Stanway Viaduct Progress
posted 30th October 2005

Track laying is now progressing north of Toddington, over the magnificent 15 arch Stanway Viaduct. Built in 1903-1904, it  has the dubious claim to having partially collapsed during construction after wooden supports were removed too quickly before the mortar had set!

Over the last few months members of the GWR Permanent Way Department have been working hard preparing track materials. Hardwood sleepers having been drilled and fitted with base plates, along with moving new rails into position. As of the end of October track now covers half the structure, and it is only a matter of a few weeks before the first engineering train since 1976 is seen crossing the viaduct.

This will be a significant milestone in the GWR's restoration of the line, and a big step forwards towards the track extension to the village of Broadway, where the GWR plan to build a new station.

Special thanks to Andy Manley, one of the stalwarts of the Permanent Way gang, who sent in this report, and has kindly given us permission to use his photographs. Visit Andy’s unofficial Broadway Extension website, for up-to-date news, information and comment about the GWR’s push northwards.

Remember remember the 5th of November diesel gala...
posted 27th October 2005

And the 6th of November, too - the GWR's gala weekend is fast approaching and the working timetable is now on site. This is a PDF document that can be downloaded and printed. Please remember that this timetable is mainly for our volunteers, and is subject to change without notice.

The weekend offers a tantalising variety of power for the intensive service being run, which includes freight trains and local passenger services between Toddington and Winchcombe, as well as the 'main line' trains to Cheltenham. Unexpectedly, the motive power includes the popular Romanian-built 'Load Haul' liveried Class 56 which was due to have left the GWR by now, so this might be your last chance to ride behind this machine, which will be coupled to a class 37 to provide vacuum train braking (the class 56 only has air brake equipment). The SR electro-diesel, 73129, has been brought out of its usual service with the permanent way department (a function often associated with the class in the past) for the weekend.

And steam for the fireworks spectacular!
posted 27th October 2005

You'll notice on 5th November a steam imposter in the diesel gala - this is the fireworks special in association with the Cheltenham Round Table's fireworks spectacular at the racecourse. Riding this train - which departs Toddington at 18:00 - takes you to the heart of the action - and it will enable you to avoid the usual traffic jams at the end of what is probably the best fireworks display in Gloucestershire. The train will return at about 20.30 from Cheltenham Race Course station.

The locomotive in charge is expected to be 7903 Foremarke Hall, which should have returned from its visit to the Severn Valley Railway.

More diesel news
posted 26th October 2005

More news hot off the presses from the GWR Diesel Department! Firstly, 56003 will be appearing at the November Diesel Gala, following an extension to its stay at the GWR.

The second piece of news is regarding D5541 (31123), which arrived at Toddington in 1994, but has been languishing in the yard for almost 10 years, having last run in the mid -1990s. The privately owned locomotive is now being sold, to the A1A Locomotive Group, for use as spares for their fleet of preserved diesels. The 31 will soon be travelling to Booths of Rotherham, where the power unit, generator and bogies will be salvaged, and the remainder cut up for scrap. Look out for an ”obituary” on this locomotive in future editions of The Cornishman.

Diesel Gala coming soon
posted 25th October 2005

The second Autumn Diesel Gala is coming soon. Read all about it in our latest press release. More details will be released, including working timetables, nearer the event.

Website problems
posted 25th October 2005

For the last few weeks, gwsr.com has been suffering from intermittent availability problems. Typically this results in the site being unavailable for 15 minutes or so at a time. We are currently encouraging our ISP to resolve this problem. If you find the site is not available, please try again a few minutes later. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Fire Department at the ready!
posted 24th October 2005

This weekend the Fire Department had a Sunday training day, with a local fire crew. The GWR volunteers used the lightweight pump, and fed the other fire engine which then fought two imaginary fires. Chris Stockman made the task more difficult by injecting problems which the crews needed to address. It was a valuable training exercise and many lessons were learnt.

The crews also undertook First Aid refresher training and also manual handling training. In short a good days training was had, and the fire department are keeping their skill levels at a high ready state.

Gala photos for gallery?
posted 15th October 2005

We'd like to put lots of photos of both the recent steam and diesel galas (and the Thomas event) up on the gallery. Lots of people have said to us things like: 'Absolutely cracking event'; 'Great turnout of locos', 'Brilliant seeing a Merchant Navy on the line - look forward to seeing P&O out in future' or '"Freightliner 1995" was amazing - it must be 10 times better than when it was first turned out in 10 years ago!'

Wonderful words and thank you! But what about the photos? Literally thousands of pictures must have been taken over the two weekends - how about sharing some with us and the visitors to our website? Doing so is easy:

• either e-mail your pictures to our galleries address; “gallery” (@gwsr.com)
• or send a disk with your selection on for the attention of Ian Crowder at GWR, The Railway Station, Toddington, Gloucestershire GL54 5DT

You won't get paid (unless a magazine asks to use a photo which happens from time to time) but you will have the pleasure of knowing many others are enjoying your work. Please read the technical small print below. To get you in the mood, here is a lovely picture (by Mark Elvey) of the newly turned out 47376.

