Thomas will soon be here!
posted 29th September 2004

On the 9th and 10th of October, Thomas and his friends are once again on their way to take over the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, so make a date in your diary now!  He will be here along with Toby the Tram and the troublesome trucks, Diesel, Bertie the Bus and Trevor the Traction Engine, and some of the GWR's own engines too. Of course, the Fat Controller, Sir Topham Hatt, will be there to make sure that Thomas behaves himself and everything runs smoothly.

This year, for the first time, we're running a train service from Cheltenham Race Course station (follow the AA signs) - especially helpful for those coming by public transport. If you do come by bus, a good service runs from the Lansdown railway station in Cheltenham, via the town centre to the Park and Ride at the Racecourse - then it's just a 10 minute walk to the GWR's Race Course station.

No need to book in advance - just turn up on the day! For fares, train times from Cheltenham Race Course station and more information about one of the best family days out for miles, click here.

Commercial all change
posted 28th September 2004

Richard Drewitt has been appointed Commercial Director of Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway Plc, following Ian Crowder's decision to stand down from the position for work and personal reasons.

Richard, pictured right, has been involved with the GWR for seven years, initially becoming involved with the Growler Group and going on to become a diesel driver. He developed the railway's highly successful diesel driving experience courses and is a traffic officer. He has been a member of the commercial department for the past couple of years and is widely respected as a hard-working team player.

"This is an exciting time for the railway - we're just about to start forging north towards Broadway, we have one new signalbox nearly completed and another under way and I'm looking forward to getting involved in planning the commercial operations for our fast expanding railway," says Richard. "Ian has served as commercial director for nearly four years during a period which has seen our passenger numbers almost double. I'm glad he is continuing to be involved both on the public relations front, including the website and, of course, as a fireman in the steam locomotive department."

A bumper crop at the harvest festival of steam!
posted 24th September 2004

Well, the smoke has cleared from the Harvest Festival of Steam on the 11th and 12th of September. The feedback has been good, despite the disappointment of not being able to run 'Black Prince', even though it was in steam.

Getting on for 2,000 people appeared to enjoy the combination of locomotives double heading... such as the rare sight of two 2-8-0 tank locomotives on the first departure of each day or 3205 piloting 7903 Foremarke Hall.

What was your particular memory? Why don't you share it with us in The Waiting Room? Tell us what you liked, didn't like or suggest what we might include for our Gala events next year.

If you captured a good shot or two in film or megapixels, why don't you put it up in our galleries? There are already some very good pictures of the Harvest Festival of Steam - and the Celebration of Swindon Steam, too, which happened in May and you can see them by clicking here. You can e-mail us your images to “gallery” (at gwsr.com) or send them to Website Gallery Editor, The Railway Station, Toddington, GL54 5DT. We will scan them and send them back to you.

Some things you might not know about our website
posted 21st September 2004

It seems to be a quiet time for news at the moment, so here are a few things you might not have spotted on our website:

• You can get up to speed with railway terminology using our Jargon Buster.
• You can find out about the latest updates to the site, view a site map, or search the site in the Website Info section.
• In The Sidings, there’s a whole assortment of bits and pieces, including our caption competition, online footplate guide, and our regularly updated desktop wallpapers. You can even download a poster of your favourite railway!
• We now have small video gallery, with a small selection of excellent clips to download.
• In the Media Relations section, you can view our press releases, and members of the media can add themselves to our media mailing list.

And of course, the Waiting Room, our online forum, is becoming one of the most popular areas of our website. It has now grown to 56 members, who have in total posted nearly 400 messages in the last couple of months. In fact, our site is breaking records, with an average of over 500 visits each day during September. So thank you for your continued support of this site, and if you spot any “mistooks” don’t hesitate to let us know through our feedback form.

Corporate Activity Day
posted 18th September 2004

On the 8th of September, the GWR hosted a Corporate Activity Day for George Wimpey (Wimpey Homes). This event was organised in partnership with Adventure 001 with whom we have been working over the last 18 months marketing our Diesel driving courses. The day comprised of 3 main activities: diesel train driving, clay pigeon shooting and helicopter sightseeing of the Cotswolds. There were 18 guests in total, 5 from George Wimpey and 13 of their business associates. On the day we were granted glorious sunshine and clear blue skies, which could not have made a better start to what was going to be an interesting day.

