Firstly, a belated Happy Christmas and New Year from all within the Diesel Department at the GWSR. Hopefully, it has been a peaceful time for you all filled with family, food and fun. For those of you who were required to work over the festive period (I am currently writing this on my Night shift in Bristol PSB, although I did not work Christmas itself thankfully), I hope you managed to grab at least some time off to spend with family and friends.
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| No winter scene like this in 2025 so we take a look back at the mid-2000s, before the shed was built, and 47105 sits in a snowy Toddington yard. (Richard Drewitt) |
So, 2025 is pretty much at an end and we stare down the barrel of a new year full of hope and expectation. For those of you who are well informed about the inner workings of the GWSR you will be aware that we have a new Chairman at the helm of the PLC (the bit that runs and operates the railway) and this has come with some upheavals in the management structure of the PLC. However, change is as good as a rest and 2025 saw increasing rumblings about how the railway had become very stagnant since COVID. Hopefully, these changes will see the railway grow again, continue to prosper and retain levels we saw before the pandemic laid waste to everything.
It certainly seems to be heading in that direction as we will see a number of events return to the calendar that had been mothballed or removed. This will include a Vintage Car/Vehicle event as well as some new and never-before-tried events, such as a Railwayana Car Boot event and the Halloween ‘Spooky Specials’! We will also still have the old favs as well such as the Rail and Ale Festival and the main Galas. You can see the list on the GWSR website – https://www.gwsr.com/your-visit/events-experiences
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| Just some of the confirmed dates for 2026 Events. Not a huge increase for diesel running, but its good to see the events making a return. |
Sadly, the increase in events doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in Diesel running, from our perspective, but we have seen other railways increase the number of ‘family-friendly’ events in order to boost visitor numbers and interaction with railways, and this has led to greater diesel opportunity – so, if these new events become popular, who knows what might happen! Speculate to accumulate…plus, this is very much new territory. Some things might work better with a diesel at the helm!!
One thing that seems a positive from a Diesel perspective is that the way the Diesel Gala is managed by the railway is to change meaning that the potential for a larger, more focused event is possible. Our Gala Teams have done wonders to bring such amazing events to the railway for lovers of all things diesel-electric and diesel-mechanical however, there have always been things that crop up when liaising with the railway management that have prevented the Gala Team from achieving certain goals. Hopefully we will now see a more level playing field in terms of planning, promotion and budget! We’ll wait to see how that pans out in reality!
Hopefully 2026 will be a fantastic year for the railway and for the department!
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| 2022 Gala visitor Class 55, 55019 'Royal Highland Fusilier' sits alongside our own 37215, 45149 and 24081. |
What about 2025! Well, from a crewing standpoint, 2025 was one of the busiest years since COVID. We had more running days – loosely helped by the lack of a DMU but hugely helped by the fantastic summer which meant that steam locomotives were banned from use due to the perceived fire risks. We saw several weeks of Diesel-only operation over the summer to keep the railway open and generating revenue, although the extreme heat probably had a small impact on traveler numbers.
Of course, 2025 started off with uncertainty over our DMU capability. The shadowy group that owned all the DMU vehicles had seemingly disbanded with the sale of the Class 117 set, L425, to the SRPS at Bo’ness. This left just Class 117 DMBS, W51360, TCL W59505 and Class 122 W55003 as unowned, unwanted vehicles. W51360 is a runner but does not have an additional trailer to work with. W59505 is the spares and tools van for the small team who are currently undertaking the protracted overhaul of W55003 and is therefore not fit for use. At the beginning of the year, the ‘Bubble’ was still some way off being fit for traffic – especially as no formal maintenance agreements had been signed (something that is still rumbling on now!). In February, with no happy ending in sight, the railway went to the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway (CPRR) and asked to borrow one of their ex-Aylesbury based Class 121 Bubble Cars. W55024 would arrive in March on a 3-month loan and would prove particularly popular with punters once it entered traffic.
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| Visiting from the CPPR, former Aylesbury resident W55024 has it's batteries charged whilst helping the railway out with it's DMU problem during the early part of 2025. |
April would see the mainline locomotives enter the fray and it was Class 37, D6948 that got things started with a Driver Experience day. Our fleet was almost at full strength with only our ‘Baby’ Sulzers out of action – Class 24, 24081 was having engine repairs and cab overhauls; Class 26, 26043 was in the midst of a full restoration.
Our shunters were also getting in on the action with Class 04, D2280 making several forays to Didbrook with flat wagons for our P’way Team who were busy relaying the track through the village.
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| Class 04, D2280 sits at Didbrook during a rare foray beyond station limits at Toddington. |
Class 03, D2182, was to also see a number of trips to and from C&W with coaches that were arriving or departing the railway and being swapped in and out of the main rakes.
