Season’s Greetings
posted 24th December 2004

The GWR Website Team would like to extend their warmest Christmas greetings to all the visitors to this website, everyone who has visited the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway in the last year, and of course all our hardworking volunteers. A happy Christmas and a peaceful New Year to you all!

Remember, there’s still plenty of steam and diesel action to come before the 2004 season draws to a close. Trains are running from Boxing Day through to the 3rd of January, with just one day off on New Year’s Eve. December the 27th is our ‘traditional’ Christmas Diesel Day, with all-diesel running from our home fleet. Click here to view our timetable (note that the January trains are running to the 2004 red timetable).

Dave Robinson - Webmaster
Ian Crowder - Editor
Richard Drewitt - Commercial Director

Triumphant return for ‘City of Truro’
posted 12th December 2004

‘City of Truro’ is coming back to the GWR. It is expected to arrive on the 1st of April and will remain until the 25th of May. The record-breaking centenarian is scheduled to be a star performer in the railway’s Spring Gala, on the 13th, 14th and 15th of May 2005.

The locomotive was restored by its owners, the National Railway Museum, partly thanks to a highly successful appeal conducted amongst readers of Steam Railway magazine. Many contributors donated substantial sums and, among incentives, footplate rides on ‘City of Truro’ were promised while at the GWR. Unfortunately it became impossible to fit these in while the elegant Great Western ‘City’ class 4-4-0 no 3440 - which is reputed to have been the first locomotive to break the 100mph barrier in 1904 - was running in on the GWR earlier this year.

Following its triumphant return to operation at a special day for Steam Railway readers at Toddington on the 2nd of April 2004, the engine underwent a series of test runs before it met its busy schedule of mainline runs and other appearances around the country.

Qualifying Steam Railway contributors will in due course be invited to take up their footplate rides in April or May. The locomotive is also expected to head ‘Elegant Excursions’ dining trains while based at Toddington, when some of the more generous contributors to the locomotive’s restoration can enjoy their promised dining experience.

City of Truro’ will also be working scheduled services during this period and staff on ‘the Friendly Line in the Cotswolds’ look forward to welcoming both guests - and the locomotive -  back to the GWR.

Where to find more information
Following its appearance on the GWR, ‘City of Truro’ will once again be travelling around the country visiting a number of other heritage railways as well as undertaking some main line runs. Visit the National Railway Museum website for details of the proposed schedule of appearances. Note that this is subject to change. Appearance on the GWR is also subject to availability.

For more information on ‘City of Truro’ click here to visit our locomotive database, and select 3440. There is an excellent gallery of photographs taken during the locomotive’s previous visit to the GWR; to see them click here.

‘City of Truro’ appears on the GWR by kind permission of the National Railway Museum, York. Please go to our News Archive for past stories about ‘City of Truro’ or use the Search facility. You can visit Steam Railway magazine’s website by clicking here.

Christmas Diesel Gala - working timetable now available
posted 11th December 2004

The working timetable for the Christmas Diesel Gala (on the 27th of December 2004) is now available. Click here to download the timetable (this is a PDF file). As always, this timetable is subject to last minute changes, so keep visiting this site for updates.

Trains on the GWR next year!
* Hourly service on peak days
* Gotherington station opens for off-peak trains
posted 9th December 2004

The GWR's 2005 timetable is now online - you can view it by clicking here. The main new feature is an hourly service on peak days (red timetable), which we hope will make the timetable easier to understand. Trains depart Toddington at 10:30 and then hourly until 16:30, and from Cheltenham Race Course station at 11:15 and hourly until 17:15. All trains stop at Winchcombe.

Our off-peak (blue) timetable includes stops at Winchcombe and, for the first time for half a century, at Gotherington halt. This was the first station on the line to be closed, in June 1955. Trains depart Toddington at 10:30 and two-hourly until 16:30, stopping at Gotherington at 10:52 and two-hourly until 16:52. Return trains depart at 11:20 from Cheltenham Race Course, then two-hourly until 17:20, calling at Gotherington 12 minutes later.

Why is Gotherington* only being used for off-peak trains? Well, this will provide an opportunity for train crews and other staff to become familiar with the halt, which has a platform length of only two carriages. If you wish to alight here, you must be in one of the front two coaches of our six-coach trains - train staff will help.

There is a wide range of special events taking place in 2005 too, including Thomas and Friends, transport nostalgia days, steam and diesel gala events, fish and chip trains - and much more. Click here for a summary of what's happening and when.

Would you like a copy of the printed timetable leaflet, which is full of information about the GWR? If so, please send a stamped self-addressed standard DL sized envelope to:

GWR 2005 Timetable
The Railway Station
Toddington
GL54 5DT

* There is no car parking at Gotherington halt. Access to the GWR's platform is via Granna Lane off the unclassified road between Gotherington and Gretton, underneath the railway bridge and along the signposted footpath up to platform level. Please note that the original station building is now a private home and there is no public access.

