Thornbury Castle: An opportunity lost

I think the real pity about WR 4-6-0 No. 7027 Thornbury Castle is that it was the only one out of eight Castles based at a heritage line.

We could have looked forward to it working regularly at the Great Central Railway, and a Great Western-based gala would have been superb. Similarly, it would be nice to see a Castle working to Kingswear, Bridgnorth, Broadway or Minehead.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to happen – although Didcot Railway Centre’s Saint No. 2999 Lady of Legend has been at the Severn Valley Railway recently, so maybe there is some hope?

A few years ago, I travelled on the steam railmotor at Cheddleton and it was a memorable experience. Perhaps Didcot could develop further partnerships working with heritage railways so that more of its non-working fleet could be brought back to working order? This seems to make more sense than trying to restore the derelict remains of an ex-Barry engine? Now that passenger numbers have been released for the Okehampton line, it seems clear that it actually carries fewer passengers than many of our leading heritage railways. This doesn’t surprise me because Okehampton’s resident population is only 5000, and it is not a major tourist destination.

Bearing in mind that more than £30 million was spent to upgrade the track and infrastructure, and, I guess, fairly substantial revenue support is needed, then it confirms my view that those heritage railways that do have reasonable numbers of residents, serve popular tourist destinations, link up with the main line network, and/or provide park and ride facilities, and provide services that are sufficiently important and useful to warrant some degree of governmental financial support in much the same way as any other branch line on the main line network.

David Smith, Sheffield