May saw our first Gala visitor announcement…first build Class 37, D6700 (or 37119/37350, depending on your persuasion) would be joining our home pair of Class 37s, courtesy of the National Railway Museum and the Heavy Tractor Group. This would be a bit of reunion as D6700 worked from the same pool of locos as 37215 and D6948 – FPEK Petroleum Pool based at Cardiff Canton. It had been rumoured that we were to get a Class 50 as well, but this had been scotched by the C50A at the Severn Valley Railway. They had a busy few weeks over our Gala and could not spare crew but, come June and the cat was well and truly out of the bag! ‘Rodney’ was returning home!
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| Our record-breaking 2025 Diesel Gala visitors - D6700 from the NRM/Heavy Tractor group and former resident, 50021 'Rodney' courtesy of Paul Spracklen and the 50021 Locomotive Group. |
May would also see another big announcement; this one of something going away from the GWSR - but only temporarily! The SVR were putting together an event to celebrate the 65th anniversary of D6700 rolling off the production line at Newton-le-Willows and they had contacted the Growler Group to enquire about having both 37215 and D6948 as visiting locos. The last time either had been anywhere was when D6948 headed to the West Somerset in 2019. 37215 had also last gone to the WSR back in 2015. The group agreed, along with the four loco owners, that only D6948 would go due to the state of 37215’s wheelsets.
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| D6948 was to play a starring role at this event at the Severn Valley Railway in October. The first time it had been away from the railway in 6 years. |
The eagle-eyed amongst you would have also noticed that Class 47105 had received a name for a short period during 2025! Not one it had carried in BR days – the loco did receive the unofficial Tinsley name of ‘Goldcrest’ – but a nod to a well-known and respected Class 47 enthusiast who had sadly passed away a short time before the start of the season. The BT4F would run 47105 with the ‘plates’ for several weeks as a tribute to Mark Hare aka ‘Mambo’, who had been a big supporter of the group.
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| For a short period 47376 was not the only named diesel on the railway. Sister, 47105 was fitted with temporary 'Mark Hare' and 'Mambo' nameplates in honour of long time BT$F supported and railway enthusiast Mark Hare, who sadly passed early in 2025. |
Operations were now gaining momentum but so did the need for light repairs and, by June, a few of the fleet had been removed from traffic for minor attention. The brake rigging on 37215 needed adjustments as there was too much play in the slack adjusters. This was traced to the retaining pin having worn out its gasket. Having sourced a spare and adjusted the slack adjuster, the brakes are now much more ‘friendly’ and the rodding isn’t now rubbing on the wheel.
The big challenge was getting both 24081 and 26043 available and in traffic for the Diesel Gala. One of them would make it and it would create a stir – even if it only worked on the Saturday!
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| One of the first depot emblems to appear on a diesel loco.....Haymarket TMD in Edinburgh. |
July saw the heat intensify and steam running really scaled back so as not to cause any grass fires. The surrounding areas of the GWSR are all fields and agricultural land and the last thing the railway would want to pay out, when money is already short, is compensation to one or more of our neighbouring farmers for damaged crops! Several close calls an fire brigade call-outs meant the decision was taken to stand down the coal burners and the diesels got the 15 minutes of fame until things cooled down enough to limit fire risk.
However, all eyes were on the 2025 Diesel Gala that would see not one, but two guest locomotives for the first time since 2018 and our first Broadway gala. As mentioned above we obtained D6700 from the NRM/HTG but, as a bit of a coup, we had also obtained Class 50, 50021 ‘Rodney’ courtesy of its owning group. 50021 spent the first two years of its preserved life at Toddington where it was restored by members of the fledgling Diesel Department and worked regularly until being moved away.
The opportunity to have ‘Dave’ (as the loco is known within the enthusiast fraternity – if you don’t know why, watch an episode of Only Fools and Horses!) was a little fortuitous as the loco was at the CPRR before it was due to head back to Eastleigh for a few weeks and then back to our near neighbours at the Dean Forest. A speculative proposition was made by the owning group as to whether we wanted it for a few weeks. Thanks to a member of our P’way Department, Andrew Stratford, contracts were agreed and the Class 50 arrived shortly before the commencement of the Gala.
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| Without this man we wouldn't have had 50021 visit. Andrew Stratford gets a well-deserved cab ride on the final day of 'Rodney' working services at the GWSR. |
However, the real star of the show was probably the returning Class 26, 26043 which operated for the first time in 3 and half years on the Saturday of the Gala, alongside fellow CMDG loco, 45149 for insurance. The McRat looked absolutely stunning in its new coat of BR Blue paint, Haymarket TMD embellishments and snowploughs. It truly looked the part! There was a little disappointment that it didn't follow suit on the Sunday but the rostered Driver had a family emergency to attend to and no-one else had been re-certified as competent on the loco. However, it was a very well photographed static exhibit!
