Detailed Festival timetables and locomotive roster now on site
posted 25th May 2006

By popular demand, the working timetables for the gala are now available in the Festival section of the site. Due to operational constraints, these timetables do not have loco numbers on them, and are subject to change without notice. However, we hope enthusiasts will find them useful.

Click here to visit the Train Times section of the Centenary Festival pages.

Note: that this will be the last website news update for the next week or so, and the website team would like to take the opportunity to wish all the Centenary Festival goers an enjoyable visit! For late-breaking festival news, keep an eye on our Loco Roster page.

RBR now in service: hot bacon roll, anyone?
posted 25th May 2006

Restaurant carriage no 1675 is now settling down as part of the chocolate and cream set on the GWR and anyone wandering in for a cuppa - or more - could not fail to be impressed with the quality of restoration in this vehicle. Its loose upholstered seating has immediate appeal, lending a special quality to the coach, which has been the subject of complete restoration at Winchcombe. Click here for the full story in News Extra.

Stop press: late addition to Centenary Festival fleet...
posted 24th May 2006

A further locomotive – 2-6-2T no 4141 – is visiting the GWR for the Centenary Festival.  Click here for Festival News and more information about this loco.

Festival News
posted 23rd May 2006, updated 25th May 2006

In spite of a seriously injured typing finger, the webmaster has been working away furiously, updating the festival pages with the latest information. Recent additions include:

• Details of the train times throughout the festival (note that due to the complexity and volume of operations during the 9 days of running, it will not be possible to publish a completely accurate working timetable on this website... but a working timetable will be available for a very modest fee on each day. A partial working timetable - subject to change - can be downloaded from the page linked to above).
• A list of all the attractions and activities throughout the week.
• Information about Carriage & Wagon tours at Winchcombe.
• Another history lesson

Thanks must go, as always, to Ian Crowder (website editor) for his Herculean efforts in supplying material for this site and our e-newsletter (received by over 400 of you yesterday), producing the festival brochure (available for £2 from our stations), and helping to organise the entire event. Those of you who know him may see him shovelling coal at some time over the festival period - in which case, give him a wave!

Another history lesson...
posted 23rd May 2006

...has been added to the Festival pages. This one looks at the gathering pace in the effort to purchase the line after it officially closed in 1979 through contemporary reports in the media.  One report said that BR lifting the track ‘thwarted’ any attempt to restore the line. How wrong that was! Click here to read this story.

Latest Festival news
posted 17th May 2006

Please click here for latest news on the Festival - including the loss of D1023 and 35005 which now cannot attend for very different reasons. You can also learn about the replacement for 35005.

Heritage Railway article
posted 17th May 2006

Heritage Railway magazine has run a six-page feature on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, following the history of the line, its revival and future development, marking the railway's Centenary and the 25th anniversary of Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway Plc. The feature was written by the GWR's press officer, Ian Crowder. The magazine is available in the station shop at Toddington and at most branches of WH Smith and other leading news agents.

37324 on holiday
posted 10th May 2006

Photographs by John Martin

As the photographs above show, on Thursday 4th May 37324 ”Clydebridge” set off on its late Spring seaside holiday, to the south coast. It’s spending a short time at the Swanage Railway, where it will star in in their Rail Ale Festival, and will be used for driver experience courses.

This is the first time that the Growler Group have hired out one of their locos, and the decision was taken to send 37324, since 37215 is currently undergoing bodywork repairs.

One for the album
posted 7th May 2006

We receive lots of pictures at gwsr.com - thank you all for sharing you memories with us and our site visitors (and there are several hundred of those every day). The best pictures end up in our photo galleries, where we can publish images slightly bigger than you normally see on the main pages of the website. In addition, to save your mouse finger you can display the images in each gallery as a slideshow.

Today we received a particularly nice set of pictures from Paul Stratford, and hopefully these will make it into our photo galleries in due course. However, as a taster, here is Paul’s excellent photograph of 4936 Kinlet Hall.

