2015 printed timetable

350,000 copies of next year's timetable have now been printed and a number of boxes of them are in the store room at Toddington. More will be delivered as we need them.  It is a little early to start distributing, but please from the beginning of December will every volunteer call by and collect some to distribute to local shops, takeaways, clubs, libraries, medical centres etc. They can be collected from the admin office. Many thanks.
Colin Fewell

Steam and scream

Over 630 people visited the railway last Thursday for our special Steam and Scream day making it the busiest midweek day the railway has ever had. A number of volunteers entered into the spirit of the day making themselves even more frightening than usual! Many thanks to Mike Parsons and his colleagues for such a well organised event.
Colin Fewell

Doctor Who

If you haven't already seen it, go to BBC i player and watch Doctor Who extra -  Flatline. 7 minutes in and we see a "disused railway line" as they call it. Good pictures of Winchcombe Station
Colin Fewell

Bridges to Broadway Share Issue

Sorry for the delay in giving an update - I have been waiting to see how this last month has contributed. However I am very pleased to tell you that we have passed the £500k mark on the share issue and, with supporting donations, are comfortably past this target. This is just as well as followers of the Bridges blog will have read about additional corrosion - on bridges 1 and 2 and particularly at Bridge 4 which is of different design to the others and as a result showed some totally unexpected corrosion at the critical end positions.


We are still waiting for the final summation of the costs so please take advantage of  the last few days of the very attractive and tax efficient share offer as all share income not spent on the bridges will immediately go towards the purchase of rail to allow the start of track laying north from Laverton. The single biggest cost item is the rail and we are pursuing acquisition now with a view to starting work in the spring once the winter closed season track repairs are completed.


Alan Bielby

Appointment of Bill Britton as Head of Department

I am pleased to report that the GWSR Board has approved the appointment of Bill Britton as Head of Department in charge of the rebuilding of Broadway Station. Bill has headed the team rebuilding the platforms and with work in progress on the signal box and due to start next year on the station buildings, he has agreed to also take on the responsibility for the planning application and construction management for the required car park and access road upgrade.


Congratulations to Bill and we ask everyone to support him in his widened role of looking after all aspects of the rebuilding of Broadway Station. His blog site is widely read and has been an excellent record of progress.


Alan Bielby

Completion of Broadway Bridge Restoration and Road Reopened

I am pleased to report that the road under the GWR railway bridge at Broadway was reopened this morning after 3 months of closure for bridge restoration. The reopening is two days ahead of programme and this is all the more impressive because removal of the rusted steelwork revealed additional steel replacement work that had to be included in the work. Congratulations go to Messrs Laws for the timely completion of a complicated package of work and to John Balderstone for working hard to ensure the high level of input from the GWR to enable this to happen. We must also thank the residents of Broadway for their patience while the road was closed.


Some additional drainage work remains on the adjacent embankments and once this is completed work will start on the Childswickham bridge. This will commence in about two weeks time.


Alan Bielby

GWSR PLC Financial Position at the half year, 31 July 2014

Dear All,

I was pleased to be able to report to the Board on Friday 29th August that the operations of the railway in the 6 months to 31 July 2014 have been very good financially, both in terms of operating profit and cash flow.

The good cash results were despite having to absorb the cost of a number of unbudgeted items which included remedial work on the slips at Dixton Cutting and Defford Straight and the purchase of a second Ford Transit.

In addition, I am pleased to advise you that cash inflow into the Bridges to Broadway share issue has been good although we are not quite there yet - with two months of the offer to go if you have been holding off buying shares now's the time!

 

I think everybody is well aware of the excellent work being done by George Law and Co. on the bridges supervised by John Balderstone, and the fantastic progress being made at Broadway by Bill Britton's team.

Looking ahead to next year, 2015 will be a very important year for us in our drive to reach Broadway in both civil engineering and tracking laying northwards from Laverton and continued development of the station site.

Accordingly, with the Board's approval, I have asked all heads of department to look carefully at all second half expenditure to ensure our cash resources by the year end are as large as possible in order to be able to fully support next year's investment in our railway.

These are good times on our railway!

 

If anybody has any questions for me please email finance.director@gwsr.com

 

Best wishes,

 

Chris Bristow