THE Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway’s (GWSR) May 12-14 Cotswold Festival of Steam gala featured four visiting locos. Great Western Society’s ‘Castle’ No. 4079 Pendennis Castle, Swanage Railwaybased ‘U’ 2-6-0 No. 31806, Great Central Railway resident BR ‘2MT’ 2-6-0 No. 78019 and ‘Pug’ 0-4-0ST No. 11243 from the East Lancashire Railway, supplemented the home fleet, plus BR ‘4MT’ No. 75014 which has recently been on hire from Dartmouth Steam Railway. “In many ways, the loco which stole the show was the ‘Pug’,” GWSR spokesman Ian Crowder told The RM.
“It was cute and very powerful. It hauled a three-coach train each day, full and standing. It also worked a goods train between Winchcome and Toddington – the brake van rides proved very popular. It was the largest goods train we have operated for some time. We are on the way to having both a BR and a GWR goods rake.”