GWR Cotswold Festival of Steam

The Cotswold Festival of Steam 2010 will be celebrating 175th anniversary of the Great Western Railway at Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway this summer.

Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway will be hosting what is expected to be a very special Cotswold Festival of Steam in 2010 – celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Great Western Railway with an impressive array of locomotives this summer.

Forming a highlight of the event, visitors will get the chance to be transported across the great Stanway Bridge via train for the first time in three decades. While trains haven’t run across the viaduct since 1976, an extensive period of resoration work means it is now once again ready to, ahem, do the locomotion.

The restored viaduct was recently given a trial run with the 107-year-old ‘City of Truro’ locomotive, which was also the first engine to break the 100mph speed limit in 1904.

The planned trips across the viaduct will make for a fine addition to the anniversary celebrations, as the structure stands an impressive fifty feet above the valley floor and comprises fifteen arches. So, passengers will be able to take in a panoramic view of the countryside from the largest heritage railway viaduct.

Railway chairman Malcolm Temple commended the hard work of those working on the refurbishment and expressed his excitement about the event: ‘I’m delighted to confirm that visitors to our GWR175 celebrations will be the first to experience the trip over this amazing structure. We’ve lined up our biggest-ever display with a dozen steam locomotives working over the nine-day event.’

Other train enthusiasts and history buffs are sure to share in Mr Temple’s excitement – particularly with a host of other attractions on offer as part of the GWR Festival of Steam 2010, including the last locomotive ever built at the Swindon works, miniature steam trains and the Great Western Railway museum. So put those wheels in motion…