Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway - Pershore Plum

About

Sunday 18 August, 2024. Special 'Pershore Plum' Train departing Broadway Station at 2.25 pm, arriving back at Broadway at 4:46 pm.

The Pershore Plum Festival in August celebrates the most famous plum varieties grown in the Vale of Evesham: the Pershore Yellow Egg Plum and the Pershore Purple and the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway (GWSR) is playing its part.

The GWSR is running a special train on 18th August to acknowledge the importance of the railway in transporting the wonderful varieties of plums from the region to market.

The special train departs Broadway station at 14.25 for Cheltenham Racecourse, carrying Queen Victoria (Plum), Festival Mascots: Prunella and Eggbert and members of the Plum Posse and of course Pershore Plums whilst subject to availability there will be will be offering of a range of plum-inspired delicacies throughout August, in some catering outlets.

At one time there was a large fruit packing shed at Toddington station, where Pershore and other varieties of plums, as well as apples, pears, soft fruits, asparagus and vegetables, were transferred into special railway vans to be swiftly taken to London, Birmingham and elsewhere. This is a wonderful way to celebrate that heritage.

So famous was the Pershore Plum it even had a Great Western Railway steam locomotive named after it. No. 3353 was a member of the successful and handsome 'Bulldog' class 4-4-0 introduced in 1899 of which 156 were built, 3353 emerging from Swindon works in 1900. They were mainly used for passenger work and were once a familiar sight over the line on which the present-day GWSR operates, as well as handling trains over the Worcester-Oxford line through Pershore.

No. 3353, at the time based at Worcester, was originally named 'Plymouth'. It was one of several of the class named after towns served by the Great Western Railway. But this confused some travellers who thought the locomotive name was the destination of their train so the names were removed. In 1927 the Worcester branch of the NFU asked the GWR if a locomotive could be named 'Pershore Plum' to mark the centenary of the discovery of the fruit and they agreed. The nameplates were made at Swindon and sent to Worcester, where they were fitted to the locomotive. It is of interest that HM King George V accepted a consignment of Pershore plums to mark that centenary.

'Pershore Plum' continued to be based at Worcester and worked from there throughout the region, including over the Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham line.