A report from the Llangollen Railway Gala

Members Paul Hibberd and Tom Mainprize have returned from a weekend manning a stall for the George the Fifth Steam Locomotive Trust ( and moonlighting at dog-minders for visitors!) at glorious Llangollen where a celebration of all things steam took place at the Llangollen Railway Gala. Truly Llangollen is well worth the visit.  On arrival at Llangollen the Stationmaster, who was very helpful gave us the freedom of positioning anywhere within reason under the canopy on Platform 1. We chose to locate to the far end of the canopy about 20ft from the entrance.

The weekend proved to be a great success with the profile of the project raised just a little higher and firm friendships and associations forged with the chaps at Llangollen and with other new-build projects, specifically the team behind the LMS Patriot build who were also present (their build is based there). We humbly thank them and the team on the Betton Grange Project, which is also based at Llangollen. The members of these new-build projects were generous with their time and their words of advice, offering invaluable insights and personal expressions of support. We forged many new firm friendships and connections while there and we even agreed with the Patriot team that some day we’d have a completed George double-heading with ‘The Unknown Warrior’!

What a marvelous sight that would be!

Our humble thanks must of course go out to those people who dropped money in our donation box, who signed up either as a ‘Friend of George’ or a Convenantor and who entrusted us with their dogs while they rode the line (see the photo below). We thank the public for the many inquiries and expressions of support over the course of the two days. If you wish to make a donation, become a Convenantor or head with time and skills , please head over to our website and click on the How to Help link.

Of course, we must thank all the people at the Llangollen Railway for a wonderful celebratory weekend of steam and for their unfailing assistance and support. We are currently planning our next stall and are in the advanced stages of planning the first part of a new George to be fabricated. We’re very excited about this and can’t wait to tell you all. So finally, a big thank you to for all those who have donated or become Convenantors thus far!

Watch this space!