November can be a quiet time for enthusiasts, a month where most railways put a pause on running services to allow for essential maintenance and preparations for the busy festive season that lies ahead.
Thankfully, there are still a few lines that operate services, and the Great Central Railway goes one step further with The Last Hurrah, its annual end-of-season gala that helps to sweep the winter blues away.
And with 2023 having been the railway's 50th anniversary year, it was a weekend that topped the celebrations perfectly with the usual intensive timetable that has come to be expected of GC galas: five steam locomotives, one diesel locomotive and two railcars – and the railway made the absolute most of everything at its disposal.
With Derby Lightweight railcar Iris having been on an extended visit to Leicestershire since 2022, it once again proved itself popular, shuttling up and down the line. It was not, however, the only single railcar present, as the railway once again welcomed Stephen Middleton's NER petrol-electric railcar No. 3170, it having previously visited for the branch line gala of January 2020.
Nos. 3170 and 3171 were introduced by the NER in 1903 with petrol engines that generated electricity for the traction motors, a pioneering feat of engineering at the time which would eventually be developed into the diesel electric technology that continues to power many locomotives worldwide.
No. 3170 was withdrawn on April 4, 1931, and for many years the body was used