November Diesel Gala
posted 5th December 2004

The GWR held another one of its popular Diesel Galas over the weekend of the 27th & 28th of November. Attendance figures were in line with previous events and quite encouraging given the proximity to the previous gala during October.

Photos by Richard Drewitt (above) and Phil Wright (below)

The weather was generally quite kind with only a few minor showers and feedback from those who attended was very positive. The GWR has established a reputation for being a leader in the field of heritage diesel traction events and has a fleet of operational locomotives that is the envy of many of the other UK preserved lines.

Highlights of the weekend included the double headed workings of The Growler Groups two English Electric Type 3 locomotives and similar operations with The Brush Type 4 Funds two Class 47's. 47105 was particularly popular due to its steam heat boiler being in operation and used extensively to heat the trains.

Class 14 diesel-hydraulic D9539 also put in some excellent performances and was treated to a couple of rare visits to Cheltenham Race Course. The line up was completed by privately owned 24081 and the ever-popular single cabbed D8137.

Yard tours at Toddington were provided by volunteers who were able to show visitors the progress being made with the restoration of The Cotswold Mainline Diesel Group's locomotives 26043 and 45149, as well as the various steam locomotives that are accommodated at Toddington. All gratefully received donations from these tours have been put towards the Permanent Way department tool fund.

The GWR's diesel fleet are a credit to the railway and the £9 all-day fare offers excellent value for money, so if you are thinking of visiting the GWR why not come along for our next diesel gala being held over the Christmas period on Monday December 27th? We look forward to seeing you!

Any colour you like?
posted 4th December 2004

Visitors often comment on how well our Mark 1 coaches are turned out. The liveries are representative of those that might have been seen on our line during the early British Railways years.

The first standard British Railways coach livery was carmine and cream, introduced immediately following nationalisation in 1948. In later years, maroon was adopted and could be found all over the UK. However, going back to their pre-war roots, the Western Region chose chocolate and cream for their coaching stock, and the Southern went for green.

At the end of steam, a new standard livery began to appear for express coaching stock - blue and grey. In fact, it was sometimes possible to see trains made up with an eclectic mix of liveries - on the WR, a mixture of maroon, chocolate and cream, and blue and grey was not uncommon - hauled either by a filthy, run-down steam locomotive or perhaps a freshly-painted blue-liveried diesel.

On our own line, Carriage & Wagon Department is turning its thoughts towards the next rake of coaches and democratically asked for preferences. This has prompted fierce debate in the Waiting Room and a survey, which well over 200 people took part in.

The results of the survey showed that 60 per cent of participants favoured blue and grey, the rest divided between our existing liveries, and green. You can see the full results by clicking here. One or two people attempted to cheat by multiple voting - but these have been discounted.

"The results have been an eye-opener," says Richard Johnson, head of Carriage & Wagon. "Several people have pointed out that we have a very good selection of diesels from the immediate post-steam era; locomotives that have now become rarities in themselves. And there are very few places where you can see a rake of blue and grey coaches being hauled by a blue diesel."

Richard expresses surprise that there was such a strong vote in favour of this livery. "One option is to duplicate our existing colours and the survey shows there was little enthusiasm for that. Green is the other possibility but this is a former Great Western line and green was most unlikely to be seen on the route in steam days - so it attracted only 10 per cent of the vote."

Although Richard made it clear from the beginning that the survey wouldn't be binding he believes that his team may well try a blue and grey coach. "But it's not going to happen straight away," he warns. "It takes six months to refurbish a carriage - and that's before painting the top coat! We can turn one out and see what the reaction is and go from there."

Christmas is coming!
posted 3rd December 2004

The Toddington booking office team tell us that the telephone is still red-hot with customers hoping to book for a Santa Special - but we're sorry to report that all trains are now fully booked.

Acknowledged as one of the best Santa experiences in the region, the GWR's team of volunteer helpers make life easy for the great red-coated gentleman when he visits and a day of happy memories for visitors of all ages!

But you can still enjoy a a steam or diesel train journey through the Cotswolds winter wonderland over the festive season. Trains will be running as follows:

• Boxing day - steam and diesel (maroon timetable)
• 27th December - diesel day (dark blue timetable - including brake van rides at Toddington)
• 28-30 December - steam and diesel (maroon timetable)
• New Year's Day, 2nd and 3rd January - all steam (red 2004 timetable)

Click here for timetable details. And keep an eye on the loco roster to see which locomotives are running throughout this period.

Site updates
posted 2nd December 2004

Hot off the presses, the 2005 timetable details are now available online. Click here for the 2005 timetable, and click here for details of the special event days in 2005.

Due to the pressures of the festive season (office parties, Christmas shopping, the webmaster’s day job) some of the regular updates to the website, such as the Caption Competition, will be a bit late this month. However, we do have a news item on last weekend’s successful diesel gala coming soon... so please keep visiting! Remember to check the site updates page for details of all recent changes to this site.

Click here to return to the News Archive.