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Didcot RAILWAY Centre

GREAT WESTERN 175

Didcot Railway Centre held a series of special events to celebrate 175 years of the Great Western Railway, including visiting main line railtours, a rare visit away from the Paignton & Dartmouth Railway for GWR Manor 7827 Lytham Manor and operation of the replica Fire Fly on the Broad Gauge running line.

21st Century Steam

A1 Pacific Tornado, in then freshly applied BR Green, visited Didcot in the Spring of 2011. During a steam weekend it was joined by fellow 21st Century Steam Locomotives, Broad Gauge replica 'Fire Fly' and Steam Rail motor 93 (converted back to rail motor).

KING EDWARD II RETURNS

30th June 2013

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GWR 4-6-0 6023 King Edward II and Pannier Tank 3738 in action on a summers day on the Didcot Railway Centre.

Steam Gala 2014

The star of the 150th Anniversary of the London Underground celebrations in 2012, visited Didcot for a May Bank Holiday Weekend Steam Gala in 2014. The Metropolitan Railway originally had a very close relationship with the Great Western Railway, with the GWR supplying locomotives to the Met at first and the Paddington to Farringdon line being built to Brunel's Broad Gauge originally. The Met's own locomotives replaced the Great Western locos after a year, but now 150 years on this event celebrated the original close bonds between the two companies.