JULIAN DANCER gets ready to ride the fastest steam engine of its time through the Cotswolds

In 1904, the Swindon-built steam locomotive City of Truro hauled the fastest train in the world. It was the first engine anywhere to pull carriages at more than 100mph, and achieved the record while hauling a mail train between Plymouth and London.

The pace will be slower for nine days at the end of this month, when the famous engine will trundle at 25mph through beautiful Cotswold countryside as the star attraction at a double celebration steam festival.

The event, at Toddington, on the B4077 between Stow-on-the-Wold and Tewkesbury, will run from May 27 to June 4.

The festival will mark the 25th anniversary of the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway Society, which has an Oxford branch which meets regularly to share members' love of preserved steam railways.

The festival will also celebrate the centenary of the opening of the railway line, which connected Stratford-upon-Avon and Cheltenham. Trains first ran in 1906 but the line was closed to passenger and goods traffic in 1976. Track was taken up and station buildings were demolished.

In 1981, the Gloucester and Warwickshire Railway Society was formed.

The society consisted of volunteers with a common ambition to re-open the line. Restoration began immediately and in 1984 steam trains carried tourists along just 700 yards of track.

Now, with stations rebuilt and track relaid, the line stretches for ten miles and plans for further extensions are going ahead.

The festival is expected to attract thousands of people who enjoy a step back in time.

Eight steam engines will pull trains between Toddington and Cheltenham Racecourse, and two other locomotives, in addition to the City of Truro, will attract much attention.

One will be a small tank engine that was known to locals as the Coffee Pot because of the shape of its boiler.

The Coffee Pot pulled a single carriage between village stations on the Stratford-to-Cheltenham line until 1960.

Festival organisers are looking for people who remember the Coffee Pot, which is based at the Dean Forest Railway, but on loan to the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire for the event.

G and W spokesman Ian Crowder said: "Anyone who remembers the train should write to the society at Coffee Pot Memories, Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway, The Railway Station, Toddington, GL54 5DT, with his or her memories. In exchange, we will give a free trip on the Coffee Pot.

"In its day, it was a lifeline for small villages along the route."

The other main attraction at the festival will be a Castle-class steam engine that once pulled the heaviest express trains.

The festival will also be a chance for visitors to look behind the scenes at the engine sheds and restoration workshops.

Garry Owen, chairman of the G and W and a founder member of the society, said: "When we started, we had no idea we would get this far. This is now one of the top preserved railways in the country with a turnover of £750,000 a year. Its success is due to the volunteers who work tirelessly to maintain and improve it."