GLOUCESTERSHIRE Warwickshire Railway Society is to press ahead with its plans to purchase and develop part of the former GW Cheltenham-Stratford line, following the subscription of more than £73,000 in the public share issue which opened on August 20.
The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway Company had put on offer 400,000 ordinary shares at £1 each, and had set itself a minimum target figure of £50,000, to be raised within the statutory 40-day period. The target was beaten by £23,700, which immediately qualifies the Company for a bank loan of £30,000.
The collective total now allows the purchase from BR of the trackbed from Cheltenham (Pittville) to Honeybourne, and from Long Marston to Stratford, all the ballast, buildings, structures and fittings, at least one mile of main line track, sidings, points and operating mechanisms, and leaves a substantial amount for working capital also.
Progress at the GWR Society's Toddington base has been little short of meteoric since a lease was taken out on two acres of trackbed there in March this year. Some £30,000 worth of track, including ten turnouts has already been delivered to the site, and laying back the track which BR lifted only two years ago has gone ahead at a rapid pace.
On August Bank Holiday this year, the Society organised a sponsored tracklaying session, and put down 269 yards of track in a 24-hour period; more could have been laid had materials been available.
Recent delivery from Barry of GWR Hall No. 5952 Cogan Hall, in the ownership of the Great Western Steam Locomotive Group, brings the total number of locomotives at Toddington to seven; GWR 28XX No. 2807, BR-built Manor 4-6-0s Nos. 7821 Ditcheat Manor and 7828 Odney Manor, Peckett and Hunslet industrial saddletanks, and a diesel shunter. Coaching stock comprises a GWR auto coach, and two ex-GWR vehicles from the Worcester breakdown train.
Society Chairman Stephen Branchett commented: "We consider the response to the share issue to be a marvellous effort, but we aim to more than double that figure by the end of this year".
This article reproduced with kind permission of Steam World magazine.