A look in the archive

With a month of no C&W work, I was wondering what to do with myself and the blog. As usual, both were busier than I expected, but nonetheless I thought a delve into the C&W archive might be of interest. Michael Jackson was a long time volunteer in the department until his retirement in 2016. He recorded a huge amount of stuff that went on at the railway for many years, and left it all in the office for posterity. I grabbed a huge box marked 2000-2007 which looked promising.

Starting off with a few improvements being made to the works in 2004, this picture was captioned "Discussions lead to decisions":

This was the new Mezzanine floor in the workshop. This allowed the woodwork team a new workspace, what luxury it must have seemed! 

Dave Ward on the left, Eddy on the right.

Next up, some folk might remember the LMS saloon that was, from what I can gather was a lengthy restoration. Here it is on its inaugural test run departing Winchcombe, hauled by King George:

On towards Gretton (Not Cheltenham yet, nearly though!)

Sadly the inspection saloon was little used other than for Princess Anne re-opening Cheltenham racecourse (of which more in a bit). I believe it was only used a handful of times before being withdrawn around 2008 with a leaking roof. It sat out of use for another 4 years before eventually being sold moving to the SVR where it remains tarped. It seems a shame after all the work put into it. As a fan of pre-nationalisation vehicles I'd have loved to have worked on it!

As for King George, this loco had the distinction of being the only steam loco ever owned by the railway directly. I don't know when it was withdrawn, but it was sold to Didcot in 2011 when the railway was in dire need of money and could see little future use for it. Here it's on a rather smart looking BR freight set at Toddington in October 2001. Anyone know what the occasion was?

I couldn't find out when it was withdrawn, but it held the distinction of being the first steam loco to take a train to Cheltenham Racecourse in the same year:

The great and the good gathered, this was purely a press opportunity, presumably to help raise funds for more work, as the extension didn't open until 2003. I suspect the reason for the black and white photos was because it was a very foggy day!

On the left looks like Bob Stark, stalwart of the Cheltenham group to this day, then behind him Jim who still works with P'way. I'm fairly sure somewhere in there should be Wayne Finch who was a member of the commercial department at the time, and on the right Ian Crowder, who is our publicity officer.

Seeing as we're at Cheltenham, I'll finish off this post with some pictures of the re-opening itself. 

Here C&W volunteers are awaiting the 12 coach special to Cheltenham at Winchcombe. Faces that I can pick out include Andy second from left, then Malcolm underneath the corner lantern, Christine and Richard Johnson towards the right, and Tony Seddon with the beard on the right in the background.

A few more recognisable faces, that looks like Derek right at the back in the middle, with Phil Jones to the right of him, then right again in the foreground is Paul.

This is what they were waiting for!

Raveningham Hall was resident on the line at the time, and just as appropriate as Foremarke hall was to open Broadway 15 years later.

The good folk of Bishop's Cleeve seem pleased at out arrival!

And here we are! It must have been a great feeling that day. Note the surface hasn't been tarmacked yet, that won't happen for quite some time. I'm not sure what the yellow fence is all about, but that has thankfully gone, I don't think it lasted long!

I don't know exact dates as to whether the official re-opening occurred before or after the 12 coach volunteer special, but in any case, here is the Royal Train at Toddington that will take Princes Anne From Winchcombe to Cheltenham.

Note the inspection saloon behind Raveningham, handily separate from the rest of the train there being no corridor connection, and the royal train lamp code with all four lamp brackets adorned. Everything looks absolutely sparkling here, and it's probably one of my favourite photos of this collection.

Best suits required for the occasion! On the left, centrally looks to me to be C&W volunteers Alf Boston, Richard Unitt and Tony Seddon, and on the right Bill Hillier in the middle, now of the HRA.

Dave tells me that Alf was introduced to Princess Anne as our Endologist. When she asked what that was she was told that he dealt with the corridor end connections and her response was something like, "Oh, those concertina things!"

And finally the Princess Royal herself at the original booking office at Cheltenham racecourse. It looks like the painting hadn't quite been finished! 

I hope you've enjoyed this little foray into the archive, as a relatively recent volunteer I certainly have! There's probably enough photos for a couple more posts at least. If you have anything else to add, more names to faces, things I got wrong, please do leave a comment.

Edit - Thanks to Roger for these views of the inside of the inspection saloon taken not long before sale and move to the SVR. Apparently remedial works were ongoing up until the pandemic put things on hold.