78019 leaves its train shrouded in smoke and steam as it approaches Quorn and Woodhouse station tender first with a service for Loughborough, 31st January 2010. 78019 is a British Railways Standard class 2 2-6-0. The design was derived from the LMS Ivatt class 2MT 2-6-0 with a reduced cab to enable it to fit into the composite BR loading gauge and other standard fittings, most notably a taller chimney. They were all attached to a BR3 tender. Darlington works was responsible for building the entire fleet of sixty five engines with 78019 being completed in 1954. With a low axle loading of just 13 ton 15cwt. it allowed the class to operate on most lightly laid routes and secondary lines. 78019 worked for some of its life as station pilot at Euston station, other allocations including Kirkby Stephen, Wigan Springs Branch and Crewe South. Following withdrawal it was sent to Dai Woodham's scrapyard in Barry, South Wales. In 1973, a group of preservationists from the Severn Valley Railway, based at Bewdley, rescued 78019, however it sat untouched in Kidderminster station yard, at the end of a long line of engines requiring the attention, until 19th March 1998, when 78019 arrived at the Great Central Railway to begin restoration.

Britannia pacific 70013 Oliver Cromwell leads London, Midland and Scottish Railway “Black Five” 4-6-0, 45231 The Sherwood Foresters into Quorn and Woodhouse on a service to Leicester North, 31st January 2010. 70013 Oliver Cromwell was built at Crewe Works and completed in May 1951. It was the very last steam locomotive to be overhauled at Crewe works and became the very last Pacific in service. 45231 was built in 1936 by Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth and Co. Scotswood Works, Newcastle on Tyne, it was one of a batch of two hundred and twenty six engines (which was the largest order ever placed with a private builder by a British Railway Company) worth £2.7 million. It was withdrawn at the end of steam on BR in August 1968. It was one of the earliest arrivals at Loughborough and, worked the official opening train to Quorn in September 1973 and was to be one of the mainstays of the service during the mid 1970s.

Stanier 8F 48305 (renumbered 48476 for the weekend) comes out of the winter sunshine into Rothley station with the Great Central Railway Mail train set, 31st January 2010. 48305 was built by the London Midland and Scottish Railway in November 1943 and originally numbered 8305. In 1950, it was working from Wellingborough MPD on the coal trains to Brent Sidings, Cricklewood, and to Toton. In April 1957, it was transferred to Northampton MPD, remaining there for the next five years until its next transfer to Crewe South MPD in December 1962. After two years there, it went to Northwich MPD for three months before it made its final transfer to Speke Junction MPD in Liverpool. It was withdrawn from there in January 1968 and arrived at Woodham's scrapyard at Barry in September 1968. It remained at Barry until it was transported to Great Central Railway, arriving at Quorn on the 20th November 1985. Restoration was completed in early 1995 and it is a regular performer on the Great Central Railway.

London Midland and Scottish Railway Stanier Mogul 2-6-0, 42968 departs Quorn tender first with a service for Loughborough, 31st January 2010. 42968 was built at Crewe works in 1933 and was one of a class of forty locomotives which were designed at Horwich works and were developed from the LMS Hughes “Crab” 2-6-0. They had the addition of several features brought over from the Great Western Railway by newly-arrived Chief Mechanical Engineer William Stanier, most notably the taper boiler. Due to a higher boiler pressure than the “Crabs” the cylinders could be 3" smaller in diameter and so the cylinders were able to be mounted horizontally. Like the “Crabs” they were connected to a Fowler tender that was narrower than the locomotive. The class were initially numbered 13245-84 but in the LMS 1933 renumbering scheme they were renumbered 2945-84 in 1934. British Railways added 40000 to their numbers so they became 42945-84. 42968 entered traffic on the 24th January 1934 and gave over thirty two years service before becoming the penultimate member of the class to be withdrawn when it was condemned on the 31st December 1966.After spending seven years awaiting breaking up at Barry it was purchased for preservation and moved to the Severn Valley Railway in December 1973.