the weekend – even the photographers came out again in the afternoon for some atmospheric shots!”
Although the figures were not finalised, Mr Munden estimated that around 1,600 visitors attended the event.
He said: “Undeterred by the setbacks, we now look forward to the mixed traction gala in June and the autumn gala at the end of August. Our luck has to change sometime!”