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The September Diesel Gala (9th & 10th September) will now feature a guest locomotive. Our own Class 20 D8137 (pictured right at the April Diesel Gala) will be joined by D8142 from the Llangollen Railway. Click here to read more about the September gala. The image of D8137 is a heavily cropped and scaled version of Chris Taylor’s excellent photograph. You can see the original, and more great photographs, in our online photo gallery.
That didn’t take long... Congratulations to John McMillan, who got the correct answer to Richard Johnson’s carriage glass quiz. Apparently, his job is to clean the grubby fingerprints off them every week. The answer is 134, comprised of: Main windows 80 (16 x 5) Apparently, John’s workload is actually 158, because he has to do both sides of some of them (but I don’t think he does all 134 panes himself). A special mention too, to Robert Goundry, who reckoned it was 138, which was pretty close.
Quiz time Those of you with good memories might recall the New Year Prize Quiz, which ran during the closed season earlier this year. You might also have noticed that we never announced a winner. Well, this omission on our part was down to freak weather conditions, followed by a plague of locusts and the webmaster being struck by lightning - OK, we admit it, we just forgot! Anyway, we have now frantically judged the competition, which wasn’t too hard given that there were only five entries. Choosing a winner wasn’t hard either, since only one entry got all 30 answers correct. Congratulations (and the free family ticket) go to Rachel Donoghue. Well done Rachel - we’ll be in touch. Whilst on the subject of tricky questions, Richard Johnson, our head of Carriage & Wagon, has come up with this one:
There’s no prize for getting the correct answer (unless perhaps you’d like the job of cleaning all of them) - just the chance to get your name in lights on the website. Email your answers to webmaster (@gwsr.com).
Slow news week! It seems to be a bit of slow news period at the moment. Of course, there’s lots going on at the GWR, but not much that’s newsworthy, it would seem (or at least not that anyone’s telling the webmaster about)! Anyway, here’s a nice picture from the Centenary Festival at the end of May, showing Drysllwyn Castle bearing The Cornishman headboard, “thundering” (to quote the photographer, Zol) under Dixton bridge.
To see more pictures of Drysllwyn Castle (aka Earl Bathurst) at work during the Centenary Festival, visit our regularly updated photo galleries at http://gallery.gwsr.com.
35006 Progress Report - now on line The latest instalment in John McMillan’s series of P&O progress reports is now available. We must also mention Pete Mason, who supplies all the photos. Click here to read it the latest P&O report, or to visit the P&O section of the website, click here.
Health & Safety induction training There will soon be a new method for obtaining work permits for new working volunteers. To ensure we are doing our duty of care, all new volunteers must attend formal Health & Safety training before they receive their full work permit. New volunteers will be issued with a self help work book on H & S which they fill in with their head of department. They then attend the training day and will be issued with their work permit after training. Training days are held every month and subjects covered will include track safety, general health & safety, fire extinguishers and the GWR rule book. Training will include practical as well as theory so it should be fun. The following dates are currently scheduled for induction training. These are intended for new volunteers, but current volunteers are welcome to attend too. Only one session is required. July 29, September 23, October 21, November 19. Training starts at 10:00, at Toddington in the H&S training room. The session should finish by 16:00 at the latest. Please contact our Health & Safety Officer, Chris Stockman on 07946 733674 to confirm your attendance, or leave a note at Toddington in his mail slot in the station office.
Stolen - and recovered! Permanent way staff were horrified to find that about £6,000 worth of brand new, just-delivered fishplates were stolen from the railhead at Stanway, on the Broadway extension, on the morning of 8th July. Access to the track bed was gained by cutting through a locked steel gate. But unbeknown to the railway, the haul had already been recovered even before the theft was reported by volunteers. The fishplates probably have a scrap value of little more than £100. As the Gloucestershire Echo explained in their report of 10th July, the metal fishplates were discovered in a lorry during a random police spot check and officers became suspicious when the driver couldn't explain his unusual load. Fishplates are difficult to obtain and they had been specially manufactured for the GWR. They carried identifying tags and these had been clipped off and left strewn on the ballast. Bernard Dudfield, the GWR's estates director told the Echo: "We've all put a lot of time and money into this and it's a terrible feeling when you are trying to build (a railway). It's like having the rug pulled from beneath your feet." He added that the Permanent Way team had been hugely lifted by the news that the fishplates had been recovered. "I've nothing but praise for the police," he says. A lorry driver is helping police with their enquiries. Only the fishplates were stolen, other track equipment was ignored and police aren't ruling out the possibility that the thieves knew what they were looking for. Anyone with further information that could help the police should call 0845 0901234 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111. Callers should quote Incident No. 307 of 8th July 2006. What is a fishplate? Click here to find out in our Jargon Buster.
Gold timetable revised Some visitors to both this site and to the railway on Gold Timetable days will have noticed that, the timetable and actual train times don’t quite match. Gold timetable days are when Elegant Excursions Sunday lunch trains are running. When the timetable was being planned it was fully expected that the signalling at Cheltenham would be in full operation, allowing more than one train into Cheltenham Race Course station. The idea was that Elegant Excursions would use the line where platform 2 was (and will be again in the future), diners not expecting to leave the train. This would have allowed the normal service trains to ‘cross’ Elegant Excursions at Cheltenham. Unfortunately, the signalling has not yet been approved and some additional technical work must be completed and we don’t anticipate this happening now before the end of the current season. This means that Elegant Excursions luncheon trains will use the ‘path’ of a normal service train; that service therefore not being available for normal passengers. We have tried to reduce inconvenience as much as possible and apologies if the timetable means a long wait for a train. The remaining dates of Gold timetable days are: Departures for public service trains on these days are (d = diesel): For full details of the Gold timetable, click here. For the working timetable you can visit the loco roster close to Gold timetable days If you would enjoy Sunday lunch on Elegant Excursions, click here
All change on the Boards - and a successful 2005! The respective Annual General Meetings of both Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Limited and Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway Plc took place recently in the Flag & Whistle, Toddington. The meetings were lively and packed with both members and shareholders alike, who learned of both the success of the railway during year in question (ending 31st December 2005 in the case of GWR Ltd and 31st January 2006 in the case of the GWSR Plc). Click here to get the lowdown on the meetings.
A century on the GWR Frederick Lea GRA has produced a wonderful water-colour to commemorate the centenary of the opening of the Honeybourne to Cheltenham line in 1906. The picture – reproduced below – includes eight images capturing the very essence of our line over the years. Just 100 prints have been created of this magnificent painting and one can be yours – if you hurry – for just £49.00. The prints measure 61cm x 45cm and are printed on high quality, heavy art paper. Copies can be obtained direct from Fred Lea (details below).
The images show: Top left: City of Truro at Malvern Road East junction, Cheltenham You can get your copy by writing to: Fred Lea Enclose a cheque for £49.00 plus £3.50 post and packing (total £52.50) made payable to Frederick Lea. Visitors to his studio are welcome – in which case, you won’t need to add the post and packing cost.
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Guest loco for September Diesel Gala
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