The ’Beerex’ on the Saturday would also bring a surprise to everyone as the opportunity to have triple-headed Class 37s seemed to bring all and sundry out of the woodwork. In 12 years of volunteering, I have never seen that many people on the ‘Beerex’!! Some coaches were standing room only and there was a consistent queue for the bar!
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| These three on one train? Who wouldn't want to experience it?! |
The Gala would also see two ex-Old Oak locos work together as a pair.` 50021 would work once again with Class 47, 47105 on the Friday of the Gala. Both locos would have worked together back in the 1990s at Toddington - 47105 being another of the early arrivals. Legend has it that back in 1995 both locos worked in a pair on a service to Far Stanley - the limit of the line at the time. On entering Greet Tunnel, and coming to a near stand, both locos were 'opened up', creating an absolute cacophony and soliciting a complaint from a homeowner above the tunnel that the resulting concussion caused their light fittings to vibrate and sway!! We didn't get a complaint on 2025 on trying the same, but the noise created was absolutely fantastic! Marco, 50021's Driver/Rep, didn't stop smiling all the way to Cheltenham!!
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| Traction Inspector, Tony Boston along with Marco, behind. The support crews we had from the HTG (D6700) and the 50021 Locomotive Group were top chaps and helped to make the Gala a fantastic experience. |
The Gala would also see our Shunters get in on the action with Class 03, D2182 operating brake van rides at Winchcomber and Class 04, D2280 operating cab rides at Toddington for a fiver a throw! Something a bit different for people.
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| D2182 got a Gala outing for the first time operating Brake Van rides at Winchcombe. |
The Gala itself would prove to be the most profitable we had run, beating our previous best from back in 2019 when we had 50035 ‘Ark Royal’ as a guest, although numbers were slightly down on that record year. However, one way to demonstrate that the Gala was a winner was the general feeling amongst the crews and organisers – everyone had a smile on their faces for the whole weekend and even the visiting crews thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
August saw 50021 work its final services on the GWSR before being prepared to travel onward across the River Severn to Lydney. We would also see the return of our successful ‘Double Up Sundays’ which would also include the unusual (unless you lived in Scotland during the 1970s and 1980s) pairing of 20228 and 26043 – both former shedmates of Eastfield TMD in Glasgow. The Class 26 would get plenty of outings through the month and towards the end of the year to rack up the maintenance free mileage after so long out of traffic. Even more important to the CMDG as their other loco, 45149, was withdrawn from traffic with an electrical issue.
24081 was in the final throes of its repairs and August would see a test start up to make sure everything operated as it should. The ‘Rat’ would still be a few weeks off working its first service train again.
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| Some final engine elements are lifted back into the engine room of 24081. Tim L oversees the drop while Phil B (on the steps) and Andy D (in the engine room) make the fine adjustments. |
September saw the railway celebrate ‘RAIL 200’ with an event over the last weekend of the month. The event would see a fairly intensive timetable of both Steam and Diesel hauled services, although from a diesel perspective, the timetable was very lopsided – for instance, I was crewing 37215 and spent most of the day being pulled around by a kettle! BORING!! However, we were a further loco down as D6948 had made its journey to the SVR to take part in their ‘65 Years of Class 37’ Gala.
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| Although not present for the actual celebrations, D6948 was used on some of the marketing for Rail 200. |
However, with one gone on its travels, another one steps up and, after a successful supported dummy run with 20137, 24081 returned to traffic just in time for the last month of operation and the Autumn Extravaganza Gala. By the end of the month the weather had returned to something resembling normal and so steam dominance returned. 47105 was stopped towards the end of the month with a braking issue but was back in traffic shortly after. However, the same issue raised its head again preventing 47105 from taking part in the ‘Autumn Extravaganza’ Gala – 47376 deputised.
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| 24081 sits at Broadway after a successful test run in the company of 20137. This test would bring the Class 24 back into traffic. |
D6948 spent most of October at the Severn Valley. It had traveled 40 miles up the M5 to take part in the rather ambitious ’65 Years of Class 37’ Gala that the SVR had organised. D6948 was joined by 9 other members of the class for four days of Class 37 noise.
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| D6948 sits at Bewdley on the Severn Valley Railway on the Friday night of the 'Class 37 at 65' Gala. |
The loco would also work an extra running day on top of the Gala. A fantastic event that got all locos running hot and to a very intense timetable.
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| Shift completed and D6948 rests on Kidderminster TMD on the 11 Oct after the additional running day. |
October also saw the end of season ‘Autumn Extravaganza’ mixed traffic event which utilised our smaller locomotives on the Saturday and our bigger ones on the Sunday. It would also include a first – 26043 was afforded the honour of being the first diesel to pilot the GWSR Good Train – normally the exclusive privilege of our steam brethren! It didn’t quite evoke memories of the Speedlink network in the 1980s – the wagons are of the wrong vintage.
