The Great Central Railway has released its timetable for its 2-day April Diesel Gala which will take place on the 22nd and 23rd of April. The event has some exciting visiting locomotives alongside its home fleet and a busy timetable planned including the well-loved BeerEx!

Special guests at the event include:

Clayton Type 1 Class 17 D8568 appears thanks to the Diesel Traction Group and has been a fan favourite at diesel events for Severn Valley Railway and West Somerset Railway through the summer months. The special locomotive is the only surviving Clayton Type 1 out of 117 locomotives of the type. It spent most of its BR life working in Scotland from 1964 until its withdrawal in 1971 from the Polmadie Depot and moving into industrial service until its preservation in 1983 by the Diesel Traction Group.

Derby Lightweight ‘Iris’ M79900: which is appearing thanks to Eccelsbourne Valley Railway. The popular vintage single rail car which dates from 1956 having been built at Derby Works and saw 50 years of operations after being built as an experiment in regard to cutting costs for the Banbury, Brackley and Bucking Branch which was eventually axed as part of the Beeching cuts. M79900 became a departmental vehicle and was used for route learning and became Test Car ‘Iris’ before becoming scrapped at Bletchley Depot in 1967 and entered preservation in 2000.

The Great Central Railways home fleet will also be out in action for the event including a possible return to traffic for BR Class 50 50017 ‘Royal Oak’ subject to repair completion, testing and exams alongside:

• BR Class 33 – D6535
• BR Class 37 – 37714 ‘Cardiff Canton’
• BR Class 37 – D6700
• BR Class 45 – D123

The event will also see ‘Test Car 2’ open for tours at Quorn & Woodhouse and will no doubt make a fascinating visit for rail fans with Quorn Wagon & Wagon Group offering tours inside the vehicle. ‘Test Car 2’ was previously based at the Railway Technical Centre at Derby and carried out railway testing operations.

Saturday Night will also see the very popular BeerEx return with meals available for pre-booking now and served at approximately 18:30. The timetable for this service is yet to be confirmed. Food options are as follows:

• Chicken Tikka Masala
• Beef Madras
• Thai Red Vegetable Curry

All meals are served with Pilau Rice and Plain Naan and cost just £10.50 extra on top of the rail fare.

To learn more about the timetable please click for Saturday and here for Sunday.

Please note that timetables are subject to change without prior notice.

To book tickets for the event please click here.

All locomotives set to appear at the event are subject to availability, contract and fitness to run examinations.