An Aside - 19th June A Cotswolds Historic Bus Tour

I received this interesting email from David Humphries who organized a recent Cotswold Historic Bus Tour. As you can see the enthusiasm to return train services to Broadway Station knows no bounds and the  Broadway Area Group benefited from a fund raising initiative on the day.

Yesterday, the 19^th of June, we conducted a Cotswolds Historic Bus Tour using a 1963 Midland Red single deck bus and our first port of call after leaving the Wythall Transport Museum south of Birmingham was at Cheltenham Racecourse Station to catch the 13:45 train. We had 45 passengers on board and (helped by the superb weather) had a wonderful ride on the GWSR to Winchcombe. As always the service and attention to detail was perfect and all of our passengers we thrilled with the experience. The presence of the Cheltenham Town Crier added to the fun – we were all most impressed.

After grabbing a cuppa at Winchcombe Station we set off to witness the fountain at Stanway House at 14:45. The weather and the surroundings in the garden made for a spectacular interval on our journey back.

Finally we dropped everyone off in Broadway for an hour – another chance to get a cuppa before setting off home. However we made a point on the way to Broadway of pointing out Toddington station, the diesel train service to the northern end of the line and the trackbed beyond. Before dropping them off we skirted round Broadway so that we could pass the site of Broadway Station and as part of our Audio Tour made a great play on the progress northwards, the landslips and that in 2015 they will be able to board a steam train at Broadway Station. Even after we left Broadway we didn’t let them forget the GWSR by pointing out the site of Weston-sub-Edge station as we passed it and the goals of getting to Honeybourne and Stratford Racecourse.

We have recorded our thanks to those who came on the Tour and the Museum Staff on our website/blog www.outercirclebus.com. There you will see that we raised £90.00 by “selling” original Midland Red tickets and shaking a bucket. Half of this has been donated to the Broadway Station Appeal Fund. Not a lot, but every little helps.

Once again thanks for making this part of our day so perfect and keep up the good work keeping our transport heritage alive.

Regards

  

DAVID

Thank you for interest in our project and the kind donation.