#45305

Woodthorpe por Treflyn Lloyd-Roberts Por Flickr: So, the charter season begins... A grainy, rainy shot of Stanier Black 5 4-6-0 45305 as it burst through the bridge at Woodthorpe on the Great Central Railway during a rather wet Timeline Events photographic charter.

3) Great Central Railway Loughborough Leicestershire 22nd December 2020 by loose_grip_99 Via Flickr: By the time we came off shed and had taken water Black 5 4-6-0 45305 had a full head of steam and the sun was lighting the sky. Here we are running through the Down loop to drop onto our train in platform 1. We were to spend 45 minutes steam heating the stock before departing to work our first Santa train from Quorn at 10.00.

4) Great Central Railway Loughborough Leicestershire 22nd December 2020 by loose_grip_99 Via Flickr: I had just set the empty stock lamps for Black 5 4-6-0 45305 standing at the head of our train in platform 1. We spent 45 minutes here steam heating the stock before departing to work the first Santa train from Quorn at 10.00. The new Russian coal was interesting stuff. It came in huge chunks which were very difficult to break up so the back and corners of the firebox were built up with the largest of them. In many ways it was like Welsh coal being low in volatiles and slow to burn so no smoke and the need to fire early in anticipation of a 10 minute wait before it provided its energy. With 8 steam-heated coaches and Peak D123 (total approx 400 tons) to pull up to Leicester you had to get it right.

1) Great Central Railway Loughborough Leicestershire 22nd December 2020 by loose_grip_99 Via Flickr: My last turn of 2020 (the New Year's Eve trains have been cancelled) started at 05.15 but by just after 07.00 Black 5 45305 was making steam. Only 15psi admittedly but it was going in the right direction! 9F 92214 beyond Empress Road bridge had been out the previous day but still had some steam in the boiler.