Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (GWR, GWSR or Glos-Warks Steam Railway) is a volunteer-run heritage railway on the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire/Warwickshire Borders that has reopened the closed railway line between Laverton Halt and Cheltenham Racecourse railway stations in Gloucestershire/Worcestershire.

As of Mid-2011, it currently operates over 10 miles between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse and is currently extending to Broadway, Worcestershire (via Laverton Halt) (but none of it is actually in Warwickshire). With the extension (currently under construction) towards Broadway, the line will be increased to around 15 miles in length, by 2015.

In the long term the GWSR could extend even further: south to (a new heritage platform or two) at Cheltenham Spa (where the GWSR could interchange with rail services on the nearby national network's Cross-Country Mainline) and even north to Stratford Racecourse in Stratford on Avon via Milcote (in Warwickshire) and thus become the fourth longest heritage railway in England, crossing the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire/Warwickshire borders.

Overview

The line was originally part of the Great Western Railway's Cheltenham–Stratford-upon-Avon–Birmingham line, known as the Honeybourne Line, built in 1900–1906, and runs through the Cotswold towns of Winchcombe and Bishop's Cleeve. The line was run down over the years and finally closed after a derailment damaged a stretch of track in 1976, with...
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