[May 28, 2013] Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Railway Cotswold Steam... (Gloucestershire)

Seven locos from the big four in steam see here for more details

http://www.gwsr.com/planning-your-visit/2013-events-calendar/cotswold-steam-celebration-2013.aspx

 

When are the loco rosters likely to be made available for this event ?

 

Not anytime soon it would appear !!!!!

 

Hi everybody, sorry for the lack of news as of late, there are basically only three of us organising this event and the list of things to complete is only slowly going down! I am currently finalising the brochure and the public on the day timetable handout. This has the loco allocations on so I will then be able to let you all know. To bring other things up to date, 925 Cheltenham landed on Saturday whilst the std should be in by weeks end. Sad to say that carriage and wagon at winchcombe will now not be open as the ongoing building work on the new paint shop and the consequent upheaval makes it a no go. We have however managed to get a bus service on Saturday and Sunday to run between toddington and broadway station to see the excellent progress. We hope to have 1450 sitting on a low loader on broadway station approach, but this has still to be 100% confirmed. The bus timetable will be posted on the web site. We also still have some footplate rides available, these must be booked in advance. See the gwsr website for details.

 

Last time I came to a GWR gala with a lineside pass I was asked to pay full price, despite only wanting to go lineside on that particular day. Will the same thing occur this year??

 

Only annual passes available now
http://www.gwsr.com/planning-your-v...d-steam-celebration-2013/lineside-passes.aspx

 

Yes, and I have one.

 

Loco Rosters now online here .

 

Thanks for the loco rosters. Please could you say which way the engines are facing so we can plan our day which will entail photographing all the visiting engines plus travelling behind them.

Thanks

Don

 

I know 925 and 2807 are both facing North

 

8F 8274 faces north. 5542 faces south. <BJ>

 

OK great, thanks. What about 8572?

Don

 

I thought 80072 was not going to visit any heritage railways this year as the owning group want to keep it at Llangollen. Obviously they have had second thoughts once again!

 

8572 is expected to face north.

To bring all the 'gen' together then:
Facing north - 8572, 925, 2807 and 8274
Facing south - 80072, 7903 and 5542

James at SVN

 

Just a quick enquiry: I am passing through Toddington on a longer journey on Friday and wont have time to ride the trains on that day, but would like to call in for a quick visit to the society and preservation groups stands in Toddington yard, and hopefully spend something with them. Can I park up and visit the yard without buying a train ticket?
Thanks in advance

46118

Edit: Answering my own question, you have to have a valid travel ticket to gain access to the stations and yards. Should have looked at the GWSR website before posting..

Ah well, I'll spend the money somewhere else....one less visitor for you to worry about.

I do however appreciate that you have to make some rules for running the gala, so no problem. (... dont agree with this restriction though!)

 

All finally starting to slot into place, 8572's tender has arrived with the loco due early tomorrow. Cheltenham has been in service and is running tomorrow. 80072 has even steamed and examined and ready for Friday. News tonight us that a bus service will run on the Saturday and Sunday from toddington to broadway for visitors, inclusive in Your entrance ticket. At broadway locomotive 5764 will be sitting in a low loader and you will be able to inspect the impressive progress being made on recreating this Cotswold gem. We have managed to effect a fence alongside part of the yard and from 8am you will be able to see locomotives being prepped on shed. 35006 p&o will go into the car park Thursday and the cab will be available for visits over the gala. 4270 will be positioned on road 9 and will be viewable from the yard viewing point. Oh and the b12 will be facing north. If you like your pre nationalisation liveries this is your chance to see the big four represented in all there glory!

 

Locomotive 5764 courtesy of the svr, many thanks. Bus timetable and info on main gwsr website.

 

I also am in the area all weekend. There are 3 of us and we planned to travel one day. On the other days we wanted to just visit the sites and stations for parts of the days as well as visit other parts of the Cotswolds. We would have spent money on the days we weren't traveling. Whilst I accept the GWR must organise the event as they see best to manage the volume of customers and protect revenue, from my point of view it's disappointing and a loss of revenue for the GWR.

 

Agreed Keith, and I suspect there will be others who like me are not prepared to pay--in my case--£20 to get access to Toddington yard to spend some scarce money at the Society stands.
I tend not to travel at Gala events anyway, as I get older I dont "do" crowded trains any more! Rather I prefer to visit Heritage lines to travel at quieter times, but I do use the Gala opportunity to spend money on a railway in other ways. As mentioned earlier, in this instance I wont have time to travel on a train, it would have been a 30 minute stop on a longer journey tomorrow.

Frankly saying in effect "if you want to visit our railway at a Gala time, you WILL purchase a train ticket" is living in a different World!

Toddington yard is spacious, so I would not buy this attitude as a "crowd control" measure.

46118

 

Unfortunately, that is what the Mid Hants Railway do, and that is the reason why I don't film on stations during gala events (in fairness, I visit and travel on the MHR a lot seeing as I live just a few miles away, so I make up for not visiting at gala events!). I can't justify spending £23 on a platform ticket, so regrettably, I'm going to have to remain linesiding throughout the entire day.

That said, if at the next GWSR gala there is a platform ticket in the £5-9 region, I would be more than happy to part with my cash.

James at SVN