Peak Rail, Heritage Shunter Trust Gala. Saturday 1st September 2018.
I drove down to Peakrail for the Heritage Shunter Trust gala. leaving Manchester on Friday evening and driving initially to Peak Forest, I always call in to see what`s around, when travelling in this direction, (see other album for more details).
I stayed in Hartington Hall YHA, a former Stately Home set in the beautiful Derbyshire Dales, and it cost me a tenner for the night, so cheap enough and it is a great place to stay and additionally saved me the drive down on Saturday morning. I stopped for a fish and chips tea at the Coaching House, Buxton, before continuing to Hartington Hall, a few local ales in the lovely village of Hartington and I later retired to the Hall for an excellent night`s sleep.
I was up showered and out for 07.30, so not too early a start and I decided to drive over to Matlock for breakfast and treated myself to scrambled egg on toast and a few cups of coffee to revive me in “the Crown”.
I then drove up to Rowsley South, Peakrail, for the event. This is the second shunter gala I`ve attended and it was just as good as the first one, although on this occasion a number of exhibits were left under covers, a little bit more effort might have been made to remove these for the event, a few however were removed partly, so you could get some photographs of the shunters underneath.
The ticket price was £16 for the day offering guards van rides between the shunter depots and the entrance, and you were allowed to walk everywhere for photographs and take as many guard’s van rides behind a variety of shunter traction, throughout the day, so pretty good value, but I would have gladly paid £20 to see more of the exhibits uncovered.
I also took a few trips on Peakrail behind a former NCB steam loco and Peak Class 44, D8 Penyghent, you to buy a separate ticket for Peakrail at a further £8 senior rate, still good value though, but it did catch a few people out who thought they`d bought a day ticket for both railways.
The various factions at Peakrail, Heritage Shunter Trust the engineers at Darley Dale don`t have a good word to say about each other and certainly don`t work together, the ordinary volunteers are fine and friendly enough, but from what I can gather it appears to be at management level, such a shame really, because they all do a first class job and contribute significantly to the preservation movement, but potentially lose so much through a lack of communication and economies of scale.
I had a fantastic day though and thanks both Peakrail and the shunter trust for a job well done. I returned via Buxton, stopping for another fish and chips tea at the Coaching House, before calling in at Peak Forest to see what was happening and then driving home, it had been a great trip.
http://www.peakrail.co.uk/heritageshunterstrust/
https://heritageshuntertrust.wixsite.com/hst1
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