With the stars of the gala changed to 60163 A1 ‘Tornado’, 60019 A4 ‘Bittern’, 5224 Ex GWR 2-8-0 Tank, 92212 9F, 850 ‘Lord Nelson’, 30075 Yankee Tank, not quite as originally advertised as Wadebridge needed repairs and thus was not available, this was still in fact a very impressive line up.

The photographic opportunities were simply everywhere. I used 8 rolls of 36 exposure film. The two G2’s worked splendidly as planned with the 35mm and 90mm lenses getting most use, as predicted, with the occasional shots being taken on the 21mm and the 28mm. The 16mm and 45mm were left in the boot of the car for this shoot and weren’t missed at all, as it turned out.

I also had some great and informative conversations with a number of the MHR volunteers, one of the support crew for A1 Tornado, a guy making video and cleverly getting unusual shots by means of a video camera on a long pole and some fellow enthusiasts. Brilliant!

Arrived early on the Friday and had breakfast in the West Country Buffet at Alresford station, got a lot of photographs long before many of the visitors turned up to see Tornado when it first arrived at 11:00 ish, the weather was cold but sunny and bright. Perfect.

The gala was brilliantly organised, very well attended, hugely enjoyable and a bygone photographers dream. Can’t wait for the MHR St George’s Day celebration weekend next month and the opportunity for more fun and photos.

Selected images from this weekend can be seen by clicking here.