cotswold festival of steam

GWSR Painting

25th - 27th May 2024

Following on from winning the 2023 coveted award for 'Best event in the Cotswolds' - join us for what promises to be a busy long weekend of steam action. This year's theme is 'Western Workhorses'.
Our home fleet will run alongside visiting locos.

Due to the many additional off-train attractions and the high cost of putting on an event such as this, the whole railway and all stations are ticket-only access for this weekend.

Tickets and Pricing

We offer a range of tickets from 1 day to 3 day tickets that can be purchased in advance and on the day. For latest prices, please see below.

There will be a shuttle bus running from Cheltenham Spa Station to Cheltenham Race Course Station.

guest locos

Betton Grange

Steam Locomotive

Betton Grange, which uses components from other scrapped classes of GWR locomotive, fills an important gap in the number of surviving GWR-designed two-cylinder locomotives. Steaming for the first time in 2024, 6880 visits us courtesy of the Betton Grange society.

Lady of Legend

Steam Locomotive

The Saint class was a genuinely ground-breaking design introduced by the Great Western Railway’s Chief Mechanical Engineer, G J Churchward, in 1902. Although none survived scrapping, due to the standardised methods of the GWR, brand new class member 2999 Lady of Legend has been able to be recreated by the Great Western Society at Didcot from donor parts, first steaming in 2019.

GWR ‘MOGUL’ 9351

Steam Locomootive

The West Somerset Railway’s ‘Mogul’ no. 9351 was completed in 2004 and is a successful conversion from scrapyard-condition 5101-class 2-6-2T tank locomotive no. 5193. The tanks needed replacing so it was decided to convert it to a tender locomotive by modifying the rear frames and also removing the rear bunker. adding a new cab and tender to provide greater coal and water capacity for the long and steeply graded West Somerset line. This is only the third visit the locomotive has made to another heritage railway. The GWR considered exactly this design for a light 2-6-0 but it was never built.

Home locos

Foremarke Hall

STEAM LOCOMOTIVE

Although every inch a Great Western Railway thoroughbred, No. 7903 Foremarke Hall was one of the 79XX series, in the last batch of the Modified Hall class built at Swindon in 1949 under BR auspices.

Things to see and do

An intensive timetable will be operating over the full length of the line with goods trains, local stopping services including at Hayles Abbey Halt, and non-stop expresses. The timetable will appear here when published.

At Broadway:

  • View progress on our newest station
  • Visit our new shop
  • Browse the Friends of Broadway fundraising shop
  • Broadway station Tea Room open

At Toddington:

  • Locomotive sheds open to view current projects
  • Trade stands
  • Goods train brake van rides - A unique way to experience the line, ride on the brake van for a different view! First come first served, an additional ticket is required , pay on the brake van. Over 16s only.
  • Footplate rides - Treat yourself to something special and purchase a pre-booked footplate ride on one of our home fleet engines. The price of your footplate ride, includes entry to the gala. Please check back soon to purchase.
  • Visit our new Cotswold Halt Café, coffee shop, gift shop and bar
  • Narrow gauge operating steam train rides
  • Visit the GWRT Office - we are open for our visitors to come and talk to us about Membership and Volunteering etc.

At Winchcombe:

  • Carriage & Wagon workshops open to view projects
  • Viewing area beyond C&W workshops
  • Griddle & Coffeepot Tea Room
  • Discovery coach and model railway coach

At Gotherington:

  • Good spot for viewing passing trains

At Cheltenham:

  • Steam loco cab visits
  • Connecting bus service with Cheltenham Spa
  • Original 1912 ticket office open
  • Snacks by Tracks refreshments
  • Goods train brake van rides - A unique way to experience the line, ride on the brake van for a different view! First come first served, an additional ticket is required, pay on the brake van. Over 16s only.
  • Footplate rides - Treat yourself to something special and purchase a pre-booked footplate ride on one of our home fleet engines. The price of your footplate ride, includes entry to the gala.