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

Yes, things went quite well on Monday, my freight train was always with 10 minutes of its timetable.
I like the 'double track' shot in the cutting at Toddington. Wish it was double track out of the station too, for some weird reason it becomes single track, only to become double track again a few yards further on. A double track view from Stow Road bridge would give a great illusion.

 

Thanks for your help on the Monday, appreciated as ever! Yes a double track view from Stow Road would be good, but probably quite expensive to implement whilst maintaining the operational flexibility the current layout affords us whereby both the Main and the North siding are both easily accessible from both P1 and P2.

 

Visitors paying full admission also make that spend.

All a £5 platform ticket does is deprive the railway of £35 revenue from the admission price, the bulk of which I suspect is contributing to the cost of staging the event.

 

I think we'll agree to disagree

 

Totally disagree - at the risk of further thread drift..
The SVR has never prevented access at galas nor charged for platform tickets and (I suspect) pick up a fair bit of secondary spend as a result. (Notwithstanding the difficulties of preventing access in the first place).
Those who are wanting to travel will buy a ticket whatever happens. There are however a number of people who maybe unable to travel due to time constraints, they travelled the previous day or are just passing through. Allowing access to these people gives rise to a different market and another income stream, plus the opportunity to promote a return visit at another time when they may well travel.
At the recent diesel gala we travelled on the Saturday. On the Sunday we had a couple of hours to kill before we all departed to varying points around the UK. We went back to the SVR, took some photos, bought some snacks and spent some money at a trade stand. We would not have done this had we needed to buy another travel ticket.
Secondary spend is a major focus for many attractions and can only happen if people are allowed into the railway in the first place.

 

Access to Winchcombe was “free”* when I visited on Saturday afternoon so I could have had a refreshment break without paying the £40 if I wanted to.
*nobody was checking for wristbands, unlike at Toddington.

 

The SVR and the GWSR are very different railways in many ways though. I can understand the GWSR not wanting to dilute from its main income stream at events whilst allowing free access at most other times for visitors to spend as you suggest.

 

At least someone was checking - at one well known railway in the South I went for two whole gala days without a single person checking my ticket either on the stations or the trains! When I went back on a "normal" day I had my ticket checked 3 times!

 

I would have thought the comment was the amazement of the police actually having 4 officers available. It certainly would be down here in Dorset, where an attempted Post Office robbery by a guy with a knife met with a 16 hour response time a few years back.
Maybe being near a larger conurbation the resources are more resiliant.

 

I don't see how the railways are that different and I dont see how its income dilution if those visitors were never in a position to buy a travel ticket.
If Winchcombe was accessible for non-ticket holders that is good. There will be a number of people who just looking to watch the trains for a while, being able to whilst buying railway tea and cake can only be a win.
A wise person once said, never turn away a paying customer, however small. Impress them and they will return and spend more.

 

Perfect summary Alex, but got to pick out this bit as it really sums things up. The volunteer kindly dashing out to grab a takeaway for us all to fuel the planning was also very much a key part in all this!!

At times the issues were coming so thick and fast it was impossible to keep up, I was very very glad not to have been duty officer that is for sure, the phone just didn't stop.

As an example later on Sunday afternoon a number of us were dealing with a line side fire some 200 yards long half-way between Hailes and Winchcombe, having trudged back in the heat I was due to take the now repaired Caley tank (massive thanks due here for all the efforts buy the Bo'ness team, above and beyond!) on a double header for a test run to ensure the air pump would keep running perfectly. The proposed run was an hour away until a call came in to say that 6880 had dropped a couple of firebars and would be removed from its train at Toddington. After a quick discussion with the Caley representatives who were confident there would be no issue at all with the loco we collectively decided the easiest option was to put the Caley out solo on that train. 'When will 6880 be arriving' we asked, 'it has already left Broadway' was the response, yikes...! A quick dash to the column to top the tanks up and grab some bottled water to take with us and the next call comes in, 'the fireman on Manston is suffering with heat exhaustion at Cheltenham and needs relief from his duties' a quick search around and a spare fireman was found and dispatched to Cheltenham once we'd also found someone to act as a taxi. We departed for Cheltenham on the Caley only to be met with a red signal outside Winchcombe, the railcar it emerged had been stuck in full sun for some 40 minutes in Gotherington loop and needed to get moving for some air flow, that was now on its way to Winchcombe and would first go in to the platform intended for us to disembark its passengers before heading to the yard to allow us in. Such were the heat levels onboard it took five minutes for one gentleman to be able to get off the vehicle. All those who commenting on our social media channels lamenting the loss of No.22 on Monday as they wanted to travel on it may have regretted so if we had put it out! There is very minimal ventilation on it.

