4-6-0 # 7903 "Foremarke Hall" is pulling the southbound "GWR COTSWOLDS EXPRESS" from Broadway to Cheltenham Race Course on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway (GWR) near Winchcombe. From the GWR Website: The Great Western Railway's standard mixed traffic locomotives were the numerous Hall class 4-6-0s introduced in 1924 by C B Collett as a development of Churchward's 'Saint' class. The Halls were extremely successful, economical and versatile - as at home with fast freight as they were with express passenger trains. When F W Hawksworth became chief Mechanical Engineer at Swindon in 1941, he set about making a number of design changes to the class, the result being the 'Modified Hall' which was introduced in 1944. Production contiunued until 1950, after nationalisation of the railways. "Foremarke Hall" # 7903 was completed in 1949. Restored to working order in 2004, this popular locomotive has proved to be an extremely reliable performer over the ten years before its '10 year' overhaul, re-entering service just in time for the 2017 Cotswold Festival of Steam.
