Great Western Railway, Transport For Wales and XC Trains at Cheltenham Spa on July 2nd 2022

3rd Visit to Cheltenham Spa on the Golden Valley Line
Featuring services from Great Western Railway, Transport For Wales and CrossCountry Trains plus also a Freighter and a Surprise ECS Move from Bristol Barton Hill W.R.D. to Neville Hill T&R.S.M.D
And to go with it was Torrential Rain for most of the time filming as well.
Cheltenham Spa opened on June 24th 1840 as Cheltenham by then the Birmingham to Gloucester Railway which opened its line between Cheltenham and Bromsgrove.
The Cheltenham, Great Western Union Railway opened in the same year between Cheltenham and Gloucester was taken over by the original Great Western Railway in 1844 with the Birmingham & Gloucester Railway taken over by the Midland Railway 2 years later.
Cheltenham was renamed Cheltenham Spa (Lansdown) on February 1st 1925 by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway although the Lansdown suffix was dropped after nationalisation In 1948.
The station can get busy especially on race days for Horse Racing at Cheltenham racecourse especially in March each year for the Cheltenham Festival originated in 1860 which includes the famous Cheltenham Gold Cup although wasn’t included in the festival until 1924.
There was another station called Cheltenham Racecourse on the Cheltenham to Stratford line opened in 1912 however closed in 1968 although it would reopen 3 years later in 1971 however closed completely in 1976
It was reopened 27 years in 2003 now as the southern terminus of the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Heritage railway.
Today the station is served by services from Great Western Railway, CrossCountry Trains and Transport For Wales.
Transport for Wales was operated by Keolis Amey which operate Class 170s originally ran from Greater Anglia which began running in December 2019 however since February 2021 Transport For Wales was nationalised.
GWR hourly services from London Paddington and Transport For Wales services from Maesteg via Chepstow terminate here via the reversing siding.
The present service pattern for GWR Trains to and from London Paddington via the Golden Valley Line via Stroud which diverges after Swindon from the GWML however like all GWR stopping services on the line between Gloucester and Bristol Parkway all trains except for CrossCountry services all reverse at Gloucester
Great Western Railway services beyond here mostly from Weymouth or Westbury continue on towards Worcester Shrub Hill which joins with the Cotswolds Line and mostly terminate at Worcester Foregate Street or Great Malvern.
Although the only exception is 1 morning or evening service a day from London Paddington that serves Worcester Shrub Hill via Cheltenham Spa although nowadays most go via Oxford and the Cotswolds Line to Worcester Shrub Hill and Beyond Great Malvern to Hereford.
CrossCountry Trains services provided by Class 170s operating between Cardiff Central and Nottingham and Class 220 and 221 Voyagers from Plymouth and Penzance to the South West and Edinburgh and Aberdeen to the North.
At the time of filming CrossCountry services were still running a reduced service
On the day of filming due to engineering works in the Severn Tunnel meant services towards Gloucester were disrupted due to GWR Swansea Services being on Divert between Swindon and Newport
Music used:
JJD - Adventure
Music provided by NCS
Video link:
NoCopyrightSounds
• JJD - Adventure | Glit...
Filmed on IPhone 12 Pro on Saturday July 2nd 2022 and edited on iMovie
#cheltenham #greatwesternrailway #transportforwales #crosscountry #gloucestershire

[@thetrainandbusspottertflgw3669]

Great video

[@RoscoTrain107]

Thanks

[@explorewithlorenzo9940]

Loved it! 😉

[@RoscoTrain107]

Thanks Lorenzo

[@explorewithlorenzo9940]

@@RoscoTrain107 No problem 👍🏻