Thomas weekend
posted 28th September 2006

Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends will be paying a visit to Toddington this coming weekend (Saturday 30th and Sunday 1st).

There’s no need to book in advance - the all-inclusive entrance fee includes as many rides on the trains as you like!

Click here for full details of this fun event.

Please note that the activities take place at Toddington & Winchcombe - but there will be no car parking available at Winchcombe during this event: the only way to get to Winchcombe will be by train from Cheltenham or Toddington.

Sponsored Walk
posted 23rd September 2006

For a report on the 2006 Sponsored Walk (in aid of GWRL funds), please click here.

Exminster signal box website
posted 22nd September 2006

As mentioned earlier, work has started on dismantling Exminster signal box prior to its move to covered accommodation for conservation, and eventual re-siting at Broadway. Danny Scroggins, who has been interested in the preservation of this historic all-timber 'box for some years, is co-ordinating the project and has created a website devoted to the task.

In due course he will include historic information and photographs as well as detailing the whole process of dismantling, restoration and rebuilding. The site is now on our affiliated sites page or you can visit it by clicking here.

Please note that the Broadway Signal Box site is not an official GWSR site and any opinions or comments expressed within it are not necessarily official policy or opinion of Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway Plc.

Railway Herald
posted 19th September 2006

There is an excellent report on the latest GWR Diesel Gala in the current issue of the on-line Railway Herald including a superb picture on the front cover (Issue 53).

This excellently produced weekly magazine is free of charge – you simply register and it arrives at your e-mail address every Friday. The Railway Herald regularly carries news and pictures from our railway and it offers an eclectic mix of news from the current national and international railway scene as well as the heritage sector. It was also the first to carry a report on the Centenary Festival (Issue 39). All back issues can be downloaded.

You will need Adobe Reader and ideally, a broadband connection as there is a lot to download. But even if you are on dial-up, start the process and go have a cup of tea – it is worth the wait.

Click here to visit the Railway Herrald website.

Black Prince – little and large!
posted 18th September 2006, updated 19th September 2006

October 8th will see not one, but two 9F class 2-10-0s on the GWR – both named ‘Black Prince’. On that day, the model railway specialists Bachmann Europe will be launching a special limited-edition version of their excellent new ‘00’ gauge model of the 9F – no. 92203 ‘Black Prince’ – and the first one, together with certificate no. 1, will be presented to the locomotive’s owner, David Shepherd.

The presentation will take place at 12.30 at Toddington Station for members of the Bachmann Collector’s Club. Visitors to the railway will also be welcome to witness this unusual occasion. There will be opportunities also to meet David Shepherd and visit the footplate of ‘Black Prince’. The Bachmann Collectors’ Club stand will also be at Toddington station during the day.

After the presentation, ‘Black Prince’ will haul the 14.30 return service train to Cheltenham.

Dennis Lovett, marketing director of Bachmann Europe, visited the GWR during the Centenary Celebration. He is seen in the picture above with David Shepherd at Winchcombe, with both the little and large versions of Black Prince.

Water for Broadway
posted 18th September 2006

The GWR has acquired a further Great Western Railway water column which will eventually be installed at Broadway, following restoration. The column was removed from Church Stretton, where it has stood for the past 100 years, alongside a long-closed loop on the Hereford side of the station. The GWR was offered the cast-iron column, which still supported part of the steel delivery pipe, some time ago for free - the snag being that an engineering possession would be required to reach its isolated location. The opportunity presented itself over the night of 9th/10th September, when the GWR locomotive department despatched a small but well-equipped team who successfully extracted the column in a six-hour operation. The column is now at Toddington awaiting restoration. Two other columns were acquired some time ago from the Vale of Rheidol railway at Aberystwyth and are destined for use at Toddington.

Meanwhile, work started on 16th September to dismantle the former GWR timber signalbox at Exminster (see news item from 9th August). The 'box will be removed to secure covered accommodation and remedial work will be carried out to the timber structure. In due course it will be installed at Broadway, on the site of the former timber signalbox that once stood there.

More locomotive moves
posted 17th September 2006

David Shepherd’s 9F no. 92203 Black Prince is to visit ‘Locomotion’, the National Railway Museum’s outpost at Shildon, County Durham, over the weekend of 23rd and 24th September. The occasion is the Community Rail Festival marking the anniversary of the opening of Locomotion. It also marks 40 years since the last BR 9F locomotives hauled trains from Tyne Dock to Consett steelworks. ‘Black Prince’ is itself a veteran of iron ore workings and it may take on the guise of sister locomotive no. 92063, which hauled the last Consett train on 19 November 1966. These heavy trains of bogie iron ore hoppers tested the powerful 9Fs to the limit over gradients as steep as 1 in 35, when the trains were usually hauled by one member of the class and banked by another. Also visiting the event is the NRM’s 4-4-0 City of Truro, following its trip to Scotland.

While Black Prince is away, the GWR is fortunate to have been offered Great Western ‘5700’ class pannier tank no 4612. This locomotive, built in 1942, has been the subject of a long and costly overhaul. It was originally acquired from Barry scrapyard by the Keighley & Worth Valley line for spare parts for their own locomotive of the same class. The engine was little more than a set of wheels, frames and an ‘unrestorable’ boiler when bought by Ray and Elaine Treadwell. The engine, now owned by the Bodmin & Wenford Railway, returned to steam in 2001 and is a regular and reliable performer on the Cornish line. Click here for more information about this fine engine, which is in Great Western green livery.

