The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway is hosting its Cotswold Diesel Gala from Friday, 24th, to Sunday, 26th, July.

The gala will feature 12 locomotives working between Cheltenham Racecourse and Broadway, including the railway’s class 122 ‘bubble car’ diesel railcar and three visiting locomotives. The gala will also feature model railways, and visitors will be able to tour behind the scenes. On Sunday, there will be a tribute to the much-missed Pathfinder Railtours.

Arguably, the star of the show will be ‘Hymek diesel-hydraulic locomotive, No. D7018 in BR two-tone green livery. Hymeks were often seen on this line before services were withdrawn by BR, and D7018 is just one of four of the class that have survived. D7018 is owned by the Diesel and Electric Preservation Group, which is based on the West Somerset Railway.

Class 27 No. 27056 was originally D5401, and is in BR blue livery with an off-white band specially applied when it hauled the Royal train with Prince Charles to the IBM factory at Greenock in 1983. No. 27056 was built in 1962 by the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Co. (BRCW) and was the last of the class of 69 to be built. It is owned by the Northampton Type 2 Trust, and based at the Great Central Railway, and has a BR blue livery with an off-white band that was applied when the locomotive conveyed Prince Charles to the IBM factory at Greenock in 1983.

The third guest locomotive is Class 25 Type 2 No. 25262, originally D7612, which was built at BR’s Derby works in 1966. Originally allocated to Eastfield depot in Glasgow, 25262 was allocated to several London Midland Region depots before ending up at Carlisle Kingmoor. No. 25262 is now owned by South Devon Diesel Traction Ltd.

During the gala, visitors will be able to explore the diesel depot at Toddington and the Carriage & Wagon works and Signal & Telegraph departments at Winchcombe. At Toddington, visitors will also be able to view the project to restore the cab of Class 47 No. 47355, which was the last of its class to work out of London St. Pancras.

Other highlights include the privately-owned station yard at Gotherington, which its owners will open to visitors, and model railways at Winchcombe. On Friday and Saturday, a free shuttle bus will operate between Cheltenham Spa main line station and Cheltenham Racecourse station.

Locomotives from the home fleet operating during the gala include Class 20s Nos. 20137 and 20228, Class 24 No. 24081, Class 26 No. 26043, Class 37s Nos. 37215 and D6948 (37248), Class 45 No. 45149, Class 47s Nos. 47105 and 47376, and Class 122 Gloucester Railway Carriage & Wagon Co ‘bubble car’ No. W55003.

Further information about the weekend is online at www.gwsr.com.

In April, an embankment collapsed between Gotherington and Bishop’s Cleeve, which forced the railway to implement a revised timetable, and at the end of June, services were temporarily suspended because of the extreme heat during the heatwave.