Cotswold Festival of Steam – something for everyone!

Introduction and welcome
Tickets
What’s on at Toddington, Winchcombe and Cheltenham Race course
Getting there
Lineside passes
Where to photograph the action
Accommodation
 

Firstly a word from our sponsors.
Many thanks to Steam Railway Magazine, Britain’s biggest-selling railway magazine who will be present throughout the Festival; Goffs Brewery of Winchcombe, the CAMRA award-winning brewers who produce the GWR’s acclaimed Rail Ale – and there will be plenty of stock on our buffet cars throughout the Festival!  Then there is Moveright International, heavy haulage contractors who will shift anything from a tractor to a transformer with an enormous number of steam locomotives in between – Moveright transported the locomotives to the Festival from as far away as Somerset and Yorkshire.  And finally, but not least, David Andrews Locomotive Kits – locally-based maker of top-rated 7mm scale (‘0’-gauge) and 10mm (gauge 1) locomotive kits for the discerning modeller.

Introduction and welcome!
It will be all action on the GWR from 31st May to 3rd June with the Cotswold Festival of Steam drawing the crowds. There’s a fantastic variety of motive power spanning nearly six decades to appeal to every taste: from the oldest, the pretty little Port Talbot Railway 0-6-0ST no. 813 built in 1901, through to British Railways’ last and finest product - 9F 2-10-0 no. 92203 Black Prince, built in 1959.

Between them are representatives from the Southern (newly restored West Country class pacific no. 34007 Wadebridge); the Midland - well almost! (Somerset & Dorset 2-8-0 no. 88); the Great Western (0-6-0ST No. 813; small Prairie no. 5542 and Modified Hall no. 7903 Foremarke Hall) and the London & North Eastern (V2 Prairie no. 4771 Green Arrow).

For details of the locomotives, click here.

Back by popular demand is auto trailer no. 178, resplendent in a brand-new coat of Great Western chocolate and cream. This will be working throughout the weekend with auto-fitted no. 5542 between Toddington and Winchcombe.

The provisional working timetable is now available although at this stage, the locomotive allocations have yet to be made – this will be done shortly before the event and will be published on this site; any late changes will appear on the loco roster.

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Tickets
There is a lot going on over the four days and we have simplified our ticketing for the occasion. Our normal Rover ticket price for special occasions is £15 but as a special deal, the following fares allow unlimited travel on the day of issue - Rover tickets are £12 for adults, £10 for senior citizens and £8 for children aged 5-15 – great value for a great day. The tickets are valid all day on the day of issue.

So what else is going on?
Toddington
There will be a range of stands representing preservation projects, both on the railway and from outside. The North Gloucestershire Narrow Gauge Railway will be operating, while refreshments will be available of course, in the Flag & Whistle and on the trains. And if you have a long-suffering partner then there is now an entrance into the Garden Centre right opposite the station. The Auto Trailer with 5542 will be running from Toddington to Winchcombe several times per day, interspersed with freight trains.

Under-restoration Merchant Navy class pacific no. 35006 will be on the unloading road in the car part for inspection. And if you want to take a look at the controls of one of our diesels, you can do that too.

Our very own GWR Fire Brigade will be on hand – a great chance for the youngsters to explore one of our fire engines!

The Railway Archiving Trust’s Hawksworth coach will be open in the bay at Toddington, while their new museum on platform 2 will also be open.

For the duration of the gala and only for the duration of the gala, there will be guided tours of Toddington yard. Details of these will be available on the day.

Winchcombe
Winchcombe will be alive with activity. Apart from being just the place to watch the trains going by as well as freights and auto-trains terminating, there will be miniature trains to watch as well. The recently-delivered Royal Mail vans will double as an exhibition area for model railway layouts and more models will be found within the station building itself. The GWR gets a lot of well-earned admiration for its fleet of Mk 1 coaches and freight stock – pay a visit to the Carriage & Wagon works too where the fascinating yet vital behind-the-scenes work within the department is explained. For much of the time, there will also be a locomotive in the up bay platform and footplate visits will definitely be encouraged.

