Hot off the presses!
posted 28th March 2005

Once again, Mike Snow, the intrepid videographer, has been out and about with his video camera, and has kindly donated two more videos to our growing video gallery. These sequences were shot just a couple of days ago (on Saturday the 26th), and show the two magnificent “Halls” in action; our (hopefully) long-term resident Foremarke Hall, and the visiting Kinlet Hall.

Click here to visit the video gallery.
Click here to read about Halls (like Kinlet Hall) & Modified Halls (like Foremarke Hall), in our News Extra section.

We would be grateful if you would respect our limited bandwidth allowance, and download these videos once only (but feel free of course to save them to your hard disk!).

Minor updates
posted 28th March 2005

There have been a couple of minor updates to the site: firstly, the latest 35006 progress report has been updated, adding a picture. Secondly, a press release heralding the upcoming Diesel Gala has been posted.

Locomotive roster updated: Kinlet Hall arrives
posted 25th March 2005

A look at the locomotive roster will show you that our latest arrival, no. 4936 Kinlet Hall (which was delivered on the 23rd of March), is booked to handle trains over the Easter weekend. The engine is a welcome addition to our fleet as it represents the early development of the Hall class. On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, it will be sharing duties with its young cousin, Modified Hall no 7903 Foremarke Hall, which is 20 years its junior!*

This will bring to three, members of the Hall class (or its later version) on the GWR. The third is no. 6984 Owsden Hall which is currently being restored at Toddington. In addition a fourth member of the class normally resident on the GWR, no 6990 Raveningham Hall, is away being overhauled at the Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean.

Click here to learn more about the Hall and Modified Hall classes and what the principal differences are. Click here to go to the locomotive roster. You can also discover more about Kinlet Hall in the News Archive for the 18th of February, where you'll find a short history of the engine and a photograph of the locomotive on the main line.

* Subject to inspection and availability.  If Kinlet Hall is unavailable, 3205 will substitute.

A golden festival…
posted 25th March 2005

The Cheltenham Festival – for the first time over four days – was one of the most popular ever, despite Best Mate not defending his title for the fourth year in succession. Fine weather added to the buoyant mood of race goers, especially customers of Racing Tours, who used the train to beat the traffic congestion.

3205, with Paddy Power headboard

Although Racing Tours ran only one train each day, which was in the capable charge of Collett 0-6-0 no. 3205, each was filled more or less to capacity. And once again, On Train Catering did particularly well as punters either drowned their sorrows or celebrated during the return journey – some had to be encouraged to leave the train once it had arrived back at Toddington. Adding to the occasion was Racing Tours’ usual Irish band playing merry jigs for customers.

Commented Bob Mackintosh, operations director: “The atmosphere on race days is tremendous – there’s a great sense of camaraderie and good-humoured banter between volunteer staff and the punters. What is particularly satisfying is that we’re using Cheltenham Race Course station for what it was designed to do – bring race goers to important meetings at Prestbury Park.

“I think there’s great scope for expanding this service and we’ll be talking to Racing Tours about the options for next year. By then our new signalling will be in place which will enable us to run more trains with less waiting time between them.”

Last year Racing Tours ran two trains on Gold Cup day, one carrying passengers who had travelled from London to Evesham and then by coach to Toddington and the company hopes to repeat that in the future.

Bookmakers Paddy Power sponsored the trains, while Guinness provided the ‘black stuff’ for the journey. Apart from the locomotive headboard, each of the carriages carried Paddy Power branding.

Diesel Gala only 2 weeks away!
posted 22nd March 2005

The first diesel gala of 2005 is just over 2 weeks away. We’ll publish more information nearer the date, but we already have a working timetable for you to download. Click here to download the working timetable (this is a PDF file). Please note that, as always, the working timetable is primarily for use by our volunteers and is subject to change without notice.

Please note that, due to operational constraints, we will not be running an intensive timetable including freight services on the opening Friday (8th April). This is contrary to as publicised in Railways Illustrated magazine. We will however be running a full programme on Saturday & Sunday.

King George travels again
posted 18th March 2005

The GWR's pretty little Hunslet saddle tank locomotive, King George, is off on another jaunt. This time it’s to the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel & Wakes Colne, where the engine will remain for most of 2005.

The East Anglian Railway Museum has an extensive collection of rolling stock and railway equipment, much of it associated with the railway history of East Anglia. It includes a short running line. You can find out more by clicking here.

King George spent the Christmas season working 'Santa Specials' at the Vale of Glamorgan Railway at Barry, near Cardiff in South Wales.

Although King George will be missed by members of the locomotive department at Toddington, it is certain to be a popular attraction as it earns its keep on the Museum's line, near Chelmsford.

