GCR TO RUN DEDICATED ‘WINDCUTTER’ WEEKENDS

Special ‘Windcutter weekends’ are planned at the Great Central Railway to showcase the rake of BR mineral wagons preserved by a Steam Railway appeal.

The first event is scheduled for August 31/September 1 this year, when the set of 16-ton wagons will be used on five trips per day, hauled by a roster of two steam and three diesel locomotives. One of the latter is also expected to be paired with the replica brake tender built by Railway Vehicle Preservations to recreate typical scenes from the steam/diesel transition era of the 1960s.

Windcutter Project co-ordinator Philip Herrick said: “There should be over 20 wagons in the rake. This is to be followed next year, in June or July, by a bigger ‘Windcutter’ event with two rakes running. They will join to give us our lengthy train, as we will have got nearly all 30 wagons up and running by then.”

A total of 36 mineral wagons are based at the GCR, being owned by the David Clarke Railway Trust and in the care of the Windcutter Project volunteers, although six are currently at the Pontypool & Blaenavon Railway on a ten-year loan (SR489). A further three examples, which were also originally preserved as part of the Steam Railway readers’ appeal in 1992, were transferred to Manchester’s Science & Industry Museum in 2009.

BRADLEY LANGTON A typical London Midland Region scene of the 1950s recreated at the Great Central Railway’s ‘Goods Galore’ event on May 12, with ‘8F’ No. 48624 hauling the ‘Windcutter’ mineral wagons and ‘Jinty’ No. 47406 banking at the rear.