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Today’s plan was to ride the Steam Trains on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) as they had their Autumn Showcase special event running. As well as special steam engines running, they also opened up some of the engine sheds and workshops behind the scenes to the paying public.
We discovered that there was racing at Cheltenham today and as Callum’s Halls of Residence at Pittville was a stones throw away, it scuppered our original plan of picking Callum up, parking at the Racecourse and catching the Steam Train there.
Plan B meant an earlier start … picking Callum up from University at 9am. There was light rain when we left Buckland which quickly lifted. The road to Cheltenham took us back through Winchcombe. With narrow roads and cars parked either side of the road, you were gliding passed cars with mere inches to spare, especially when a 40 ft arctic is coming the other way. You can spot the locals … They don’t slow down for any vehicle! However, the views coming down Cleeve Hill looking over the racecourse and Cheltenham were stunning.
As we had a little time, we dropped Callum’s luggage back at the cottage then headed back to Toddington as this seemed to have a decent size car park and a fair bit to see on site. This was just 5 minutes down the road from Buckland Court.
First challenge was parking the car. One chap in hi-vis, trying to decide where to park everyone in an empty car park. He took an age, deliberating where to park each car and no rhyme or reason to his logic. The traffic was backing up out towards the road. We were parked up against the fence …given where he’d parked other cars, we weren’t sure if we’d get back out until others leave!
First priority was breakfast in the station cafe. Afterwards, we had a wander around the platforms whilst waiting for the trains. We decided to head to Cheltenham first on a diesel hauled train. We would then get the steam train back from Cheltenham right the way up to Broadway. From Broadway, back down to Winchcombe and then back up to Toddington. Or that was our initial plan. We left Callum in charge of reading the timetable.
We caught the first train we could at Toddington to head down to Cheltenham. We managed to find seats with a table and it would be a 25 minutes run through to Cheltenham. We were thinking it may be a bit of a struggle for the train and engines to get up the hill, but all became clear when the lights flicked on and we headed into a tunnel.
We hopped off the train at Cheltenham to see the engines switch positions. The station here is located at the far end of the Racecourse, and as this was Race Day, there were plenty of cars trying to get into the site. We hopped back on before it left and found different seats in another carriage We jumped off at Winchcombe to explore the site here – they were also running a BBQ for lunch so we planned to eat before we caught the next train.
The station was old-time picturesque with the old waiting rooms converted into a teashop. Further down the platform, they had opened up the engine sheds where they were renovating two sets of carriages. The upholstery workshop where they renovated all the seats was also opened. The old seats were spring based and so old that when you sat on them you sank down into them. The renovation work stripped everything back to the bare bones. The springs were ditched in favour of layers of foam and all the maquette/fabric was based on old designs and produced by a mill in England. Each set of carriages would have a unique fabric. I really liked the Horse Chestnut design. A turquoise background with Horse Chestnut leaves in green.
Once we’d left the building, we realised it had started to rain. We grabbed a burger and huddled in the doorway to the exhibitions to eat it. Whilst appreciating everything is run by volunteers, one of the ladies taking the orders was incredibly rude and perhaps should have been tasked to help elsewhere … where no customer engagement was required.
One of the engines running today was the SR Bulleid Merchant Navy No. 35006 ‘Peninsular & Oriental S.N. Co’ engine – its last weekend of service before it is withdrawn for its 10-year overhaul.
A train arrived heading to Cheltenham and the platforms cleared of passengers. We wanted to head towards Broadway and realised the trains were running late should would be able to catch the next train. We were lucky enough to get seats in First Class … and by sheer co-incidence, we ended up in a renovated carriage that used the Horse Chestnut design I’d liked!
There wasn’t a huge amount to see at Broadway Station so we stayed on the train back to Toddington. We timed our walk across the bridge to co-incide with the arrival / departure of the trains.
