The Cotswold Festival of Steam will welcome a 'Saint' at its annual event in May.

The Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) is excited to welcome the newly-built 'Saint' class locomotive No. 2999, aptly named Lady of Legend to the festival.

Taking place from Saturday, 25 to Sunday, May 27, the festival attracts thousands of railway enthusiasts every year.

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The steam engine perfectly embraces this year's theme, 'Western Workhorses'.

The revolutionary design of the Saint class was initiated by Great Western Railway’s chief mechanical engineer, G J Churchward in 1902.

The Saint class influenced steam engineering right up until the final British Railways manufacture.

This locomotive was the first to be crafted with six driving wheels, replacing the past tradition of a standard four-wheel setup, offering compatibility with heavily-laden trains.

The Great Western Society at Didcot Railway Centre designed and built Lady of Legend, which steamed for the first time in 2019.

Although 77 units of the 'Saint' class were manufactured between 1902 to 1913, all were withdrawn by 1953.

However, their influence still lingers in present-day designs.

Ecstatic about the historical locomotive's visit to the GWSR, Tom Willson, chairman of the organising committee, said, "Seeing the Saint grace the rails of the GWSR really is a dream come true for the many supporters of our railway.

"We are deeply grateful to the Great Western Society and Didcot Railway Centre for entrusting us with their fine new locomotive.

"It is an extremely elegant design that will look very much at home on our beautiful Cotswold railway.”

The steam festival will also feature a newly-built Grange class 4-6-0 locomotive, No 6880 Betton Grange, which fills another gap in the Great Western Railway designs that have vanished over the years.

In a first for preservation, the festival will bring together four different types of two-cylinder 4-6-0s.

The GWSR’s existing fleet includes two other Great Western Railway-designed two-cylinder 4-6-0s: ‘Manor’ class no 7820 Dinmore Manor and ‘Modified Hall’ class no 7903 Foremarke Hall.

Mr Willson concluded: “This is shaping up once again to be an outstanding event and we’re thrilled to be presenting four classes of Great Western 4-6-0s together: a first for preservation."