Greet Tunnel and Stanway Viaduct
A minute of total darkness under the hill, then fifteen arches and the Vale of Evesham opening out all at once.
Juan Enrique Gilardi from Mar del Plata, Argentina — CC BY-SA 2.0 · kitmasterbloke — CC BY 4.0 · Alex Chan — CC BY 2.0 · kitmasterbloke — CC BY 4.0
A derailment killed this line in 1976. Volunteers then spent close to four decades relaying it a mile at a time, and in the spring of 2018 steam finally reached Broadway again. What you ride today is not a static museum but fourteen miles, about 23 km, of working railway running along the Cotswold escarpment from Cheltenham Racecourse to Broadway, with six stations and halts dressed in Great Western style down to the last enamel sign and platform bench. The ride itself is unhurried. The train runs through Greet Tunnel, 693 yards or roughly 634 metres of complete darkness that children enjoy considerably more than adults do, then comes out onto the fifteen arches of Stanway Viaduct with the Vale of Evesham and its orchards opening out below. End to end and back takes about two and a half hours if you stay in your seat, but the Day Rover lets you get off and on again at any station, which is the smarter way to use it. Start at Toddington if you are driving: it is the headquarters and has the largest free car park on the line, plus locomotive sheds, a café, a playground and a small narrow-gauge line that runs on selected Sundays. Broadway has a council pay-and-display car park opposite the station drive and the honey-stone village a short walk away; from Winchcombe station it is roughly twenty minutes on foot into Winchcombe town and about half an hour to Sudeley Castle. Cheltenham Racecourse station sits about 3 km from the town centre: Stagecoach D or E, then a quarter-hour walk through the racecourse grounds, or ten minutes by taxi. The thing that catches visitors out is that it is not a daily service. The railway runs from spring through to the end of the year, with the Christmas and New Year trains carrying on into the first days of January, then closes for winter maintenance, and trains run mostly on Tuesdays to Thursdays, weekends and bank holidays, so check the colour-coded timetable before you give it a whole day. First departures are around 10:00 and the last train is back a little after 17:00. July and August are busier and more frequent, and it suits a family that has spent a week driving between villages and wants something that asks nothing of them. Buggy space is in the guard's van on most trains and the four main stations have toilets and baby changing, but do not expect a prayer room.
A minute of total darkness under the hill, then fifteen arches and the Vale of Evesham opening out all at once.
The largest free car park on the line, plus locomotive sheds, a café and a playground that fills the gaps between trains.
£28 for an adult buys unlimited hop-on, hop-off travel: Winchcombe for the town and Sudeley Castle, Broadway for the honey-stone village.
Toddington Station, Toddington, Gloucestershire GL54 5DT
Clearly worth it if your children are roughly three to ten: the dark tunnel, the whistle and the Toddington playground carry them. Teenagers may well be bored — two and a half hours of sitting and looking out of a window with nothing to do. In that case take just one leg, Toddington to Broadway, and spend the rest of the day in the village.
Not on ordinary running days — you can buy at the booking office on the morning, subject to availability, and the price is the same either way. The exception is the Santa Specials from late November to 23 December and gala events, which sell out weeks ahead. More important than booking is checking that a train runs at all on the day you have picked: the service is not daily, and there is nothing to see at a closed station.