GWSR General Discussion and Operations

Nice bit of publicity in the local press abut the upcoming birthdays for 4270 and 7903:

https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/new...te-39-birthdays-39-cotswold-heritage-railway/

 

Very good. However, get some time in!
2807, built at Swindon in October 1905. Now going strong on the GWSR. Our annual Supporters' Day was held yesterday as the photo shows. The heavy general overhaul is due in 2020.

 

Made my first visit for over 5 years on Wednesday as it was where my father wanted to go for his 93rd birthday.
Very impressed with the whole experience and the loadings for a service post the school holidays. Two eight coach trains that seemed to be well filled with groups.
Coaching stock seemed in good condition (with no wheel flats) a Merchant Navy and a Hall on the trains and a King and the Tank in steam in the yard. Even a 24 came out to play with the 37 on the last train although we could not stay for that. What is not to like.
My only minor negative comment would be the lengthy turnaround time on some of the services at CR, but I guess this helps with crewing and maybe aligns with the needs of the group passengers. Oh and of course it is too far (4 hours each way) from Swanage.

 

I see from the 9466 Facebook page that it has arrived at the GWSR. Any idea how long for?

 

There will be a press release issued at some point soon so watch out for it

 

First rostered for the weekend of 26th and 27th October, the steam loco blog implies it'll be around until at least the 2020 gala in May.

 

For those who didn't see it yet, there's a very interesting post on the C+M Blog, which shows some of the cleanup outside the new Churchward House.

Noel

 

7820 Dinmore Manor calls at Hayles Abbey Halt this afternoon with a service bound for Cheltenham Racecourse.

 

Yeah, it sure was blustery today.

 

Quite a grand looking property, how did gwsr come to get hold of it, and whats it history.
I love the various dept blogs particually the civils blog, give good insight into forgotten areas of the railway

 

AFAIK when we acquired the line there was a builder in Winchcombe yard. (I think in the huts now occupied by the C&M department, so still there).
We gave/sold him a piece of land further up, and he built himself a new yard and offices.
I think other strips of land were also sold off in that area, as there is a forklift distributor next door, and at the top end we sold off a small piece of land on which the new owner promptly built two houses.
The builder recently decided to move out to better premises, so gave us first refusal on his office block and yard.
This is an excellent opportunity for us, as it gives us back some of our original yard, with its associated parking spaces, offices, a shed and covered storage in the little yard attached to it.
The office space allows us to relinquish the 3 temporary Portacabins at Toddington, which are ugly, leaky and have holes in the floor. So all our HO office people will move to Winchcombe, together with some volunteer departments that are clamouring for office space. The C&M department will be able to use the shed in the yard, so that the older sheds can be demolished to make way for the carriage shed that is pencilled in for that side of Winchcombe yard.

So Churchward House is a very good move for the railway. We've only just taken possession of it, so are removing what we don't want, and working out what to do to it to make it suit our purposes. We won't be moving in for a few months yet.

 

It is slowly being inked in!

 

And a new post on the Civil Engineering blog about some recent inspections.

Noel

 

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The Builders' offices were started around 1987 I believe. The attached photo, taken in October 1987 shows the site being prepared (not easy to see as it's behind the ex-Hall Green signal box which was what I was photographing at the time). I never expected the GWSR to take over the building in the future but it will be an excellent asset to the Railway. Considering it's relatively new, it was built in a semi traditional style, at least at the front, with some attempt at a Cotswold style. Well, it was built by a building company I guess! Winchcombe was very much "work in progress" at the time.

 

Some interesting items at the bottom of the list
http://vintagetrains.co.uk/forsale.aspx

 

The GWR Crossing gate and wheel would be good, possibly for installation at CRC in place of the agricultural gates next to the Signal box. Failing that, as an educational installation in the car park at Toddington?

Regards PaulK

 

Having abit of a clear out, by looks of it, plenty of bricks and egding stones etc for building with

 

Its quite generous to off the railway the land back that its sold/passed on to him way nack now hes moving to bigger better premise offering it u back. Make life easier with office and management pretty much all under one roof in modernoffice space

 

9466 has hauled the first train of her 'visit'. She was added to the front of 7903 on the 1200 ex Toddington. Both sounded very nice.

Andrew