New bridges for old!
posted 18th March 2005

No. 7903 Foremarke Hall heads north with an Elegant Excursions train on February 26th 2005, crossing the newly refurbished Gotherington bridge. Photo: Ian Crowder.

Refurbishment of the railway’s ‘skew bridge’ at Gotherington has just been completed. It is the second to be refurbished in the railway’s current steel bridge repair programme. The first, finished late last year, was at Gretton and both have been attractively painted in chocolate and cream.

The railway has 16 steel rail-over bridges and all are around a century old. Although they have survived reasonably well, they are nevertheless beginning to show the ravages of time and weather.

Explains engineering director Ivor Dixon, “We have contracted a local steel fabrication company to undertake the work for us. The work involves cleaning and repairing them, including the attractive lattice work parapets, as well as painting. There has been some quite complex scaffolding work too, to allow access to the steelwork.”

Astonishingly, the railway has 88 structures of one sort or another that cross or are crossed by the line. Click here for the full story, and a picture of the bridge before it was refurbished.

Site updates
posted 17th March 2005

A number of “regulars” have been added to the site recently. Firstly, the Caption Competition, won this time by Alan Clothier (again). Well done Alan! A new competition which will run to the end of April has now been added - but I’ve now run out of photos so if anyone has anything amusing please send it to the webmaster (at gwsr.com).

Also in “The Sidings”, we have some more desktop wallpaper, courtesy of the prodigious “Zol”. He does take some excellent photographs, but please don’t let that deter the rest of you - contributions are always welcome. On that subject, we hope that our photo-galleries will soon be updated, thanks once again to Zol, who has volunteered to have a go at updating them (and he’s promised not to publish just his own pictures).

Finally, the regular quarterly report from the P&O group, is now available, courtesy of John McMillan.

Coming soon - some more latest news and a fascinating “News Extra” article especially for “bridge spotters”.

It’s not just about security - an appeal/rant by the Webmaster
posted 17th March 2005

As some of you may have spotted, I’ve now begun the task of rewriting this website. This major undertaking will, I hope, result in a faster-loading and more accessible site. However, as I start this process, I’ve immediately run into difficulties, as I’m about to explain!

The problem is Microsoft Internet Explorer, and specifically its support for CSS2. Without boring you with too many technical details, suffice it to say that CSS is a web standard that’s been around for some time, and is clearly the future for website design. It is all about separating content from presentation, and allows you to display the same basic page in different ways. For example, a visually impaired person could choose their preferred fonts/colours, pages can be made to resize perfectly with the browser window, and printing problems can be easily eliminated.

Most modern browsers have excellent support for CSS2, but alas, Microsoft Internet Explorer which has about 90% of the browser market, doesn’t. This lack of support for standards is unlikely to change unless there is sufficient pressure placed upon Microsoft. This is happening - more and more people are switching browser - but it is mainly being driven by concerns over security rather than standards-compliance.

Hence, the appeal - it’s not just about security! So why not give an alternative browser a try? Firefox or Opera are both quite small downloads, even with a modem.

New Carriage & Wagon report published
posted 8th March 2005

Richard Johnson’s latest report on the goings on at Winchcombe is now available. Click here to read it. The results of February’s caption competition (and a new one too, hopefully) will be published soon... and so will March’s desktop wallpaper, for you regular collectors!

Did you know that this website contains nearly 300 pages (and that’s not counting the galleries, mini-sites, and the non-public areas). Have you noticed that the front page has been viewed over 100,000 times since last April? This website is proving more popular that we ever envisaged, and the time has come to look at ways of improving the site, so expect a few changes over the coming months!

First public trains of the 2005 season run tomorrow!
posted 4th March 2005

The new season starts tomorrow, with a full 2-train service running to the red timetable. This year marks the 21st anniversary of the revival of the GWR, the line having been reopened in April 1984. Keep visiting this page for details of any special events to commemorate the GWR’s ‘coming of age’.

And they're off!
posted 1st March 2005

Customers of Racing Tours will be cantering to the races once again from Toddington, avoiding the annual traffic chaos in the process. For the first time, the Cheltenham Festival takes place over four days - the 15th to 18th of March and one train will run on each day, in the charge of Collet 0-6-0 no. 3205. Racing Tours' James Colling says: "There are just a few places left althogh for Gold Cup day, the train is just about full."

As with last year, on the way to Cheltenham customers will enjoy a glass of the black stuff courtesy of Guinness, as they scan through their complimentary Racing Post. Bookmakers Paddy Power are once again cosponsoring the trains and their distinctive headboard will be carried on each day.

Racing Tours offer packages that can including travel entrance to the race course, meals, betting facilities and pre-race talks by jockeys taking part on the day. For information or a last-minute booking, telephone Racing Tours on 01386 834 013 or via their website www.racingtours.co.uk

Click here to return to the News Archive.