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| 26043 waits to leave P2 at Cheltenham with the freight service back to Toddington on the Sunday of the 'Autumn Extravaganza'. (CMDG) |
As I type this the Mince Pie specials will be nearly done for another year, and it’ll be back to the maintenance regimen for our diesels until the wake-up call is made in April for the start of the 2026 season – depending on what is happening with the DMU and its ownership/maintenance regimen!
Looking forward to 2026, 26043 works out the last diesel-hauled Mince Pie Special on the 3rd Jan and the new 2026-7 timetable starts on the 7th March. This is due to be a BLUE timetable day but this is very dependent on what happens with the Class 122 'Bubble Car'.
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| The Class 122 - will it or won't it?? |
As mentioned earlier, diesel turns are pretty much on a par with 2025, although the new events will add something a little extra for us. However, we will have our ever popular Diesel Gala over the 24-26 July. Details on format will be announced as they are released by the Gala Committee but we will need to go some to beat 2025!
Hopefully, the new dawn will see increased prosperity at the railway in 2026 and we hope to see you at some of the events.
Fleet Status
Class 03 D2182
Operational at Winchcombe. Yearly exams to be completed.
Class 04 D2280
Operational at Toddington. Yearly exams to be completed.
11230
Operational at Toddington. Is currently undergoing body work repairs to its radiator cowling in between its owners’ commitments to the steam department. Yearly exams to be completed.
Class 20 20137
Stored at Toddington for the winter. The electrical AVR has been removed to prevent frost and cold damage whilst the loco is stored in the yard. Should be serviceable when de-winterised. B Exam needed.
20228
Still in the process of being fitted with its exhauster. Some of the pipework failed and needs replacing before the exhauster can be fitted and tested properly. Loco can run in ‘air’. Hopefully repairs and fitting can be completed before the start of the 2026 season. B Exam needed.
Class 24 24081
Engine repairs and cab overhaul completed in late 2025 and loco is now fit for traffic. Renumbered back to TOPS number to bring in line with other members of the fleet that have their TOPS numbers as opposed to pre-TOPS numbers. B Exam needed.
Class 26 26043
Restoration completed mid-2025 and returned to traffic successfully at 2025 Diesel Gala. Loco has seen plenty of running since its return mainly due to the unavailability of 45149. Stored at Toddington for the winter. Some interior work is still to be completed after it's return to service. B Exam needed.
Class 37 37215
Out of traffic at Toddington. A number of oil leaks need to be traced and repaired before return to traffic.There is also a valve that is leaking air on the outside of the loco under one of the side skirts. Although not affecting the running of the loco, it is causing the compressors to run longer than they should - particularly on loco start up - in order to maintain main reservoir air. The valve is in quite an awkward place so a plan of action is needed to complete a repair effectively. B Exam needed.
D6948
The loco is currently out of traffic at Toddington. The loco has had a number of long-standing leaks that have needed a period of sustained down-time for them to be investigated and repairs completed. One is particularly alarming as the oil is dropping/spraying on to the generator casing and is ingressing into the generator commutator itself. The source has been traced, although it is a little concerning as to the presence of oil there, but the initial plan has been to clear the oil form the casing and inside the generator, inspect the generator components and then deal with the leak. The loco also returned from the SVR with a fuel leak, although this appears to be down to perished pipework and should be an easy repair. Most perplexing is the continued Oil Pressure fault the loco has on start up. Every possible cause - bar one, that would be tome consuming to diagnose - has drawn a blank. It doesn't affect the loco, but it is annoying! B Exam needed.
Class 45 45149
The 'Peak' has spent a fair few months on the sidelines because of some electrical issues. One of the issues has been with the lighting circuits and has needed the sourcing of replacement switches. One of the issues has been, with the hot summer, the yard at Toddington does get a lot of rodent incursion and some of the locomotives wiring is showing signs of bite marks. With the overhaul on the Class 26 now complete, the 'Peak' can now see some more attention given to rectify these faults. B Exam needed.
Class 47 47105
The loco is currently out of traffic with a minor brake fault which saw it miss out on a couple of turns in the latter part of the year. B Exam needed.
47376 'Freightliner 1995'
Winterised but available for traffic. Spent some of the year out of traffic with oil pressure issues. Some small repairs are to be completed over the winter. B Exam needed.
Class 20's 137 and 228 in the P'Way Yard at Winchcombe during the 'Autumn Extravaganza' event in 2025.
As for the DMU fleet, few updates have been given since changes in ownership. Hopefully some news will issue forth in the next month.
Anyway, here's to 2026 and a prosperous year for us all.