Cheltenham Race Course
Cheltenham Race Course station has in the past, been fairly quiet between trains – because until the advent of signalling it has not been possible to cross trains here. That has all changed and the second train of each day will arrive double-headed, one of the locomotives being detached. It remains at Cheltenham while the train returns. The locomotives then change, until the penultimate  return service which again will be double-headed.

Here’s something new. Port Talbot/GWR 0-6-0ST no. 813 will be accompanying a Toad brakevan at Cheltenham and in exchange for a donation in a bucket to the 813 Fund, you can take a brakevan ride within the station confines.

In the waiting room, Frederick Lea will be displaying his awesome range of railway – and other – watercolours and offering prints, cards and postcards for sale. Fred is a fascinating man to chat to – I’m sure he won’t mind us saying that he is of modest character yet he has a wealth of railway knowledge and extraordinary skill as an artist. He is the GWR’s ‘resident artist’.

Want to know how the signalling works? Well, at Cheltenham Race Course station it’s possible to visit the signal box between trains. Don’t be fooled by the modern external appearance of the ’box because it houses a Victorian lever frame and is to all intents a genuine Great Western facility. The frame was once at Whiteball signal box: back in 1904, the signalman there pulled off the signals from this very frame for City of Truro as it launched itself in to the history books by achieving a recorded speed of over 100mph.

Make sure you pay a visit to the original ‘flat pack’ station building at the top of the access ramp. Ikea can’t claim exclusivity here – Swindon’s carpenters were turning out flat-pack buildings over a century ago and this is an excellent and possibly unique example. It would have been delivered by train and simply bolted together (but we’ve never found the assembly instruction leaflet!).

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Getting to the Festival
There is free car parking at both Toddington and Cheltenham Race Course stations. But a word of warning: if it looks as if there is going to be heavy rain it might be best to park at the Racecourse rather than the field at Toddington, which can become muddy in extreme weather. If the weather does turn nasty though, and your car loses traction, we will help drag you out with a tractor at the end of the day. There is limited parking at Winchcombe while roadworks scheduled for the period of the Festival may make getting to the station difficult. Both Toddington and Cheltenham stations will be AA signposted.

If you are using a navigation tool such as AA route finder or a sat-nav, Cheltenham Race Course station does not have a post code allocated but key in GL50 4SH which will take you in to the main entrance of the racecourse. Toddington station is at GL54 5DT.

Public transport: from Cheltenham Spa (NR) station a bus leaves every 10 minutes (20 minutes on Sundays) bound for Bishops Cleeve and/or Gotherington. Ask for the Park and Ride at Cheltenham Racecourse. The station is then a 10-minute walk along the main distribution road within the Racecourse grounds (keeping the main buildings on your right). We are hoping to run a vintage bus service from Cheltenham Spa and Cheltenham town centre to the GWR station on all four days – news later. See getting to the GWR elsewhere on this site which has full directions to all of our stations.

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Lineside passes
You’re welcome to walk the route if you are in possession of a lineside pass. You can obtain a day pass from Toddington station booking office or click here. Annual passes are also available. A couple of do’s and don’t’s though:

• Always wear an orange high-visibility vest (if you forgot yours, the station shop at Toddington offers a fetching example)
• Always respect instructions of station staff
• Please avoid walking around Toddington yard – this is out of bounds for safety reasons while civil engineering work continues
• Please acknowledge warning whistles from locomotives
• Don’t walk in the four-foot
• Please respect the land and fences of neighbouring landowners
• Do not under any circumstances attempt to walk through Greet Tunnel. As it is on a curve it is pitch black in the middle.

