A lost school satchel – and stolen kisses in the tunnel

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s most successful event ever prompted powerful memories for local people – as well as a feast for visitors and photographers! Ian Crowder reports (abridged from an article written for Heritage Railway magazine.

How do you do justice to the centenary of a much loved railway? And the 25th anniversary of the effort to restore that railway, closed by British Rail in the 1970’s? And, all in the bi-centenary year of Brunel’s birth?

That was the task facing a small band of volunteers on the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway as they set about organising an event to celebrate these important anniversaries. An event that would be remembered by many for years – and would really put the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway firmly in the heritage railway premier division.

“What we wanted to achieve was an event that both stirred the memories of those who recall the once-vital Stratford to Cheltenham main line and provided an inspiration for those who can fulfil future aspirations for line,” explains Neil Carr, who chaired the Festival committee. “We also wanted to attract thousands of people to the biggest and best event we’ve ever organised – and show the heritage railway movement just what the GWR can do and what it can go on to achieve.”

Of course, the best laid plans never quite go as expected and this event was no exception – not least the very wet weather that marked the first public day, needing the services of a tractor to extract the cars stuck in the Toddington field used as a car park. But the end result was nevertheless nine days of pure magic that has prompted an avalanche of congratulatory e-mails and has set the railway grapevine buzzing.

School days…

The event started modestly enough, with a small tank locomotive and a single coach. This was the ‘coffee pot’ as local people knew it – the classic GWR combination of a 14xx class 0-4-2T and auto coach, identical to the type that worked local services for some 40 years until the intermediate stations on the line closed in 1960. 1450 and auto coach no. 178 ran a special on Thursday 25th May for people who had written with their memories following a feature on the ‘coffee pot’ in the local Gloucestershire Echo.

The Autotrain on Stanway viaduct. See below for more details on this remarkable photo. Photograph courtesy of Darin Fryatt.

The event attracted former school children, leisure travellers, workers and railwaymen who clearly recalled the ‘coffee pot’ with considerable fondness.

Many, now well into their 80s, found their way into the coach – remarkably, sitting in the seats that they used to occupy as youngsters. One former pupil of Pate’s Grammar School who used the service from Laverton to Cheltenham found the memory so powerful that she looked to see where she had left her school satchel. Another met a childhood sweetheart he hadn’t seen for over 60 years. “Although the guard usually put the lights on through the long (Greet) tunnel he didn’t always do so in the shorter one (at Hunting Butts) – it was a chance to steal a kiss in the darkness!” he confessed.

On shed

By Friday night all the visiting locomotives had arrived, including late addition to the fleet, large Prairie no. 4141. The six roads outside the David Page and Dowty sheds at Toddington looked like a real steam depot as smoke drifted over the yard while fires were lit. What a sight: eight classic locomotives in steam:

• 1450 (with 178 – courtesy Mike Little, Tim Hornby and the Dean Forest Railway)
• 3440 City of Truro (courtesy the National Railway Museum)
• 4141 (courtesy Dr. John Kennedy and the Great Central Railway)
• 5051 Earl Bathurst or Drysllwyn Castle (courtesy Didcot Railway Centre)
• 5542 (courtesy locomotive 5542 Ltd and the South Devon Railway)
• 7903 Foremarke Hall (courtesy Foremarke Hall Transport Trust)
• 92203 Black Prince (courtesy David Shepherd)
• 92212 (courtesy Jeremy Hosking and the Mid-Hants Railway)

All are types that used to use the route during steam days – while those that actually did so were 3440 (as a Gloucester engine in the 1920s); 4141 (delivered new to Cheltenham Malvern Road in 1947 and remained local throughout its BR life); 5051 which, as a Landore engine, regularly worked over the route; 5542 which was a Cheltenham engine for a time and 92212, which was allocated to Newport Ebbw Junction and, later, Tyseley, regularly handling freight over the line. Sadly, the NRM’s diesel-hydraulic, D1023 Western Fusilier could not be present because of an asbestos problem discovered late in the planning, although resident diesel classes 20, 37 and 47 ably represented the railway’s later years. Meanwhile, 92212 was a late replacement for 35005 Canadian Pacific.

What were the highlights?

Well, there are so many…

• 1450 and its auto trailer certainly performed a starring role, plying the line between Toddington and Winchcombe (complete with destination boards on the coach sides – made by the ever-resourceful Eddie Roberts)
• 5542, recently re-equipped with auto-gear, taking turns on the auto-working but, above all, heading an all-Great Western freight
• 5051 at the head of The Cornishman once again – complete with headboard and reporting number (provided by Eddie Roberts) for the Up (northbound) service
• No less than THREE freights (a first for a preserved line?) – the GW freight (mentioned above), a BR freight (for the BR liveried locos) and a ballast train
• It may have been overkill, but the sight of two 9Fs at the head of a passenger train was just awesome!
• City of Truro “blasting” through Winchcombe on a non-stop express to Cheltenham
  Queues of visitors to the footplates of locomotives in steam in the bays at Winchcombe and Cheltenham
• The excellent display put on by Carriage and Wagon department, explaining how to restore a Mk 1 coach
• 30 volunteers receiving 25-year service awards from David Shepherd. Turning in a collective 600 years of volunteer service, these are the pioneers who first took occupation of a derelict yard at Toddington and have remained ever since (the railway now has just over 500 registered volunteers)
• The newly-restored chocolate & cream RBr running out of bacon as the aroma drifted down the train
• 4141 bringing back memories for local enginemen: “We always kept it clean,” said one former driver who recalled its arrival in 1947 from Swindon. “We didn’t get many brand new locomotives!” As a matter of interest, several visitors recalled this engine heading the final train from Kingham to Cheltenham via Bourton-on-the-Water.

And finally:

• On the final day of the Festival and with permission of the Permanent Way department and Operations, 1450 and the auto trailer took an early morning trip north from Toddington to become the first steam locomotive to venture over the stunning 15-arch Stanway viaduct since the early 1970s and the first auto-working on the viaduct since 1960 – giving a tantalising foretaste of things to come as the permanent way team forge north towards Broadway.

So what of the statistics? The event attracted an average of over 1,000 travellers per day bringing home a total of 9,053 tickets sold during the nine day Festival – marking this as one of the country’s biggest railway events of the year. During the week, over 2,300 miles were covered and locomotives spent a collective total of about 75 days in steam.

“A lot of volunteers put a huge amount of effort into this Festival,” says Neil Carr, chair of the organising committee. “Many took the entire week off, as well as days off in advance and after the event.

“All will tell you that it has been a fantastic experience putting on the show and we certainly ended on a high. But everyone is exhausted – not least our long-suffering catering staff on the trains and in the Flag & Whistle who have done a sterling job.

“Will we do it again? Well, we’ve proved we can put on a performance that rivals the best in the country. But nine days takes some doing. May be at our bi-centenary…”

What were your personal highlights? Send an email by clicking here with your own personal recollections of the Centenary Festival, and what ‘did it for you’ (for our convenience, please select the “Email the Press Office” option).