Pom-Pom steals the show at Eastleigh Lakeside Railway 'GREAT CENTRAL RAILWAY WEEKEND' - August 2024

For the sixth year in a row the Eastleigh Lakeside Railway has welcomed a trio of stunning 10-1/4 inch gauge Great Central Railway Locomotives to run the trains for a weekend in August.
This year's event (held from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th August 2024) was slightly different to the previous ones...for there were FOUR!
Completed earlier this year, the Simkins family's new 9J-class 'Pom-Pom' 0-6-0 No.316 arrived at the railway in late June for some test runs before making its public debut on the morning of Friday 2nd. It spent Friday & Sunday double-heading with Class 8 'Fish' 4-6-0 No.181 and Saturday with 11F-class 'Director' 4-4-0 No.505 "Ypres" whilst 8K-class 2-8-0 No.102 worked solo for all but the last train of the weekend.
As well as regular running, all four locos started each day with a 'LAKES EXPRESS' run with the 'Director' on Friday (which only features the departure due to SD Card issues), 8K on Saturday and 'Pom-Pom' & 'Fish' on Sunday. There was also a 'LAKESIDE LIMITED' with the 'Pom-Pom' & 'Director' on Saturday and finally the weekend was rounded off with a Parallel Run with the 'Pom-Pom' & 'Fish' on one train and the 'Director' & 8K on the other.
A big well done to the guys for putting on a great show and for the completion of the 'Pom-Pom' for it did very well on its first weekend in public service.
Here's to next year!
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Oh and there's a surprise at the end...