Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway will see visiting locomotive 75014 Braveheart join the railway’s resident fleet for the first three months of its 2023 season.

Visiting from the Dartmouth Steam Railway in Devon, the locomotive will make its way to Toddington in early March and will leave following the railway’s Cotswold Festival of Steam which will take place from the 12th to the 14th of May. Braveheart’s visit will mark the very first time a member of the class has operated on the line in its preserved capacity.

No. 75014 Was built at Swindon Works in December 1951 by British Railways (which had recently been nationalised) as part of 80 of the standard 4 class which were built there from 1951 to 1954. The locomotive worked at an array of London Midland and Western Region depots and later worked the Cambrian route between Shrewsbury, Aberystwyth and Barmouth. Withdrawn from service in December 1966, 75014 was sold in 1967 to Woodham Brothers scrap dealer in Barry where it sat until 1981 and was thankfully purchased by a group of preservationists at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

At the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, 75014 was restored to main-line standard and later worked the ‘Jacobite’ service which operates between Fort William and Mallaig in the Scottish West Highlands. The locomotive was named Braveheart in celebration of the film made by Mel Gibson which was shot in the West Highlands.

In 2002, Braveheart was purchased by the Dartmouth Steam Railway where it is a resident locomotive.

Richard Johnson, Chairman of GWSR Plc said: “This will be a very welcome three-month addition to the GWSR’s locomotive fleet and we are very grateful to the Dartmouth Steam Railway & Riverboat Company for lending their locomotive to us.

“It fills a gap left following the withdrawal of Great Western 2-8-0T no. 4270 on expiry of its boiler certificate in January this year and before the under-overhaul 1905-built 2-8-0 no. 2807 returns to service later in the year.

“75014 is in fact, an entirely appropriate engine to be on our railway as during the 1950s and 1960s, other members of the class regularly worked over our line and in the wider Cheltenham and Gloucester areas.”

The class is an excellent choice to join the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railways home fleet due to the class’s local credentials, especially as the May Cotswold Festival of Steam, features a theme for 2023 of ‘Cheltenham & Gloucester Steam Days’.

Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway will see services back in operation during weekends from the 4th of March and will feature a number of special trains during the Cheltenham Festival from the 14th to the 17th of March.  Tickets for the special trains are only available via Classic Hospitality.