The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway recently held its Cotswold Festival of Steam Gala, which proved to be a resounding success.

Among the impressive fleet of locomotives present, both visiting and resident, was a 1956-built Standard Class 4 2-6-0 No. 76007.

During the gala, this locomotive didn’t make any trips and was confined to the David Page locomotive shed at Toddington.

This was due to the lack of a boiler; however, it still attracted new stakeholders interested in its restoration.

Its boiler overhaul project earned £30,000 thanks to its new investors.

76077, a visitor turned resident, had been prepared specially in order to appear at the festival and appeared at a shareholder evening on the 6th June in Loughborough.

76077 appeared courtesy of Andrew Goodman of Railway Support Services, where shareholders and the general public could see its current restoration progress.

The £30,000 earnings from the gala and shareholder evening are set to be match-funded and mark the £300,000 boiler fund past its halfway mark.

“We are facing a large financial challenge with overhaul of the boiler at Leaky Finders in Devon. It has proven to need much more work than expected, with the estimated cost more than doubled from the original £150,000. But, at the same time, a businessman benefactor, who wishes to remain anonymous, has offered £75,000 to be used in a match-funding project which was launched at the Cotswold Festival of Steam and this will go a long way towards funding the boiler overhaul.

“Thus, every £200 say, invested in shareholding, whether as a lump sum or by monthly standing order, is matched so that £400 goes into the boiler fund.

“It is an incredibly generous gesture and we are working flat-out to double that £75,000 as quickly as possible, which will see most of the boiler overhaul cost paid for.”

Ian Crowder, marketing director of owning group Toddington Standard Locomotive Ltd