Great Central Railway Rothley Leicestershire 6th July 2019

Returning on Ivatt 2MT 46521 with a light engine Datex trip I had a pretty small fire on and with just the short climb out of Rothley ahead wasn't planning to put much more coal in the box because it would be downhill all the way to Loughborough. However, events dictated otherwise!

At Rothley Stanier 8F 2-8-0 48305 was failed due to a stuck clack valve in the top feed. We were asked to take over its 6 coach train so I very quickly had to get a decent fire going for the climb to Leicester! Hence this impressive exhaust as we pulled away from Rothley Brook in the rain with the very late running 11.20 ex-Loughborough. All was well and much more enjoyable than a light engine run...