Thousands of people at Toddington and Winchcombe and alongside the railway, enjoyed the spectacle of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's visit on the last day of the GWR's Cotswold Festival of Steam on Sunday 1st June. But unfortunately, those at Cheltenham expecting to experience the emotional sight and sound of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine-powered Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane aircraft were disappointed - because hot air balloons in the area meant that
the planes had to be diverted while en-route to the railway.

"We are so sorry that many people missed out," says Ian Crowder, commercial director. "It was the one disappointment on an otherwise wonderful day.  The combination of steam engines and wartime aircraft is a heady mix and it moved many people to tears: it was an unforgettable occasion."

The last day the best of the two weekends of the Festival, in terms of numbers and weather.  "The dire weather of the Bank Holiday weekend discouraged a lot of people from visiting but this weekend everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy the mixture of passenger and freight trains, to say nothing of the re-creation of the old 'coffee pot' local train service which ended in 1960."