Next issue, having arrived in P1 the late afternoon heat now affected the points in to the yard, after a number of attempts and more time lost, there was a train occupying P2, so that had to be moved slightly to allow the Railcar to sneak infront, freeing up P1 for us to draw in. At this point 3850 was on the tail of our train and uncoupled as planned. Because of the yard access issues it was then subsequently coupled up again and it was decided to go in to recovery mode to get people home, minimising run rounds and more risk of issues due to the heat by continuing in T&T formation. Eventually we continued our journey to Cheltenham by which point the replacement fireman was aboard Manston and ready to go.

It is very difficult when things are happening so thick and fast to try and get the right information to be released across the railway, by the time some information was broadcast there was another issue developing making the previous announcement obsolete.

A very tough day, and the above was all happening over just an hour or so one afternoon!

Thanks to all who came and enjoyed themselves, fully appreciate that once things were going wrong and on such a hot day, a MK1 isn't the top choice of locations to be, even more so a stationary one, understandably many were getting agitated, we can only apologise.

Any kind benefactors wishing to sponsor the installation of air conditioning?!

Thanks to all for the feedback on here, useful and appreciated.

 

The trade off is on a busy day, when the extra income from these customers needs to be weighed up against the possible lost income from people unable to be served in timely fashion

 

The loco roster hasn’t been updated yet, but there’s no harm in saying that 78022 is diagrammed to run tomorrow and Thursday and then this weekend both days . I don’t have any info regarding the 5.

 

The catering team at Toddington was under a lot of pressure when I visited but were coping. Not sure what it would have been like if several “walk ins” had joined the throng.

 

Also of note, originally Manston was rostered this week, this has been swapped out for 2807 due to the heat.

A shout out to Martin Creese of this parish who made contact with us Sunday afternoon suggesting that it would be sensible to cancel his photo charter of today to give everyone on the railway a rest/opportunity to escape the heat. It wouldn't have been pleasant for us or his participants that is for sure.

 

Yes indeed, without that it might well have been plan B - weld the gates shut on Monday and we all go to the pub!

 

Many thanks Andy, much appreciated!

 

I was on the Caley and heard someone say that the Grange had run a hot box, but clearly wasn't the case.

I was in a compartment behind it, which unfortunately had a broken top light so wouldn't open, and the corridor on it was quite full, but when the lady guard came through to say it could be a 45min delay at Winchcombe because of the poor crew member on Manston and anyone could alight for some fresh air if they needed it, a few passengers got off freeing it up, she also informed passengers to ask her about getting any water as well.

I was probably one of the more fortunate in that I was able to get behind all the visitors (the Caley by accident due to 6880), which helped me enjoy my time despite the issues and regardless of them I thank them for their efforts.

 

It might be worth waiting for someone on here from the GWSR to confirm, but the latest issue of Steam Railway Magazine has arrived today and suggests that 45110 will be staying at the GWSR for 12 months.

 

I think I was in the same compartment, it certainly had a non-opening window. IIRC the announcement was that we would be held for 45 minutes while Manston came down - we had already been held for the Railcar which we were told would go straight back but was terminated due to overheating, resulting in the complex shunt involving the freight setting back as already described. I hopped off for a breather, but hopped back on because we promptly got a green with Manston staying at Cheltenham. No complaints from me about the various announcements and changes - the situation was obviously very fluid by that time. I'd like to add my thanks to all involved for their amazing efforts in the conditions - I wasn't there on the Monday but apparently it was a record temperature for any Bank Holiday including August!