Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway

GWR 2-8-0T 4200 Class no. 4247 at Toddington Station on 8th August 2004. This locomotive, now based at the Bodmin and Wenford Railway, was built by the Great Western Railway at Swindon in 1916.

File:GWR 3440 'City of Truro' approaching Cheltenham Racecourse.jpg

GWR 4-4-0 "City" Class no. 3440 City of Truro approaching Cheltenham Racecourse on 13th May 2005. This locomotive was built by the Great Western Railway at Swindon in 1903. The locomotive achieved fame by reputedly reaching 102 mph whilst hauling the "Oceans Mail" special from Plymouth to London Paddington on 9th May 1904. The locomotive is preserved at the National Railway Museum in York.

File:GWR 6430 at Cheltenham Racecourse.JPG

GWR 0-6-0PT 6400 Class no. 6430 at Cheltenham Racecourse on 11th September 2004. This locomotive was built by the Great Western Railway at Swindon in 1937, and was withdrawn from traffic in 1964. It is normally resident on the Llangollen Railway.

BR Class 03 no. D2069 at the Doncaster Works open day on 27th July 2003. This locomotive was built by British Rail at Doncaster Works in 1959. It was withdrawn from traffic in 1983, and rescued for preservation in 1990 from a scrapyard in Leicester.

BR Class 24 no. 24081 departing Cheltenham Racecourse on 24th August 2004. This locomotive was built by British Rail at Crewe Works in 1960. It had the distinction of being the final locomotive of its class in traffic, and was withdrawn in 1980.

BR Class 47 no. 47376 "Freightliner 1995" at Toddington on 25th September 2005. This locomotive was built in 1965, by Brush Traction, Loughborough. It was the first locomotive to be painted in the corporate livery of Freightliner in 1995, and survived in traffic until 2001. It was preserved in 2002.

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (GWR) is a volunteer-run heritage railway that has reopened the closed railway line between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse railway stations in Gloucestershire. It has plans to extend to Broadway, Worcestershire.

Overview

The line was originally part of the Great Western Railway's Cheltenham - Stratford-upon-Avon - Birmingham line, built in 1900-1906, and runs through the Cotswold towns of Winchcombe and Bishop's Cleeve. The line was closed after a derailment in 1976. The preservation group rehabilitated the line, starting steam train operations in 1984. This culminated with the reopening of the line to Cheltenham Racecourse in 2003, by HRH The Princess Royal. The railway operates a wide variety of both steam and heritage diesel locomotives as well as heritage multiple units. These have included the world-famous locomotives 4472 "Flying Scotsman", and 3440 "City of Truro", which was reputedly the first engine to reach 100 mph, in 1904.

Stations

• Toddington
• Winchcombe
• Gotherington
• Cheltenham Racecourse

Locomotives

Operational Steam locomotives

• BR 2-10-0 Class 9F no. 92203 "Black Prince"
• GWR 4-6-0 4900 "Hall" Class no. 4936 "Kinlet Hall"
• GWR 2-6-2 4575 "Small Prarie" Class no. 5542
• GWR 4-6-0 6959 "Modified Hall" Class no. 7903 "Foremarke Hall"
• Industrial 0-6-0ST no. 2409 "King George"

Steam locomotives Undergoing Overhaul or Restoration

• LMS 2-8-0 Class 8F no. 8274
• SR 4-6-2 "Merchant Navy" Class no. 35006 "Peninsular & Oriental"
• GWR 0-6-0PT 5700 Class no. 9642
• GWR 2-8-0T 4200 Class no. 4270
• GWR 2-8-0 2800 Class no. 2807
• BR 2-6-0 Class 4MT no. 76077

Operational Diesel locomotives and DMU

• BR 0-6-0 Class 03 nos. D2069 and D2184
• BR Bo-Bo Class 20 no. D8137
• BR Co-Co Class 37 nos. 6915, 37219 and 37324 "Clydebridge"
• BR Co-Co Class 47 nos. 47105 and 47376 "Freightliner 1995"
• BR Bo-Bo Class 73 no. 73129 "City of Winchester"
• LMS 0-6-0 English Electric shunter no. 7069
• BR Class 108 unit 51950+52062

Diesel locomotives and DMU Undergoing Overhaul or Restoration

• BR 0-6-0 Class 14 no. D9553
• BR Bo-Bo Class 24 no. 24081
• BR Bo-Bo Class 26 no. 26043
• BR 1Co-Co1 Class 45 no. 45149

Signalling

The signalling on the line is a mixture of Electric Key Token and Staff working, depending on operational requirements. Current sections are:

• Toddington - Winchcombe (EKT)
• Winchcombe - Cheltenham Racecourse (short section staff)
• Toddington - Cheltenham Racecourse (with Winchcombe switched out - long section staff)

The above arrangements will change when Cheltenham Racecourse 'box is commissioned.

There are four signal boxes on the line:

• Toddingon - operational
• Winchcombe - operational
• Gotherington - non-operational (building only)
• Cheltenham Racecourse - currently being commissioned (early 2006)

Future plans

The railway currently has two major projects ongoing.

• Implementation of signalling on the Winchcombe-Cheltenham section of the line, to allow operation of multiple trains. This includes construction of signal boxes at Cheltenham Racecourse and Gotherington.
• Extension of track northwards from Toddington towards Broadway, with the construction of a new station at Broadway.

In the long-term future, plans could include a southern extension to link up to the national rail network at Cheltenham Spa mainline station, and extensions further north towards Honeybourne and possibly eventually Stratford-upon-Avon. However, extensions to the ends of the closed sections of line at Stratford and Cheltenham are impossible at present. The trackbed to Stratford is blocked by a road, and the trackbed through Cheltenham, while mostly complete, is in need of expensive rehabilitation and reconstruction, with the primary impediment being a non-rail-usable bowstring bridge near a Waitrose built on the St. James station site.

North Gloucestershire Narrow Gauge Railway

Toddington station is also home to the narrow gauge North Gloucestershire Railway.

External links

• Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway
• North Gloucestershire Narrow Gauge Railway
• Cotswold Steam Preservation Ltd. - Owners of No. 2807