The fireman breaks up the coal on the tender of 2801 as the train approaches Cheltenham Lansdown taking the 'Honeybourne Line' via Malvern Road (Picture kindly contributed by Geoff Sanders)

31625 approaches Cheltenham Lansdown with a train from Andover c.1955 (Picture kindly contributed by Geoff Sanders)

Class 4F 0-6-0 No.44209 works south through Cheltenham Lansdown on 25th August 1953. (Picture kindly contributed by Geoff Sanders)

View taken from St Georges Road Bridge looking north east over the expanse of the goods yard at Cheltenham St James in 1940. This view was taken prior to the big storm which removed the spire of St Matthews Church.(Courtesy of Mowat Collection)

The quadrupling of the Cheltenham to Gloucester line was a strategic wartime measure and involved the doubling of many bridges on the line south of Lansdown Junction. This is a view of work in progress at Up Hatherley and the four-track layout came into use here on 9th August 1942. Traffic from the Honeybourne Line would eventually pass through the arch under construction in this picture dated earlier in 1942. (M.P. Barnsley Collection)

2-6-2T No.4101 waits to depart with a local train for Gloucester Central in May 1962. (J.R. Besley)

2-6-0 No.6365 waits at Cheltenham Spa (St James) with the 3:25 pm to Gloucester Central on 1st August 1963 (B.J. Ashworth)

2-6-2T No.4564 starts the 2:35 pm train to Swindon from Cheltenham Spa (St James) on 7th May 1964. Many thanks to Julian Parker for advising me that the church that lost its spire was in fact St Matthews and not St Marks as originally captioned. (B J Ashworth)

The quadrupling of the Cheltenham to Gloucester line was a strategic wartime measure and involved the laying in of new connections between the GWR and LMS lines at Lansdown Junction. The signalling was also modified as can be seen by the impressive new gantry here. This is a view of work in progress at Cheltenham Lansdown on 25th August 1942. The new layout came into use here on 9th September 1942. Traffic from the Honeybourne Line would eventually be able to gain direct access to Midland metals and vice-versa, an indispensable facility if ever there were a need for diversions either way. (Photographer as yet to be identified here)

The 5 pm passenger train from Gloucester provided the locomotive for the return freight working, in this case 2-6-2T No.4100 seen working bunker-first on a rake of vans bound for Gloucester Yard on 6th August 1965. (Bill Potter)

Whenever I see a Stephenson Locomotive Society headboard, I immediately think of a really wonderful gentleman and good friend of mine, John Aylard, who I first met about 15 years ago when he booked me to present a slide-show for the SLS Barnet Group. However, a gentleman from Bristol by the name of Rex Conway sent me a pack of black and white prints in which I found this shot of the 'doyen of the Dukedogs' 4-4-0 No.9000 preparing to depart Lansdown Station with a SLS Special in 1952. The headboard appears to have been rather hastily drawn up on a sheet of board !

This is a view of the turntable at St James, taken by Bill Potter in June 1951. It was a manually operated turntable and would be moved at one end by the driver and at the other by the fireman. In the background can be seen St Gregory's School where I was a pupil from 1956-60. We scraped out small recesses in the mortar of the brick wall (seen behind the turntable) so as to provide a foothold in order to be able to climb high enough to see over the wall as the locos were being turned. I can remember seeing many classes of loco on that turntable including "Moguls" (both Western and Southern), "Manor" Class 4-6-0, "Dukedog" Class 4-4-0 and Standard Class 4 (75xxx) 4-6-0s and Collett 0-6-0 (2251 Class) but I never saw a "Castle" because they were too long to fit on the turntable. This is one reason why the 8 coach "Cheltenham Spa Express" was taken out to Gloucester by a tank engine, either a 94xx pannier or a 41xx Prairie Tank. As a youngster I witnessed all this, first hand, and these images are etched indelibly on my memory.

Believe it or not, they did turn the 'Prairies' at St James as this equalised tyre wear. In this view taken by H.C Casserley, 2-6-2T No.4101 is seen on the turntable road on 1st October 1960. Note the unusual signal with a white ring affixed. A couple of years earlier, aged 10 years old, I was walking through the station on my way to St Gregory's School where I was a pupil from 1956-59, and I witnessed the sight of 2-6-2T 4573 which had fouled the points at this same location and had derailed. A railway crane was brought in to re-rail the loco - I often wonder if anyone took a photo of that!

This is a picture by another of my fellow RCTS members, the late John Baker. Having just called at Malvern Road, 5031 "Totnes Castle" draws the down "Cornishman" under Lansdown Road Bridge in June 1960.

Displaced from their 'Cambrian' habitat, the 'Dukedogs' often made apperances at Cheltenham in the late 1950s. In this view taken by Bill Potter at Cheltenham Spa (St James) 4-4-0 No.9017 has arrived from Gloucester on 20th April 1958.

The retaining wall and walkway adjacent to Dean Close School provided access to the railway 'hotspot' of Cheltenham - Lansdown Road Bridge, where it was possible to see traffic from both the Midland Line and the Western Line. I can remember seeing locos from all regions appearing here at one time or another during the late 1950s and early 1960s. A Derby to Bristol could produce a B1, as well as the usual Midland Region fare of 'Black 5s', 'Jubilees' and 'Royal Scots'. The Western Region also offered Southern engines such as the Maunsell "U" and "N" which worked the former Midland & South Western Junction Railway route from Southampton to Cheltenham, via Andover. Churchward and Collett 'Consolidation' types were the mainstay of freight traffic on the Honeybourne Line as exemplified by this view of 3835 working south under Lansdown Bridge on 29th September 1963 (Bill Potter)