Leicestershire’s Great Central Railway (GCR) has announced that BR Standard 4 Locomotive 75069 will star in its Winter Steam Gala, which runs from Friday 26 through to Sunday 28 January.

75069 will stand in for 2253 ‘Omaha’, which was due to travel to GCR for the Gala but has developed a mechanical fault.

75069, which will be visiting from the Severn Valley Railway, is a BR Standard 4MT 4-6-0 locomotive designed by R.A. Riddles. The Standard 4MT was designed to work mixed traffic on secondary routes for which other locos – the BR Standard Class 5 and its predecessor, the ‘Black Five’ – would be too heavy.

Loco 75069 was one of the last group of this class to be allocated to the BR Southern Region, and was built in 1955. It has a larger tender, which gives greater coal and water capacity, while restricting its weight and route capacity to that of the Standard Class 5.

Also appearing at the Gala will be L&Y A Class No. 52322, fresh from its appearance at Yorkshire’s Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway and appearing with kind permission of Andy Booth.

Alongside the two visitors, six of GCR’s home fleet with take part in the Gala. Visitors will also be able to ride on guest railcars Derby Lightweight ‘Iris’ and the NER Autocar as part of an intensive timetable of passenger and goods trains over the three days of the Gala.

Passenger timetable details and fares are available here.

Malcolm Holmes, general manager said “We are of course disappointed to be changing our plans so close to the date, but we are grateful for wonderful colleagues in the sector who have enabled us to offer another visitor to join what is sure to be a great weekend to start our 2024 season”