GWSR Cotswold festival of steam 26-28 May 2018

Great show, thanks to all who were involved.

 

Great weekend, mostly to time, very entertaining. Never seen the Railway so busy.

 

Fantastic day today. Lots of double-headed and top and tailed running, and standing room only on most trains. The Pannier-hauled DMU made the Worcester to Birmingham rush hour DMUs seem empty by comparison! All locos were on fine form and looking absolutely splendid, and everything pretty much ran to time - even a few minutes early in some cases! One of the guards told me that Saturday was the busiest ever day for the railway but today must surely top that I think.

 

Does any body know how long 70013 is staying on the GWR? Thanks

 

I was told that 70013 is staying on GWSR until after 3rd June. It looks like 70013 is operating this week with 35006, and at the weekend with 6023.

 

This weeekend surely marks the GWSR ‘coming of age’. Welcome to the big time

 

Spent a few hours here today, not been for 5 years! Trains well loaded and Broadway station seems to be nice, look forward to it's competition. What happened to all the catering vehicles that were usually in attendance at Toddington for galas? Nice hog roast but maybe some salad with it next time (probably 2023 for me!).

 

Superb weekend! superb railway! 6203 approaches Gotherington on Sunday morning:




More to follow shortly.

Richard

 

Loco roster shows 70013 operating this week and with 6023 on the weekend, then 6023 running next week and on the 9th/10th June.
https://www.gwsr.com/planning_your_visit/what_to_see_and_do/locomotive_roster.html

 

Re the ticket prices, I had a similar situation earlier this month when I popped into Toddington during the wartime weekend (unknown to me at the time). It was about 3:30 in the afternoon and had my two young children with me and I was told I would have to buy a day rover. I said that’s a bit daft as they’re isn’t time for a round trip never mind a look at the exhibits. The chap on the gate agreed but said that’s the rule! Perhaps this could be reviewed?

 

Wow, what an absolutely incredible weekend! I didn't get final numbers for today before I left, but total for the weekend will be approaching 6000 at least, and a very happy finance director points to some handsome profits. I've never known so many trains to be full and standing, I think we will remember this gala for a long time.

It was great to see @Bean-counter again, and any other forum members I unknowingly met. Anyone lucky enough to be on the afternoon round trip Broadway-Cheltenham-Toddington with he King, I hope you enjoyed and appreciated it as much as I did, it was spectacular, the crew certainly knew where the big red handle was, and boy did @JJG Koopmans get it right, it sounded fantastic! I do hope someone got some footage of this and post it up.

Also I spotted a drone out at Gotherington today, if anyone comes across that footage could they link it please?

Oh, and the locos performed nearly faultlessly. Dinmore was taken off the double header with the King on the way back to Toddington at Winchcombe at 5:30pm today, we were doing so well! Ah well. Thanks to everyone else who made it happen, it was a real pleasure to be working on the railway over such a great weekend.

So, some photos from today, again, it seemed to take ages for the mit and cloud to clear, but hanging around at the end of the day was worthwhile:

 

I went today (Monday of the gala) and was busy in the morning but they had a reduced price ticket for late arrivals (after 2pm) so I got that. Was £18 ( I think the normal one was £26) which is fair enough. Had a look around the new discovery coach and model railway at Winchcombe which I hadn't seen before and C and W which I haven't been in since about 2002 and was amazed at how much had changed. Rode behind P and O, the Pannier and the S160 but saw the other locos too. Was particularly pleased to see the S160 as it is the first time I have ever seen one of those actually running. Has a very American sounding whistle. The trains didn't seem over busy apart from the last one of the day back to Racecourse which was packed.

 

Sounds like the got the right trains then! Every time the King hooked onto our set it was standing room only right to the 8th coach. Glad you had a good day.

 

My shots from over the weekend and Monday morning! First time visiting the line and will definitely visit again after this brilliant event!! My dog enjoyed his ride on the big trains as well as a ride on the miniature line at Toddington

 

Accidental duplication! Sorry!!

 

Accidental duplication! Sorry!!

 

I got home last night after 7 days at the railway, culminating in our most successful event ever. Our small gala team of 6 have been working on this for over 6 months and it’s great to hear positive feedback. Haven’t got exact figures but it looks like we will have missed out on 6000 passengers by less than 35 people. I’m happy to report dinmore is ok, it was taken off as a precaution due to a lubrication issue and later made its way back to toddington. As has been mentioned, 70013 is running Tuesday to Thursday this week with 35006 and again at the weekend 2nd/3rd June along side 6023.

 

Once again another brilliant gala at the Glos Warks, well done to all involved! It's typical that I managed to get caught in the one HEAVY shower at Toddington of the whole weekend, even if it did only last about a minute! Here's my video and a few photos from the weekend, roll on next year!

 

Here's my video from the event, skip to 0:14 to skip the intro.