Like a caged animal

yearning for freedom, and in a fresh coat of lined LMS livery, ‘Princess Royal’ No. 6201 Princess Elizabeth runs up and down the Dowty Railway Preservation Society’s demonstration line at Ashchurch with a restored LMS six-wheel ‘Stove R’ during an open day on Easter Sunday March 29 1970.

Situated near the junction of the ex-LMS Bristol-Birmingham line and the Evesham-Tewkesbury branch, the DRPS took over the sidings in December 1962. Ashchurch would play host to a number of locomotives over the years, including ‘56XX’ No. 6697, ‘Manors’ Nos. 7808 Cookham Manor and 7812 Erlestoke Manor, Maunsell ‘Q’ 0-6-0 No. 30541 and ex-Cadbury’s Avonside 0-4-0T Works No. 1977 Cadbury Bournville No. 1; the latter was the first to arrive at Ashchurch, in 1963. Ex-HM Dockyard Devonport Andrew Barclay 0-4-0ST Works No. 2221 and ‘Quarry Hunslet’ 0-4-0ST Works No. 680 George B also ran here.

In 1970 the first locomotives would leave Ashchurch for pastures new: Cookham Manor and No. 6697, both of which moved to the burgeoning Didcot Railway Centre in August that year (see right). The other engines would also eventually leave and, following the DRPS’ move to the newly opened Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway nearby, Ashchurch closed altogether in 1983.