1400 class tank locomotives
posted 6th May 2006

The much-loved Collett 1400 class tank locomotives - and the Armstrong 517 class that preceded them - worked local services between Cheltenham and Honeybourne for 40 years . After the memories that local people have of the service - fondly known as the 'coffee pot' - we have published a News Extra tracing the history of these doughty little machines. Click here for the details.

Festival locomotive news
posted 5th May 2006

Click here for news on the locomotives attending the GWR's Centenary Festival, which takes place between 27th May and 4th June 2006. We are currently in the process of adding some pictures to the information on each locomotive attending the Festival.

In you’re a keen photographer - or were just wondering which way to look - you now can find out which way the locomotives will be pointing during the festival. Click here for details.

Special timetable on Sunday 7th May
posted 5th May 2006

We regret that fewer services than normal will be available to the public this Sunday, the 7th of May, in order to accommodate the Elegant Excursions Sunday Luncheon train on that day . The Gold Timetable advertised, therefore, is not valid. Because the new signalling scheme at Cheltenham has yet to be passed by HM Railway Inspector (following some additional work required following an inspection earlier this year), it is not possible to run to the Gold timetable. Public train services are therefore as follows:

From Toddington:
10:30, 11:30, 13:40, 15:30 and 16:30(d)

From Cheltenham Race Course:
11:15, 12:15, 14:25, 16:15, 17:15(d)

All services are steam except those marked (d) = diesel locomotive

Please note that if you catch the 16.15 service from Cheltenham you must change at Winchcombe for the returning diesel service, if you wish to return to Cheltenham. The last round trip to Toddington departs from Cheltenham at 14.25, returning on the 15.30 or 16.30(d).

For full details check our locomotive roster.

We regret the inconvenience this may cause you. We hope the Cheltenham signalling will be passed by the Inspector soon.

Memories of the 'Honeybourne Line'
posted 5th May 2006

In connection with this year's centenary of the opening throughout of the Stratford-on-Avon to Cheltenham line, over which part of the present-day GWR runs, we asked for memories of the railway - and the local 'coffee pot' service - in its heyday. Several have come in, ranging from those whose ancestors helped to construct it, those who used it for going to school, for
commuting or just to go visiting family and friends; to collect livestock from Bishops Cleeve station and, of course, those who worked on or over the line.

School hats being snatched off heads, coming home from a night on the town, waiting in darkness for troop trains to pass, a mysterious bump in Greet Tunnel and a body on the line - it's all here. The recollections of local people who clearly had a strong affection for the line paint a picture of how vital the rural railway was. As one correspondent remarks, the railway was the only way to get to Cheltenham with two babies in a pram - this was long before folding push chairs were invented!

All of the people who lent us their recollections will be invited to travel on the 'coffee pot' on Thursday 25th May, using 1400 class 0-4-2T no 1450 and autocoach no. 178. The train will stop at the site of all former stations and halts between Toddington and Cheltenham Race Course, including Hayles Abbey Halt; Winchcombe; Gretton Halt; Gotherington and Bishops
Cleeve. If you have memories of the railway (or know someone who does) please let us know by clicking here or writing to Coffee Pot Memories, The Railway Station, Toddington GL54 5DT.

Click here for these fascinating insights into life on 'our' railway, which are in our Festival News section.

Pinch, punch, 1st of the month...
posted 1st May 2006

Yes, it’s the first of May, which means, as usual, a new Caption Competition. Last month’s attracted a good number of entries, and hopefully this month’s will do even better. It’s a great photograph (thanks to Chris Taylor), and I’m sure you’ll be able to maintain the usual high standard of witty and amusing entries.

So who won April’s competition? This month it was really hard to pick a winner, but the congratulations go to Allan Witter, for a great entry.

Of course, the passing of another month usually means another fascinating report into the goings-on down at the Winchcombe Carriage & Wagon works, and this month is no exception. Click here to read Richard Johnson’s latest report. You may also be interested to know that the report is read over 500 times each month... so if any other departments would like to consider contributing a similar report, you can be assured it’s worth the effort.

Click here to return to the News Archive.