Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway | Autumn Showcase Gala - Sat/Sun 28th & 29th October 2023

#gwsr #steam #train
Having really enjoyed our first Cotswold Festival of Steam for four years in 2022 it was a shame that this year that we just could not fit in a visit for the 2023 edition in its new date of mid May, now outside of the school holidays/bank holiday weekend. Although we visited for the day on the Thursday before the Seven Valley Gala back in April (see video.. • GWSR | Cotswold Standa... ) we really wanted to do a gala so we decided to book two nights in the Evesham Premier Inn for the October Autumn Showcase Gala which handily fell at the end of the October half term holiday. Having started the week with the in-laws in Yorkshire (and visiting the North Yorkshire Moors Railway for a day out with 'Sir Nigel Gresley') we headed down to Evesham Friday ready for the weekend.
The Autumn Showcase closes the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway's main running season and is a mixed traction gala which sees all available home fleet locomotives operating an intensive timetable. Three coaching sets would be in action alongside a demonstration goods train which was offering brake van rides and a DMU, with a mix of full line, local and express services throughout the weekend with some services top and tailed and loco changes at Cheltenham and Toddington. As an added bones the narrow guage railway at Toddington would be running all weekend. Four steam locomotives were in action, with 28xx no.2807 making her return from overhaul on the Sunday of the event and being on static display Saturday. Hall no.7903 'Foremarke Hall' was in action on the Saturday and MN no.35006 'Peninsular & Oriental SN Co' and Manor no. 7820 'Dinmore Manor' in action both days. Class 117 DMU operated throughout the weekend and three diesels ran each day, on Saturday it was Class 47's no.47105* and no.47376 'Freightliner 1995' and Class 24 no.5081, on Sunday it was Class 20 no.20137* and Class 37's no.37215 and no.D6948 (* do not feature in the video).
On Saturday we had travel tickets, taking an early morning ride to Cheltenham and back as far as Winchcombe for some filming, before a DMU to Gotherington for some more filming and then returning to Toddington to explore for a couple of hours before an evening round trip to Cheltenham and back. Sunday was spent watching, first at Didbrook, then Broadway, before Hailes Abbey Halt and finally Winchcombe. We had a lovely weekend, the weather was mostly lovely autumn sunshine and all the trains ran to time in the superb scenery that is the Cotswolds. Thanks as always to everyone involved in the event, our 16th and final Heritage Railway visit of the year and a brilliant way to close 2023!
Photos...
www.flickr.com...
Locations and Locos...
2807 at Didbrook 29/10/23.
35006 at Didbrook 29/10/23.
35006 at Broadway 29/10/23.
37215 at Broadway 29/10/23.
7820 at Broadway 29/10/23.
7820 at Hayles Abbey Halt 29/10/23.
D6948 at Hayles Abbey Halt 29/10/23.
35006 at Hayles Abbey Halt 29/10/23.
7903 at Gotherington 28/10/23.
47376 at Gotherington 28/10/23.
DMU at Toddington 28/10/23.
7820 at Toddington 28/10/23.
7903 at Toddington 28/10/23.
47376 at Toddington 28/10/23.
7820 at Winchcombe 28/10/23.
5081 at Winchcombe 28/10/23.
35006 at Winchcombe 28/10/23.
2807 at Winchcombe 29/10/23.
DMU at Winchcombe 29/10/23.
7820 at Winchcombe 29/10/23.

[@paulaj2829]

Well done with all the videos on such a good day with the weather.

[@alts1985]

Thank you! We got very lucky, it rained very heavily from around 4pm on the Saturday till the next morning when we were either on the train or safely in our hotel! Ashley