The guests started arriving from 9 am and were greeted by On Train Catering who provided tea, coffee and biscuits in the buffet car at Toddington station. Following a welcome speech and a safety brief, the guests split into 5 groups for their activities. The helicopter which was crewed by commercial pilots used the field behind platform 2 as its landing area and made 5 trips throughout the day giving each group of guests a superb tour of the Cotswolds. In the same field, but at the furthest end from the station, the clay pigeon shooting was taking place. Unlike the train driving, some of the guests had done some shooting before and there was some friendly competition between a few of them. At lunchtime, On Train Catering provided a cold finger buffet on board the train which laid over at Winchcombe for the break. This gave everyone a chance to talk about their experiences and relax for a while in the sun. The opportunity was taken to get a seminar photo of the guests with one of the trains in use on that day. Both class 37's locomotives performed faultlessly and everyone seemed to enjoy their driving turn, several commented that it was certainly something different! The afternoon session went just as well as the morning with all 3 activities timing in well together. The day rounded off at about 16.00 with the presentation of certificates to commemorate the day's events.

This was the first time that the GWR had staged this type of event with driving experience as a main attraction. Reaction from the Wimpey hosts and their guests alike were very favourable and we may well consider similar events in the future.

Galleries updated
posted 12th September 2004

Our enthusiastic new “e-volunteer” has been busy updating our photo galleries. They now contain a “Latest Pictures” section, showing you the most recent pictures we’ve received. You can already see some excellent pictures of this weekend’s Harvest Festival of Steam.

The photo galleries are growing all the time, but we still need more pictures! If you have any good quality pictures (slides or prints are OK, but we prefer digital at 1024x768 resolution or better), please send them to us. Email pictures to “gallery” (at gwsr.com), or post them to the Webmaster at the usual address. We are interested in pictures of all aspects of our line, both past and present. That includes buildings, personalities, or even pictures of interesting pieces of equipment! We also welcome photographs of our resident locomotives, wherever they happen to be.

HRA Websites Competition - results announced
posted 12th September 2004

The Heritage Railway Association, in conjunction with Heritage Railway Magazine, have announced the results of their inaugural websites competition. You can view the full results here.

gwsr.com was placed 7th out of 28 entries in category A, the category for heritage railways and museums open to the public. The winners were the Bluebell Railway. Category B - non -public organisations - was won by the Stately Trains website. Congratulations to both the winners!

We hope to receive feedback from the HRA on the strengths and weaknesses of our site. We will, of course, endeavour to address their comments and bring you an even better website for 2005.

The competition is biennial, with the next competition in 2006.

Harvest Festival of Steam - working timetable updated
posted 5th September 2004

The working timetable for the Harvest Festival of Steam has been updated, to correct a few minor errors. Unfortunately this posting will be the last update to “Latest News” for the next week, so for information about any last minute changes please visit “The Waiting Room”, our online forum, and look in the “News & Announcements” section.

Galleries under new ownership
posted 4th September 2004

We now have a new volunteer editing and publishing our photo galleries. He’s just posted the first updates, adding some pictures of Black Prince being unloaded (in the “The Return of Black Prince” mini-gallery).

You may also notice some other improvements to the galleries - the broadband gallery now has thumbnails on the slide pages. But please bear with us, there’s still a few minor teething troubles, including the “Jump To Page menu”, which has mysteriously stopped working!

Finally, we added something completely new (for this website) to the galleries page... so why not visit the page to find out what it is?

Harvest Festival of Steam: working timetable now available
posted 4th September 2004

The working timetable for the 11th and 12th of September Harvest Festival of Steam on the GWR is now available. Click here to view it. It is an Adobe Acrobat file which you can download and print. Copies will also be available in our ticket offices during the weekend.

Where's 4247 going? It's all black and white...
posted 3rd September 2004

This picture by Ian Carpenter of GWR resident 2-8 -0T no 4247 being loaded on to a lorry was taken at Toddington on Tuesday. What's going on? Isn't this loco one of the stars of the forthcoming Harvest Festival of Steam?

