The Cotswold Festival of Steam

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway’s May bank holiday extravaganza was well attended on Sunday. Though they would have hoped for good weather to encourage attendance, record-breaking May temperatures over the whole weekend came with its own problems. With some notable guest locos as attractions for enthusiasts, an ambitiously busy timetable and the natural constraints of a single-track railway with passing loops to fit it all in, they were working to capacity and keeping their fingers crossed for a smooth ride.

The timetable was already 40 minutes down when we arrived at Cheltenham Racecourse station to start our day on the trains and timings slipped further as the day proceeded. As most people have committed to a leisurely day out with no particular place to go other than up and down the line and stopping off at the intermediate stations, delays are generally no big problem on occasions such as this. After all, this is resurrected Victorian technology being put to the test, big time. It provides a serious work out for the permanent way and the men and machines.

The reasons offered for the increasing delays to services depended on who you asked. I think I counted about five that had all come from different sources at various times of the day. The result was that folk really didn’t know what was happening or what was going to happen next to allow them to get moving again. Lengthy signal or station stops are normally no bother on gala days. Admiring the beautiful scenery along the Cotswold scarp from the train as it trundles along, accompanied by whisps of smoke and the odd whistle from the engine is the nostalgic idyll we have all come along to enjoy.

Baking slowly on a stationery train without air conditioning on a frazzling day under cloudless skies with no wind is another matter, altogether. The old Mark 1 stock has heating but no cooling. With movement and open windows, the draught so created is a welcome part of the experience. Like riding a bike, you create your own breeze. Without movement this soon becomes very uncomfortable indeed, especially on a very full train where you are already standing in the corridor and trying to get close to a window on the side of the train that’s in relative shade.

The heritage railways all depend on armies of willing volunteers. They are put under enormous pressure when plans start to unravel. I thought they were exemplary on Sunday as they fielded, best they could, all the requests and complaints that were obviously coming their way in fast order. They were blameless and so was the infrastructure. As mentioned, it too starts to creak when facing unusual circumstances. It’s an old and imperfect technology.

I only have one gripe – communication, or more pertinently, a lack of it. I heard it time and time again on Sunday from fellow [would-be] travellers. “Why don’t they tell us what’s happening?” It wasn’t that things were going wrong that upset them but that the train and station announcements were not keeping up with what was required. They needed information that wasn’t forthcoming. A couple of times I heard visitors complaining that although there had been a Tannoy announcement, it hadn’t carried to where they were standing on the platform. That one is surely rectifiable without too much outlay.

Decisions obviously have to be made according to established safe railway procedures but letting people know as soon as possible how that is going to affect them is very important and more so during a heatwave.

I read recently that return visits are critical for the heritage lines as they provide a substantial chunk of their income. Return visits depend on a memorable first experience. That puts public relations right at the top of the list of priorities.