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

If I'm recalling all the way back to last year, 80105s hire period was supposed to be a decent length of time which Manston was drafted in to cover part of.

 

Indeed it was meant to be before it failed with boiler issues at Bo'ness

 

If someone says something has a hot box or if it is in Steam Railway then it must be true, right?

 

I attended the GWSR steam gala on the Saturday, which, in hindsight, was probably the better of the 3 days, although the timetable didn’t survive “first contact!” It was definitely one of the hottest heritage railway galas that I’ve ever attended and I must say that the GWSR staff did what they could against some pretty stiff odds. I thought that the staff at all stations looked smart and well-turned out, despite the heat. I guess that the timetable might have been a little ambitious given the conditions and also the time it takes for visitors to join and leave trains (most of us are not young commuters!), but overall, it was good. As a shareholder in 2807, I was pleased that the locomotive performed well over the 3 days of the event. I missed the Spitfire, but I’m lucky enough to see one most days when it’s flying out of Church Fenton (Leeds Airport East). I had seen the Caledonian Railway Tank loco before, but not in the LMS livery, which looked superb. The Diesel Railcar looked great on the line too. Well done to all the GWSR people who made it happen despite the hot weather.

 

I also missed the Spit on Saturday, but grabbed a few mobile phone shots of the DC3 flypast on Sunday, nicely timed to coincide with Manston's departure.

 

The revised timetable on Monday delinking Broadway which I think is the most restrictive section from the rest of the line was a good move allowing the timetable to recover from being around 45 down at the start of the day. Perhaps less is more. May be an option to consider for future gala events until Broadway signalling is fully commissioned?

The timetable being produced in less than 6 hours is amazing. Well done!

Sent from my LGN-NX1 using Tapatalk

 

Steam Beano?

 

Hence why I said to wait for any possible confirmation.

 

I think enough has been said about the weekend by now, we had three days of boiling in trains and generally enjoyed it all. I think it was over ambitious but had it come off everyone would have been full of praise for one of the best ever galas. Things always conspire to go wrong, almost impossible to build in for the 'what-ifs'. Here's a hand full of what we got whilst running around the railway:

 

A few shots of Caley Tank No. 15189 at work on local services, filmed on the last day of the gala.

 

Photos from across Saturday-Sunday-Monday... https://www.flickr.com/photos/alts1985/albums/72177720333947099