Great Western Coffee Shop

A slightly belated follow-up to the CLPG annual meeting is that an old running-in board from Moreton is to be returned to the station after surviving in the possession of the Horne family, who have longstanding links with the town. At the agm, Christopher Horne offered to return the board, along with a cast-iron sign telling passengers to cross the line using the footbridge.

Network Rail and FGW have taken him up on the offer and a couple of papers in the group I work for have combined forces to tell the story. The Watford Observer take on it is here http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/8219778.Railway_signs_to_return_after_years_in_loft/

I expect the Cotswold Journal version imminently.

Anyone who has the May 19-June 1 issue of Rail, which had their feature on the redoubling, will be able to see the signs in situ in 1964 in a picture they used of a Hymek arriving at Moreton on a Worcester express.

That mention of a Hymek at M-I-M got me thinking... Has D1015 (the Western) been up the Cotswold line on railtour duty at any stage?

A full history of D1015 Western Champion from preservation onward can be found here:

http://www.westernchampion.co.uk/

A quick scan shows that she traversed The Cotswold Line on 17th August 2002 in her 1st year of mainline tours.

Couple of pics of D1015 at Moreton here http://www.flickr.com/photos/21403537@N00/3522369089

Thanks for the link! Have to say I'm not the biggest fan of the WR diesel hydraulics but D1015 does look rather splendid in those shots.

Passengers of a certain age have very fond memories of Hymeks on the Cotswold Line - plenty of power on tap for middling-sized trains and the pull up Campden bank, plus good acceleration from stops and a design that looked just right.

Sadly I'm just too young to have see them in action here. My earliest Cotswold Line memories are of Class 31s, a locomotive hated hereabouts as much as the Hymeks were liked, offering the acceleration of a brick and poor pulling power, resulting in some shocking timekeeping, which was probably responsible for the last handful of Hymeks clinging to life into 1975, after BR ran a farewell railtour in September 1973! These problems meant that the reign of Class 31s on passenger trains here was mercifully brief, though they continued to handle the last remnants of freight to Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh.