Later this month, the Great Central Railway will once again echo to the sound of milk churns rattling and busy porters chattering during the railway’s ever-popular and award-winning ‘Railways at Work’ gala.
On Saturday, 16th and Sunday, 17th August, visitors can experience travelling on a working mainline railway as it was in the 1960s. Previous Railways at Work galas had themes related to the Beeching cuts, the 1966 World Cup, and a recreation of railways in the 1950s.
This year’s gala, titled ‘All Change!’, Railways at Work 2025, will celebrate 200 years since the birth of the modern railway and explore the decade that brought about a vast amount of change and laid the foundations of the railway as we know it today.
Visitors will be taken on a dynamic journey exploring the evolution of the British mainline railway, with each of the railway’s beautifully restored stations demonstrating different aspects of the many changes brought about in the 1960s.
At Loughborough Central, visitors can experience the passenger journey at the beginning of the 1960s, where a rundown railway was in the middle of change, showing the need for modernisation.
The years 1963-64 and the story of goods trains will be highlighted at Quorn and Woodhouse station, where a pick-up goods train and crane lifting demonstrations precede the dreaded announcement of the Beeching axe.
1960s commercials and a vast array of goods of the time will accompany shunting demonstrations, and narrated displays will be accompanied by an array of goods of the time..
Last year’s theme of the 1966 World Cup will again be on show at Rothley, where the station will greet the new era of British Rail, with its new name, new logos, and focus on containerisation.
The end of the decade will be reached at the end of the line at Leicester North, where the years 1968-69 take visitors back to the end of steam and the birth of the preservation movement.
The whole line will make visitors feel like they are back in the 1960s, with re-enactors at all stations helping visitors to experience each 1960s era.
They will be enhanced by porters assisting passengers with their luggage, policemen helping with enquiries, and a plethora of the travelling public having their own stories to tell.
The event will be supplemented by an intensive train timetable using a steam and diesel locomotives from the 1960s.
Real ale will be available in the Tin Shed at Quorn and Woodhouse station, along with 1960s DJ Soul Sauce, returning to the event after last year’s success. Soul Sauce will be performing until late on Saturday, giving visitors plenty of time to dance the evening away. Tickets for the gala and further details can be obtained from www.gcrailway.co.uk
Responses
Sorry about that! But i wanted to trial my new build E-Bike before the forecast rain arrives? I’m flabbergasted by its power (even on lowly power one) for the hills we octogenarians hate so? Keep clear of running lines and lightning strikes to remember this print one day? But the early fireman started as a messenger boy! Canvas satchel on your shoulder to the points out of Southern ‘Exmouth jct shed’ to pick what taxi you fancy this day to convey you to Exeter central? Ron says nice maunsell here or an express Bulleid bound for London? 35011 on the move but Grahams on 35022, or 35028? Ive just oiled that! So Ill take 35028 i say! I alight at Exeter, Ron’s in charge of all train movements! But got an awful liver problem! Up the town i go for more Lemon Barley water! He drinks more Robinson Barely water than Blue star Merchant Navy (Bulleid) drinks in water to Salisbury or London Waterloo! (A Fact)! Then you run all over Exeter area with ‘Turns’ on your push bike with (Drivers change of duty from previous roster booking)! You have cycled 12 mile to work but now another dozen delivering ‘Turns’! And you still clean Chard on your return to shed! Oops overdone writing again? = So now you are a Passed cleaner? Banking St Davids 1-37 bank of heavy trains? Or Branch line work? Maybe ballast runs of Meldon stone? Or sprinter 874 on Wool’ch being done up? Then Bristol and its Railway Hostels and its many steam sorts at Barrow road steam shed, And the Westerns and Warship engines that make my E-Bike seem very tame? The railway in the very early 1960s? The large Porters carts! Whales in the estuary? The shunters chickens? 3+3 make five on a footplate? And not a single yarn!! My word! If ever you run out of puff? Then the E-Bike is an eye opener! Just wish i bought one years ago! Doh! My writing allowance has expired!
I do intend writing in response to your look back to the 60s! Because as a cleaner of the late 50s and then passing the inspector for firing ‘Turns’ throughout this period as a fireman on steam to then a 2nd man on diesel’s at Bristol Bath road depot, Till single manning was introduced for hundreds of us to be made redundant and paid off in 1967! And every move based on seniority of course?