No. 4612 is with the GWR for the weekend of 23rd and 24th September only – it’s your only chance to see it on our line!

Click here for the locomotive roster and details of the trains that 4612 will be working.

8F in action
posted 16th September 2006

8F class 2-8-0 no. 48305 from the Great Central Railway is working this weekend (see locomotive roster) and will also be in service over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th of September. The locomotive is seen below at Toddington on Friday 15th September, before departing with an empty-stock working to Cheltenham and back, to ensure the troublesome injectors were working satisfactorily. As any former LMS footplateman will tell you the 8F injectors were 'indifferent at best' and on return to the GC, 48305 is due to receive new - and more reliable - non-LMS injectors.

If you visit to take a look at the locomotive while at Toddington, you might think that the tender seems a little small - and you would be right. It predates the 1943-built locomotive by more than a decade and is a 3,500-gallon Stanier tank fitted to a Fowler chassis. The usual tender capacity was 4,000 gallons.

LMS invasion
posted 14th September 2006

Visiting LMS 8F 2-8-0 no. 48305 is expected to be working this coming weekend* following some attention to its injectors. The locomotive was a late substitution for Standard class 2 no. 78019 which was being sent from the Great Central, which is currently entertaining long-term resident Canadian Pacific. This is the second time 48305 has visited - the last time was several years ago.

Meanwhile, the Churchill 8F group have taken a major step forward in the restoration of their own ex-Turkish Stanier 8F. Last week the locomotive, which is undergoing an extensive overhaul, was re-wheeled and the picture shows the engine's chassis following this work. Significant work has also been carried out on the boiler.

*Subject to availability. Check the loco roster for more information.

Diesel gala success
posted 13th September 2006

Bright weather brought out the crowds for the diesel gala, over the weekend of the 9th and 10th of September. Official figures will be released shortly, as will photographs for the Galleries but the GWR's rolling stock and traction director, Richard Drewitt, said that the booking offices appeared to be doing a very brisk trade. During the weekend, the GWR entertained visiting Class 20 Bo-Bo no. D8142, from the Llangollen Railway. It was coupled nose-to-nose with the GWR's one member of the same class, no. D8137 and the pair made a rare and impressive sight, recalling BR days when the locomotives frequently worked in pairs. The two locomotives are pictured here ready to depart from Toddington with an evening charter on 9th September.

Double take: the mystery of the 8F
posted 7th September 2006

Merchant Navy pacific Canadian Pacific left the GWR for events at Loughborough's Great Central Railway as planned (see news item below) - and BR Standard class 2 no. 78019 was expected as a replacement. However, even the least observant couldn't mistake what actually arrived. It certainly wasn't 78019 - instead, rolling off the groaning low-loader in Toddington car park was one of Sir William Stanier's celebrated 8F class 2-8-0 heavy freight locomotives. How could this have happened?

The story is straightforward: unfortunately, 78019 suffered a failure just before departing for Gloucestershire and the last-minute decision by the Great Central was to send 8F no. 48305 instead. It is similar to the locomotive currently being overhauled by the Churchill 8F group at Toddington (restoration of which took a big step forward this week as the chassis was re-wheeled). In fact, 48205 hasn't run on our line yet as there are some minor problems to sort out before it can be put into traffic, hopefully over the next few days.

48305 was built by the LMS in November 1943, putting in reliable service hauling freight trains over various parts of the former LMS system. It was sent to Barry scrapyard in 1962 from where it was rescued. It returned to steam at the Great Central in 1995. It will doubtless bring back some memories - during the dying days of steam, the class could be seen over the former Great Western route north of Cheltenham as the trains they were hauling were diverted away from the Midland line.

Upcoming events
posted 5th September 2006, updated 7th September 2006

The school holidays may be over, but there’s still plenty of things going on at the Cotswold’s favourite tourist attraction (well, we like to think so).

Coming up this weekend is the first of our autumn diesel galas. Click here for more information, and click here for a working timetable (please note that this subject to change without notice). At the end of the month (30th September/1st October), Thomas is paying us a visit - details will be available soon. Looking further ahead to November (when it used to be frosty and foggy in the good old days), the GWR are running the annual fireworks special from Toddington to Cheltenham Racecourse on the 4th. For more details click here.

We are of course running trains on the other weekends in September, October, and most of November... and some other days too. Check our timetable for details.

Please note that due to an unfortunate error, the current edition of Primary Times (the quarterly magazine for schools, nurseries and playgroups), contains incorrect details for both Thomas and the Fireworks special on page 10. The details on the front page and page 22 are correct.

Caption Competition results
posted 1st September 2006

The winner of the August Caption Competition is Phil Bullock, who submitted a number of excellent entries. This month, there were 97 entries - another record - showing that the competition is getting more and more popular. There’s a new competition, of course, and you can enter it here.

Remember, we’re always looking for interesting or amusing photos to use for the competition, so if you have any, please send them to webmaster (at gwsr.com).

Santa Information now available
posted 1st September 2006

Information about our Christmas 2006 Santa Specials is now available on this website. Click here for details. You are advised to book early.

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