Midland Magic on the East Lancashire Railway! - 'Autumn Steam Gala' 2025

The London, Midland and Scottish Railway was established during the 1923 Grouping Act, covering almost seven thousand route miles across Britain. As the largest of the ‘Big Four’, it operated over twenty-five thousand trains per day and was the second largest employer in the UK. When initially proposed, the LMS was principally formed from the pre-existing London and North Western, Lancashire and Yorkshire and Midland Railways, holding a monopoly around Greater Manchester. Today, the ambience and atmosphere of a suburban midland branch is encapsulated perfectly on the East Lancashire Railway. Therefore, the railway’s ‘Autumn Steam Gala’ this year would pay homage to its roots, featuring many engines with on a LMS design. The first guest to be announced was Ivatt 2MT 46441. Restored to working order in 2024 after two decades out of traffic, the red Ivatt was once based at Bury and now resides on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. Joining her would be Furness Railway No.20, repeating her performance at last year’s event, only this time on a rake of two vintage coaches. The final visitor would be Stanier ‘Mogul’ 13268, hot on the heels from her recent appearance at the Great Central Railway (see separate video). She would have the unique honour of hauling ‘The Night Mail’: three special round trips under the cover of darkness recreating the days when mail went by rail. The home fleet would also be drawing the crowds. 3F ‘Jinty’ 47298 would be turned out in her original livery and number 7138 especially for the event, following a long spell in BR black. ‘Pug’ 11243 could be found bustling up and down the shunting yards at Ramsbottom and Castlecroft. ‘A Class’ 12322 would be renumbered as scrapped classmate 12345, a loco based at Bolton that frequented the ELR in steam days. Saddle Tank 11456 was also out and about. Visitors even had the chance to drive an engine! Hudswell Clarke 32 ‘Gothenburg’ provided driver experiences in the bay platform at Rawtenstall, looking very smart in her new MSC grey livery. Despite not being an LMS machine, SR Bulleid Light Pacific 34081 ‘92 Squadron’ was displayed at Bury Bolton Street to raise funds for her upcoming overhaul. All in all, ten locomotives were in steam across the three day event. I visited on the Saturday and Sunday of the gala. The weather was overcast but dry to start off, with the sun occasionally poking through on Sunday morning. However, rain soon swept in from the west for the remainder of the weekend. One of the vintage coaches developed a fault on Friday, so the Great Western saloon subsituted. On the final service of the gala, all four LMS-liveried locos (apart from the ‘Pug’) joined forces for a fantastic journey from Bury to Ramsbottom. Despite strong competition from other events held the same weekend, many trains were full, despite some running up to twenty-five minutes late. The full lineup consisted of: Visiting: LMS Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 46441 (from the Beet Family and the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway) Furness Railway A5 0-4-0 No.20 (from the Furness Railway Trust and the Ribble Steam Railway) LMS Stanier 5P6F ‘Mogul’ 2-6-0 13268 (from the Severn Valley Railway) Home Fleet: LMS Aspinall Class 21 ‘Pug’ 0-4-0ST 11243 (ran on Friday and Saturday only) LMS Aspinall Class 23 0-6-0ST 11456 LMS Aspinall Class 27 ‘A’ 0-6-0 12322 (running as 12345) LMS Fowler 3F ‘Jinty’ 0-6-0T 7138 (recently repainted into LMS livery) BR Standard 4MT 2-6-4T 80097 Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST 32 ‘Gothenburg’ (recently repainted into MSC Grey livery) Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST 1969 ‘J.N Derbyshire’ (ran on Friday and Sunday only) SR Bulleid Unrebuilt ‘Battle Of Britain’ 4-6-2 34081 ‘92 Squadron’ (on static display at Bury Bolton Street) * *does not feature. I hope you all enjoy the video. Big thanks to the staff and volunteers of the ELR for another great event. My personal favourite shots would have to be the Standard Tank taking the parcels out of Ramsbottom, Furness Railway No.20 whistling to the kayakers at Brooksbottom and of course, the LMS quad-header. If you’d like to see more, why not follow us on Facebook and Instagram at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... and   / secondvalvesteam   for bonus photos and updates. Please consider subscribing to the channel and feel free to leave a like and comment!