Railway enthusiasts celebrate special lady's birthday (From Cotswold Journal)

Railway enthusiasts celebrate special lady's birthday

1:10pm Wednesday 8th July 2009

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GLOUCESTERSHIRE Warwickshire Railway (GWR) got up a full head of steam to celebrate a special lady’s 60th birthday.

The lady in question was Foremarke Hall, a steam engine running on the volunteer-run heritage railway line between Toddington and Cheltenham.

To celebrate, GWR allowed anyone born in 1949, the year Foremarke Hall was constructed, to travel on the 10-mile line for free for two days.

Foremarke Hall - locomotive 7903 - was constructed at Swindon and is still resplendent in early British Railways green livery.

The engine once held the post-war record for the London-Plymouth run, which she completed in less than four hours.

Condemned to a South Wales scrap yard by the end of the steam era in 1964, she was rusting away until the Foremarke Hall Group rescued her in 1981.

The Group spent 25 years rebuilding her and completed the work five years ago, since when she has been one of GWR’s star attractions.

GWR commercial director, Malcolm Temple, said: “It’s a delight to celebrate this milestone.

“It has to be said that the engine looks a lot fitter than some of us volunteers who have reached our sixth decade.”

Pictured from left to right, sharing a birthday cake beside the locomotive, are Foremarke Hall Group’s chairman Jim Clarke, locomotive manager John Cruxon and treasurer Ron Alexander.

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