All You Wanted To Know About The Gala, But Were Afraid To Ask

The Cotswold Festival of Steam Gala (May 27th - 29th), "Workhorses of Steam" is less than two weeks away, and there are a number of updates.  Last time we brought you a gala update, we announced that scheduled works on Black 5, 45305 were going to over-run and that we had lined up a replacement in S&DJR 7F, 53808.  Unfortunately, the West Somerset Railway have suffered a failure of one of their other steam locomotives, which meant that they can no longer spare 53808 as it would be needed to cover their own bank holiday services.  Fortunately, courtesy of the Mid Hants Railway, we are enormously grateful to be able to announce at such short notice that we will be running BR Standard 4MT, 2-6-0, 76017 instead.

45305  53808  76017, photo courtesy of Ben Evason

The BR Standard 76XXX class were allocated to all regions except the Western Region, but Midland allocated examples of the class would have traversed our line on occasion.  Like all BR Standards, they had a relatively short service life in BR ownership, (12 years and 1 month in this case) before being swept aside in the rush to abandon steam in favour of diesel or electric motive power.  Of the 115 members of the class built, 4 survived into preservation, all by virtue of being sent to the legendary Barry Island Scrapyard.  Students of the GWSR will of course be familiar with fact that there are the mortal remains of a steam locomotive quietly awaiting its turn in the restoration queue in Toddington's north siding.  That steam locomotive is 76077, a sister to 76017.  Hopefully in the fullness of time, 76077 will be returned to steam and running on our line.  Until then , 76017 can be considered to be a foretaste of what is to come.

76017 will be appearing alongside our other two guest locomotives. The United States Army Transportation Corp's S160 is an American design of 2-8-0, built primarily for hauling heavy freight trains on the railways of Europe at the close of WWII. Some 2,120 were built by a variety of manufacturers and shipped to Europe. Manufacture commenced in 1942 and continued through to 1945.
Around 400 S160's found their way to the United Kingdom during WWII, before being shipped on to mainland Europe after D-Day.
 
6046 was one of the last batch of 55 S160's locomotives, built by Baldwin Locomotive Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and delivered direct to France. Although many were scrapped in France at the end of their service there, 6046 was later exported to Hungary. At the end of her working life in Hungary, she was brought to the UK for restoration and eventually ended up along with sister S160, 5197 at the Churnet Valley Railway in the ownership of Greg Wilson.

174 S160's were allocated to the Great Western Railway during WWII, and they were a regular sight on our line during that period. Unfortunately I have unearthed no photos from the time (wartime railway photos in general are fairly rare).

USATC, S160, 2-8-0, 6046

On the evening of Saturday 27th May only, we will once again be running a 14 coach train.  At the southern end of the train will be 6046, whilst at the northern end, we will have 35006 from our home fleet.  This proved to be extremely popular last year, fortunately with 14 coaches, there should be ample room to accommodate a fair number of passengers.

Our third and final visiting loco is Collett 0-4-2T, 1450, and autocoach W238W, courtesy of the Severn Valley Railway and Push Pull LTD.

1450 in action on the Dean Forest Railway

The 14XX class were no strangers to our line, with eight or nine of the class being shedded at any one time at Gloucester Horton Road. Regular duties for the class were on the Cheltenham St James' to Honeybourne locals. An autotrain working was a sensible choice as the turn involved working from Cheltenham St James' to Cheltenham Malvern Rd, which involved a change of direction at Malvern Rd.

It hopefully hasn't escaped your attention that the GWSR is in the process of rebuilding Hayles Abbey Halt. The very first blog post from the team that are recreating it included a photo of 1424 which judging by the water overflowing from its water tanks had just screeched to a stop at Hayles Abbey Halt. The halt is now substantially complete, but won't be open for use during the gala, yet seeing 1450 pass through with an autocoach will see another bit of our line's history recreated. 

1424 screeches to a stop at Hayles Abbey Halt, photo courtesy of Hugh Ballantyne

The timetable for the gala will feature 1450 & auto-trailer W238W running shuttles from Toddington to Laverton (and hopefully beyond to Buckland) as well as a full round trip of the line.

The above visitors are all in addition to our home fleet locomotives, which will be all be running an intensive timetable.

Churchward, 2-8-0, 2807, built in 1905

Churchward, 2-8-0T, 4270

Collett, Manor class 4-6-0, 7820, Dinmore Manor

Hawksworth, Modified Hall class, 4-6-0, 7903, Foremarke Hall

Bulleid, Merchant Navy class, 4-6-2, 35006, Peninsular & Oriental S. N. Co

The preliminary timetable includes double headings of 76017 with 35006 and 7820 with 7903 amongst others. 

The locos will be facing in the directions shown below:

1450     Facing Cheltenham Race Course
2807     Facing Broadway
4270     Facing Broadway
6046     Facing Cheltenham Race Course
7820     Facing Cheltenham Race Course
7903     Facing Cheltenham Race Course
35006   Facing Broadway
76017   Facing Broadway

The mainline steam locomotives are a big attraction to any gala, and once again, we've done ourselves proud on that front, however they're not everything.  We like to expand the appeal of the event beyond just the mainline steam locomotives, yet stay true to our steam power roots.  Included in the price of the ticket, will be entry to the North Gloucestershire Narrow Gauge Railway, which will have locomotives from its home in operation.  As if that wasn't enough, in the car park at Toddington, we hope to have four steam powered traction engines, including Burrell Showman's Road Locomotive 3950 'Progress' and vintage fairground organ.

3590, Progress, photo courtesy of Ben Evason

Progress' fairground organ, photo courtesy of Ben Evason

 If all that steam is too much, and you'd like to let of some steam of your own, then pump trolley/Wickham trolley rides will be available at Gotherington, as well as refreshments.  Winchcombe will once again play host to a beer tent and there will be a trade stands marquee at Toddington.  There will be a bus service from Cheltenham Spa Network Rail Railway station to our own Cheltenham Racecourse Station.  As ever, for visitors by car, the recommendation is to park at Cheltenham Racecourse Station (for directions, follow this link) and some parking will be available in the field (not the main car park) at Toddington (for directions see here).  

Once again, we will be offering brake van rides on the freight train (spaces are limited) and footplate rides on some of our home fleet locomotives.  The footplate rides are book in advance, and as of Saturday 13th May, just two places remain.  Book now to avoid disappointment.

More details and advance ticket sales can be found on the main GWSR web page