Well, it's taking a starring role at the Bodmin & Wenford Railway's gala over this coming weekend, the 4th and 5th of September, when it will appear with a variety of locomotives, including City of Truro.

4247's visit is highly appropriate. Although the locomotive was far too big to wander down the Wenfordbridge line to the china clay dries - a line which was the province of the diminutive and ageing Beattie well tanks - 4247 does have close associations with the china clay industry. Built in 1916, it spent much of its time in South Wales handling the 'black stuff' but in 1952, it was transferred to St Blazey shed in Cornwall to handle the 'white stuff'. St Blazey generally kept a couple of these powerful 2-8-0T's to bring the heavy china clay trains to Fowey and Par docks. The B & W's is also home to former Port of Par Bagnall 0-4-0ST shunter 'Alfred' - an engine that 4247 must have met in the 1950's.

After its short West Country break, 4247 is expected back to home territory next Thursday, just in time for the Harvest Festival of Steam. Paired with sister 2-8-0T no 5224, the engine will be doing some double-heading - now there's something to look forward to!

Click here for more information about Harvest Festival of Steam.
Click here for more information about the Bodmin & Wenford Railway's Gala.

Didcot's best
posted 3rd September 2004

Great Western 2-8-0 no 3822 forms the background for this happy bunch of visitors from Didcot Railway Centre to the GWR on one of the few fine days of August. The reason for the visit? To see how 'their' locomotive was getting on.

3822 is due to go back to its home shed at Didcot later this year and the Didcot Gang wanted to experience the locomotive performing over the 10-mile GWR - more than 10 times longer than the longest run possible at the Great Western Society's headquarters!

Firing the engine was Didcot's Neil Carr, who recently qualified as a fireman on the GWR. During the day, a draw was held for footplate rides - one lucky winner declared, 'I worked on the engine for 15 years - yet this is my first footplate ride!'

Thomas visits again in October
posted 2nd September 2004

Lots of our younger visitors are asking if Thomas is going to visit us again. Well, the answer is 'yes' - and not just Thomas - Toby, Bertie, Trevor and of course, Sir Topham Hatt, the Fat Controller, will all be at the GWR once again on the 9th and 10th of October.

This year, you can get to see Thomas by taking the train from Cheltenham Race Course station. We're putting on a special diesel train service (no additional charge) to Winchcombe station, where lots of the action takes place. From there you can take a train pulled by Thomas to Toddington or ride on Bertie as he races to get to Toddington first. At Toddington, Trevor the Traction Engine will be giving rides too, while the little trains will be running on the North Gloucestershire Narrow Gauge Railway.

The entrance of £10 for grown-ups and £7 for children (children under three free) includes as many train rides as you like, rides on Bertie and all other attractions.

Those of you with Thomas passports can get them stamped at Toddington.

For full information and train times from Cheltenham Race Course station, click here.

Black Prince is back
posted 1st September 2004

Black clouds and rain accompanied David Shepherd's 9F 2-10-0 Black Prince when it arrived at Toddington last week, following its overhaul at the Flour Mill workshops in the Forest of Dean, an appearance at the National Railway Museum and running-in on the Churnet Valley Railway in Staffordshire. The locomotive is now undergoing checks and a boiler washout before being steam tested - possibly this coming weekend. The engine - which left the GWR for overhaul nearly three years ago - will then take a test run to Cheltenham. It hasn't travelled south of Gotherington before because, when it was last steamed on the line, track laying on the extension to Cheltenham had not been completed.

Black Prince was pictured by Zol just before it was unloaded at Toddington.

Black Prince is expected to star in the GWR's Harvest Festival of Steam on the 11th and 12th of September and will take charge of the additional 09:15 service from Toddington, running non-stop to Cheltenham on both days.

On Monday the 18th of October, owner David Shepherd and Alan Titchmarsh will visit Toddington to formally recommission the locomotive. This will be an additional public running day and there will be three return trips to Cheltenham that day. Normal fares will apply.

For more information about the Harvest Festival of Steam, click here.
For more information about the rededication of Black Prince, click here.

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