The technical stuff: digital photos should be at least 1600x1200 pixels (the larger the better, please don’t “down size” your images before you send them to us, but please keep emails to under 5MB each, and please don’t send too many at once). Unfortunately we are unable to accept transparencies, since it is too time consuming for us to digitise them. Please note that we are unable to return any photos, unless you include an appropriate stamped self-addressed envelope. In addition, we do get some very high quality submissions, and we have limited time and space in our galleries, so please don’t be disappointed if your favourite picture doesn’t get published.

Thomas: a great weekend; Cheltenham record tumbles
posted 12th October 2005

Young spirits and sunny smiles weren't dampened by the rain that fell on Saturday afternoon during the 'Thomas and Friends' weekend over the 8th and 9th of October. Visitor numbers held up well with just under 3,400 visitors in all - this compares with 3,876 over April's event and 3,462 during the October event last year.

Highlights were catching a fish from Thomas's tank; racing Bulgy the Bus between Winchcombe and Toddington (if it wasn't for a signal at danger I'm sure Thomas would have won on Saturday afternoon...) and races between Toby and Thomas at Winchcombe.

The success of the shuttle service from Cheltenham to Winchcombe is underlined by the fact that 474 tickets were sold at the booking office there on Sunday - beating the previous record of 440 during Thomas on the Sunday of the October 2004 event.

All of the railway's volunteers really went the extra mile to make it a fantastic weekend for everyone - underlining the railway's claim to be 'The friendly line in the Cotswolds'.

Look out for details of next year's events soon - we will shortly be publishing our 2006 timetable on this site.

Freightliner 1995 - ten years on
posted 9th October 2005

A highlight of the recent highly successful Diesel Gala was the naming, on Saturday the 24th of September, of former Freightliner-owned class 47 no 47376 'Freightliner 1995'. The naming follows the painstaking refurbishment of the locomotive, culminating with repainting in Freightliner's former 'triple-grey' livery at Winchcombe. No 47376 emerged only a couple of days before the Gala, and certainly smelled of fresh paint when running!

You can click here for a more detailed summary and history of 47376, the pioneer Freightliner locomotive following formation of the company as a separate business in 1995.

The photograph, by Mark Elvey, shows the naming ceremony with former Freightliner managers and their wives - John and Deborah on the right, and Mike and Janet on the left; and splendidly turned-out 47376 at Winchcombe later the same day.

35006 Progress Report - updated
posted 6th October 2005

The latest progress report for 35006 “Peninsular & Oriental S.N. Co.”, has been updated, to include some recent photographs of the work being undertaken. Click here to see the updated report.

Thomas Working Timetable
posted 6th October 2005

The working timetable for this weekend's Days Out with Thomas is now available. The timetable is really intended for volunteers working on the day but if you are coming along, you might find the train times - and what engines are pulling the trains - helpful in deciding how to spend your visit! The same timetable applies both on Saturday and Sunday. It's going to be a fantastic weekend - we look forward to you joining in the fun!

You can download the timetable here. It is a printable PDF file.

Caption Competition - results
posted 4th October 2005

The results of the latest caption competition are now available. As usual, there was an excellent set of entries, although some of them were slightly too risqué to publish on this site!

Click here to view the results. Congratulations to Richard Good for the winning entry. Robin Hidson has supplied another great picture for this month’s competition, so click here to enter.

Thomas is coming!
posted 3rd October 2005

If you are a youngster between the age of 3 or 83, you will have been enthralled by the adventures of that cheeky blue tank engine Thomas and his friends on the railway system of the island of Sodor. Engines from the 'big railway' often visited Thomas and friends - now Thomas visits preserved railways that were once part of the 'big railway'.

And this coming weekend, Thomas will be bringing the excitement of the magical books by the late Rev A W Awdry to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

There will be the usual fun and games - Thomas racing Bertie the Bus between Winchcombe and Toddington; Toby the Tram Engine shunting the troublesome trucks at Winchcombe; Trevor the Traction Engine at Toddington; grumpy Diesel and from the 'big railway', Black Prince - one of the biggest freight engines to run in the UK. The narrow gauge railway at Toddington will be running and there will be plenty of other attractions at both Toddington and Winchcombe.

Once again there will be a shuttle train service from Cheltenham to Winchcombe, so mums, dads, aunts or uncles can park there because it might get a bit congested at Toddington, where car parking will be in the field next to the station. Trains depart from Cheltenham Race Course, for Winchcombe at 9:30, 10:40, 12:25 and 14:10. Return service depart from Winchcombe for Cheltenham Race Course at 11:25, 13:10, 14:55 and 16:40.

All inclusive entry is £10 for adults and £7 for children including unlimited travel between Cheltenham and Winchcombe and between Winchcombe and Toddington, including Bertie the Bus.

You can click here for full information and train times. Please note that unfortunately, 'Duck' has a terrible tummy ache and can't be running - but 'Black Prince' will be working instead.

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