Over the weekend of 17th and 18th June the Thompson B1 Locomotive Trust had a fundraising stand at Quorn & Woodhouse station, as part of the Great Central Railway’s 50th Anniversary celebrations.

Being the first time that the Trust has fielded a fundraising stand at any railway event for about 12 years, re-establising a ‘presence’ at galas and others events is an important part of our fundraising strategy.

It was nice to meet up with some old faces, and to introduce ourselves to new people, some of whom will hopefully consider becoming members to support the work of the Trust, to help us achieve our ambition of restoring the loco to traffic in time for her 80th birthday in 2027.

The weekend also netted £546 in donations for the Trust – not a bad start!

The event itself was a magnificent showcase of what the GCR has to offer and what it has achieved in 50 years; featuring 5 locomotives in steam, two DMUs, a Class 37 and a ‘Peak’ diesel, ‘Colin’ the industrial 0-4-0, local trains, express trains, traction engines, vintage cars and last but not least, the pièce de résistance, a 50-wagon freight train on the Saturday hauled by 9F no. 92214.

We are grateful to the GCR for letting us play a small part in this wonderful celebration and we hope that 61264 will be able to play an active role in future milestone events.

We are also grateful to the TBLT members who came to help run the stand; Yvette and Dave H, Brenda, Dave W, Alf and Josh, and also to those members who donated us items to sell.