The annual Cotswold Festival of Steam gets underway this coming bank holiday weekend, with organisers confident the 2018 festival will be the best yet.

It’s been a year of celebration for fans of steam trains in Gloucestershire as earlier this year the station at Broadway reopened for the first time since 1958, meaning trains can run from Cheltenham Racecourse station right through to Broadway station, some 15 miles to the north of the county.

The festival, run by the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway, is a celebration of the old-fashioned locomotives that were so vital in transporting goods across the country during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The 2018 festival runs for three days, starting on Saturday May 26th when historic locomotives will take to the tracks and offer visitors the chance to experience journeys on the famous carriages.

Ian Crowder, spokesman for GWSR and a member of the Cotswold Festival of Steam organising committee, says the three-day celebration is made all the more special thanks to the reopening of Broadway station. He said: “The Cotswold Festival of Steam offers people an extraordinary opportunity to view eight steam locomotives altogether on the same day. The reopening of Broadway station means we are able to run more trains on the extended track which is a huge opportunity for us to showcase these magnificent steam trains.

“The renovation of Broadway station would not have happened were it not for the incredible work done by so many volunteers. It was a massive project to undertake, it’s so satisfying seeing the finished job.”

Ian says the 2018 festival promises to be a great day out for all the family. He continued: “The stage is set for our biggest ever Cotswold Festival of Steam. This will be quite a show. Not only does the event take in our brand-new Broadway station – hence the theme of the festival, ‘Give my regards to Broadway’, but it marks the 50th anniversary of the end of steam on British Railways.

“The GWSR is going all-out to put on a magnificent spectacle that does justice to the 50th anniversary of the end of steam on British Railways as well as really put our new station at Broadway firmly on the map. If you have even the slightest interest in steam trains, then this is the ‘must go to’ event of the year. At the railway stations there is plenty going on including the North Cotswolds Narrow Gauge railway at Toddington; displays of vehicles and traction engines with refreshments at all stations.”

Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway will be operating classic bus services between Cheltenham Spa Network Rail station and the railway’s Cheltenham Racecourse station, and between Broadway station and Broadway village.