L.M.S. Class Five No. 45231 "The Sherwood Forester" and S.R Wes Country No.34046 "Braunton" pair up during the 2009 Spring Gala at the West Somerset Railway.
The filming for the West Somerset Railway Gala DVD has been completed. We are very pleased with ourselves as we have come away with well over an hour of footage. Here's a brief overview of our visit to this spectacular event.
We arrived at Bishops Lydeard just after 9:00 in the morning and GWR Large Prarie No.4160 was in the station preparing empty stock for the first train of the day to Minehead. GWR Pannier No.6430 was visiting from the Llangollen Railway in North Wales and spent the Gala working Auto Trains between Bishops Lydeard and Norton Fitzwarren. Two shots were captured on the Saturday and Sunday.
There's also some pretty noisy and atmospheric steam action from No.4160, which we captured preparing for the first train to Minehead and then making some very loud and noisy departures.
We then witnessed the arrival of No.70000 "Britannia" in her brand new livery and then took a ride to Minehead behind GWR Churchwood 2-8-0- No.2807, visiting from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway. There is no footage of "Sir Lamiel" or the ride behind 2807 due to filming difficulties.
At Minehead, several shots were taken, but perhaps our highlight wat the paring of "Britannia" and GWR King No.6024 "King Edward I". We rode behind them back to Lydeard and then filming finished for the day.
Today, several shots were taken of No's 6430,88,2807 and 70000.
All in all a very succesful trip.
Don't forget we are on location at Didcot for the launch of No.6023 "King Edward II" next weekend.
Regards,
Chris Nelson,
2nd Cameraman
