The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) has announced the first confirmed visiting locomotive that will appear at the railway’s award-winning Cotswold Festival of Steam over the bank holiday weekend of 23rd-25th May 2026.
The locomotive is a former Southern Railway ‘Battle of Britain’ class Pacific, no. 34070 Manston, and comes with the kind agreement of owners, Southern Locomotives Limited, based at Swanage. It will arrive at the GWSR, which operates through 14 miles of glorious Cotswold countryside between Cheltenham Racecourse and Broadway, at the end of April and will remain until early July.
The Cotswold Festival of Steam is the GWSR’s leading event, attracting thousands of visitors to enjoy the spectacle of up to eight locomotives working. An intensive timetable will be in operation, including a demonstration goods train, while the railway will be throwing open its normally ‘ off-limits’ workshop doors for visitors. There will be opportunities to visit locomotive footplates and enjoy the narrow-gauge railway at Toddington.
Manston is one of 44 examples of the 110 ‘light Pacifics’ designed by Oliver Bulleid, the last chief mechanical engineer of the Southern Railway and introduced in 1945. They were named after RAF stations, aircraft, squadrons and personalities associated with the air defence of Britain and as a memorial to the many thousands who lost their lives in the face of large-scale attacks by the Luftwaffe in 1940-41.
Manston was the last locomotive built by the Southern Railway at Brighton Works in November 1947, before the 1948 nationalisation of the railways. British Railways completed constructing the class in 1951.
No. 34070 is named after RAF Manston on the Kent coast, which was on the front line of the Battle of Britain. It hosted Hawker Hurricanes; later, Typhoons were based there, as were the first Meteor jets in 1944. The German air force heavily bombed the station during the War.
The engine’s nameplate is shaped like aircraft wings, while the Manston coat of arms is placed beneath the name.
The locomotive remains in its as-built form, including many novel design features such as chain-driven valve gear within an enclosed oil bath and ‘air-smoothed’ casing over the boiler. The valve gear proved troublesome in practice, so British Railways rebuilt many of the class to a more conventional form.
Mike Solloway, the GWSR’s locomotive procurement officer, commented: “We are very grateful to Southern Locomotives and the Swanage Railway for allowing Manston to visit the Cotswolds. It will be with us for a couple of months, so there will be plenty of opportunity to enjoy its sleek appearance on our lovely railway. It is the first visit of Manston to the GWSR.”
Meanwhile, in a reciprocal arrangement, resident GWR-designed ‘Grange’ class no. 6880 Betton Grange will visit the Swanage Railway for their Spring Gala at the end of March.
Image credit: Alan Wilson (CC BY-SA 2.0)
