GWSR Cotswold Festival of Steam - 25 - 27 May 2019.

Blue engines? 419's doing the rounds at the moment. I have no idea by the way.

 

http://gwsrsteamloco.blogspot.com/2019/02/the-second-gala-visiting-loco-is.html?m=1
2nd visitor announced!
A few of you may have guessed!
Many thanks to the srps and Bo’ness

 

Blue locomotives!!
Might pay this one a visit

 

My guesses for the third visitor if blue is the theme:

• 323 Bluebell
• 564 from North Norfolk Railway
  
• 828 from Strathspey Railway

 

Confirmed its 419 caley tank its advertised on rail advent news.

 

The theme is "Northern Soul" rather than blue as I had incorrectly guessed earlier though. I'd be surprised if 828 would be allowed away over May Bank holiday and I doubt 323 could pull any of our trains (min 5 Mk1s over the gala) anyway. My guess (and hope) would be something LNERish.

 

Why bother saying that Rail advent have ‘confirmed’ it, when the GlosWarks THEMSELVES have posted it? All Rail Advent have done is copy the news and stick it on their website.

 

With regards RE no freight, as there are no other public outings for the wagons, would the GWSR look at hosting a Goods weekend/day? Not that I would go necessarily but I know some people would.

It could be similar to what the Mid Hants used to do with a freight train running alongside a normal service timetable. Or maybe spilt them into GWR and BR era rakes and run separately.

Diesels could be used too to create a mixed weekend theme and save on costs.

Just a thought.

 

I'm very much in favour of such a proposal and indeed I even wrote a couple of timetables to show how it could fit in with a normal running day. However, they all require the signalling at Broadway to be commissioned, as the Toddington-Broadway section is the constraining factor. After that, I think the other main hurdle to overcome would be getting the volunteers to do maintenance. Our current maintenance team are really stretched with our current carriage fleet and understandably have to prioritise that. we're trying to get a wagon maintenance team up and running in the workshop side of C+W which may solve that problem. Then you're on to staffing trains, which again, during this current time of expansion after Broadway I thin we'd struggle with in the short term, but I'd really like it be be a medium term ambition to be able to run the odd goods train on weekends in between normal services.

 

The freight could just run Todd-CRC. Just use what wagons are available. I'm sure there are enough volunteers to run a goods train with the usual 2 passenger trains out, 3 staff at minimum?

 

I don't think there is enough time to run round at Todd without getting in the way of service trains. Worth cogitating though. Bear in mind that most weekends we're running a 3 train timetable this year. It's not a question of what wagons are available, or have nominally been through the workshops and restored. That bit's not a problem. We've probably got a dozen or so that appear to be in a fit state to run, but just like our carriages they regularly need FTR examinations to be done; brakes, axleboxes etc. checked and various bits and bobs changing. If we can get a dedicated team set up to do this then great, but until then unfortunately it's likely to fall off the bottom of the priority list for the existing hard-pressed maintenance team.

3 minimum potentially, but if you wanted to sell brake van rides that's 4, possibly 6 (I can't recall if a brake van carrying passengers needs a guard at the moment, my rulebook is at home). It doesn't sound like much, but I've just finished writing our first split shift roster for guards and TTIs and whilst we're busy expanding our passenger operations in preparation for longer timetables in a couple of years' time, I really don't think anyone's going to be interested in adding yet more complication.

As a C+W man, with the emphasis on W, I'd love to see it, and there are some good reasons to do so beyond just for fun, and I hope we will one day. But I just know that right now with everything else that's going on the folk that matter aren't going to be receptive to such ideas, better to wait until it's a more reasonable ask.

 

This would lead to a very unbalanced passenger timetable and would require an extra signalman if you simply switched to a normal 3 train timetable from the 2. As I said, I'm not sure if not running full line would help. When things have settled down a bit maybe, but right now we're still in effect building up to Broadway from an operational point of view. It may be that when the new expanded timetables come in, it'll be even easier to fit a freight in.

As I said initially, pathing a freight train is only a very short term issue and won't exist this time next year, the earliest we could realistically start, anyway. Hopefully when that is the case we will at least be able to have a freight during the gala again, maybe working up to doing it a little more regularly if staffing and maintenance allows.

 

Could they just add a few goods wagons to a passenger train. At the Mid norfolk they had a milk train composing of a few coaches and a couple of milk tankers to provide a service between Dereham and the north part of the line which replicated trains that once ran on the line. Provided something a bit unusual.

 

On normal service days, not really. With 8 coach trains things would be getting a bit unwieldy and probably look a bit odd. For the gala, with the third rake being split and bolstered by additional carriages, potentially, except we now have a guest loco with limited haulage capacity, and I don't think we could realistically expect to further shorten what I suspect will be a rather full rake of carriages behind 419 just to string a few freight vehicles on instead. Next year and onwards, we'll have Broadway loop which I've already mentioned is an important barrier to a freight train currently.

Personally, for this year I'm satisfied with seeing some shunting going on in between trains, in the expectation that in the next year or two we'll see the return of full line freight trains, and maybe beyond that some running of the freight on normal days.

 

How about the “Duchess” as the final guest locomotive. Does anyone as GWSR like the idea?

 

I like it - I also find it highly unlikely! I don't think it "does" low loaders.

 

And the cost of bringing in this loco and tender is?

Would you fly in from Forth Worth Texas for the visit?

 

Leaked a little early, but were extremely happy to announce the final guest for the gala is B1 no.1264 courtesy of the Thompson b1 locomotive trust. Joining other guests, Caley tank 419, and 6023 king Edward ll, along with home fleet of 2807, 4270, 7820, 7903 and 35006 it promises to be another great event. Timetables and loco diagrams are underway and will be available on line in the weeks to come. Discounted advance tickets are also now available on the gwsr website.

 

Excellent! I've missed that loco a couple of times now, so looking forward to finally catching it.