GWSR | Cotswold Festival of Steam Gala | 23-25 May 2026

Rather mixed feelings about today at GWSR. The event attracted my for three things - the GWR Railcar, GER229 and the Caley tank. Being greeted with an emergency timetable which removed two of those three things wasn't good. The operation had been stripped back to extreme simplicity - Caley tank shuttling between Toddington and Broadway, and the rest running Toddington - Cheltenham. I guess it's probably as good as it was going to get in the circumstances. The ticket price was, I felt, very fair even for the stripped-back event, there's a lesson for certain Porthmadog-based railways.

The Stanway Steam event across the road was simply embarrassing. A huge field with very little in it, and virtually deserted even at 1230. I assume this event is independent of the railway?

 

Family visited on Saturday, very much enjoyed the Steam at Stanway event (which, Mr Serpahim is a very new event run by some young enthusiastic folk who have learned a lot and will grow and improve next year). When they wanted to go for a cuppa and bite at Toddington, were told that they needed to buy a railway ticket at £40 each for access to the site. Given that they;d run with the railcar three weeks ago, they didn't really want to travel. So in the absence of site or platform tickets, they went home. They'll be back for certain, but also hope that the platform access option is something for the future.