The GWR is coming into its busiest part of the year. The railway is now running three midweek days every week throughout the school holidays and with plenty of choice for trains and variety of locomotives, now's the time to pay the GWR - which is one of the regions's leading tourist attractions - a visit! And, on every Saturday throughout August there will be a special bus service connecting Toddington station with Evesham station, connecting GWR trains with First Great Western services between Worcester and London.

So what is running over the next few weeks?  Well, if you are fussy about what's on the front of your train you can check our locomotive roster here.  Depending on the day you come you could an engine as young as 49 years old (yes, that's young for a steam locomotive!) or one that's clocked up well over a century of service; one of the most powerful or one of the fastest; a tank locomotive or a tender engine.* Or if diesel power is your fancy, pick your day and travel on the last train on a Blue Timetable day and you can enjoy a classic diesel locomotive!  For train times, visit the timetable here.

So here are a few 'pub quiz' statistics:

92203 Black Prince is big and black and shiny: one of the most powerful steam locomotives ever to run in the UK.  It is also one of the youngest, being completed in 1959 at Swindon, just a few months before the last steam engine was built for British Railways. It is a 2-10-0* built for heavy freight.

3440 City of Truro is a 4-4-0* is fast as well as pretty.  It was also built at Swindon - but in 1903. All Edwardian elegance with lots of shining copper and brass, a year after it was built it went on to become the first railway locomotive to exceed 100mph.

Locomotives 5542 and 5619 are Great Western Railway tank locomotives - in other words, their supply of water is carried in tanks rather than in a separate tender coupled behind the engine.  In fact, 5542 celebrates its 80th birthday this year. 5619 is just a couple of years older. 5542 is an attractive 2-6-2T and 5619 is a tough-looking 0-6-2T*.

7903 Foremarke Hall, a 4-6-0*, is one of the Great Western Railway's final designs - although it was actually completed in 1949, just after the railways were nationalised. It is a graceful 'mixed traffic' type - perfectly at home on everything from express passenger to freight.

* What? 4-4-0? 2-6-2T? This tells you what the locomotive's wheel arrangement is and also whether it is a tank locomotive. This is known as Whyte's wheel arrangement system and you can find out in our glossary of terms what it all means.  Scroll down to 'W' when you get there. There is a host of railway terms and explanations so you can translate just what we're sometimes going on about!