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Where to photograph and film the action!
There are some smashing points for photography along the route. OS Landranger maps are 150 (Worcester & the Malverns; Evesham & Tewkesbury) and 163 (Cheltenham & Cirencester). You’ll find plenty of access points to the line and a wealth of public footpaths that run alongside or cross the route. Some favourite locations are:

• Between Toddington and Winchcombe:
• Didbrook area (trains in both directions)
• Hailes Bridge (both directions)
• Chicken Curve (just outside Winchcombe – trains leaving Winchcombe)
• Between Winchcombe and Gotherington
• Cutting just outside Winchcombe station (trains leaving Winchcombe)
• Each end of Greet Tunnel – including the top of the tunnel at the Cheltenham end. Do not under any circumstances attempt to walk through the tunnel. In any case the tunnel is haunted (yes, really!)
• Dixton cutting and bridge – this elegant three-arch bridge crossing the line is a popular and attractive feature (trains in both directions, but especially Toddington-bound)
• From the approach to the bridge there is a good view over the field (which may be populated by sheep) of trains accelerating away from the slack at Gotherington station. (Toddington-bound trains)
• Gotherington station surrounds – please note that the original station and yard area is a private residence, although the owner is an enthusiast as his collection (including a perfect GWR ‘pagoda’ halt) demonstrates.
• Between Gotherington and Cheltenham
• Manor Lane (on the curve just beyond the passing loop). Near this point there are some of the best viewpoints – both close to the track and near it. There is a public footpath crossing the line part way down the embankment, towards Bishops Cleeve and there are excellent opportunities for shots of trains climbing the 1-in-150 gradient. Trains are normally working reasonably hard up the gradient before the slack for Gotherington – drivers shut off normally just before the start of the curve.
• Southam Lane: this is the first bridge over the line out of Cheltenham and it borders the racecourse. (Trains are accelerating here out of Cheltenham station)
• Cheltenham Race Course station itself – nice pictures of the locomotive running into the headshunt can be had here as well as in this attractive, Corsican-pine fringed station area.

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Why not stay a while?
Because the GWR is in one of the most attractive parts of the UK, the area is blessed with plenty of hotels, pubs and bed-and-breakfast accommodation. We have several establishments that support the GWR so please support them if you can: click here for information.

You can also find accommodation by contacting the Tourist Information offices in Cheltenham, http://www.visitcheltenham.com/ which has a useful online free booking service (or telephone 01242 517110). You can also contact Tewkesbury tourist information office at 01684 295027 or Winchcombe tourist information office at 01242 602925. Broadway tourist information also offers comprehensive online booking service with links to hundreds of places to stay, at http://www.cotswolds.info/hotels-lodgings-pubs-inns-cottages.shtml

But here is a small selection you could try:

Old Station House, Greet, Winchcombe GL54 5LD – this is the original station master’s house right next to Winchcombe station and only a few feet from the line. Contact Jenny Collier on 01242 602283 or old_station_house@hotmail.com

Irely Grounds, Broadway Road, Winchcombe GL54 5NY – set just outside Winchcombe on the road to Toddington, this is a country house with four self-catering cottages available for weekend or longer bookings. Only five minutes walk from Winchcombe station and next to the railway. Contact Mrs Galpin on 01242 602603 or visit http://www.stableyardcottages.com

Orchard Cottage, Stanley Pontlarge near Winchcombe, GL54 5HD. Self catering accommodation in the home of the late author, LTC (Tom) Rolt.  Very picturesque and right next to the railway. Contact Mrs Sonia Rolt on 01242 602 594 or soniarolt@btinternet.com

Oaklands, 16 Gretton Road, Winchcombe GL54 5EG – a family-run guest house close to Winchcombe village centre and a 15-minute walk from Winchcombe station. Welcoming accommodation, suitable for disabled visitors and you can even bring your pet! Contact Mr & Mrs Anderson on 01242 602272 or visit http://www.oaklandsbedandbreakfast .activehotels.com

Please mention the GWR if you contact any of the above.

Please note that the GWR accepts no responsibility for the content or availability of external websites. The brief accommodation listing above is not an exhaustive list, and should not be taken as an endorsement by the GWR of any of the properties listed.

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