File:Gloucester central railway station 2037091 1f68bdac.jpg

English: Gloucester Central Station, with trains.
View SE on the main Down platform, towards Cheltenham etc. and Swindon etc.; ex-Great Western South Wales Main Line, which runs from (London etc.) via Swindon to Chepstow, Newport, Cardiff, Swansea etc., branching off the original Cheltenham & Great Western Union line at Gloucester South Junction. The lines from here to Cheltenham are joint with the ex-Midland Birmingham - Bristol main line, which join from the Bristol direction at Tramway Junction. Since the whole railway layout at Gloucester was altered in 1975 by the elimination of the ex-Midland Gloucester Eastgate Station (see SO8318 : Gloucester Eastgate Station and SO8318 : Gloucester Eastgate Station, with trains) with the Tuffley Loop line, and the reconstruction of Gloucester Central, all trains on the Birmingham - Bristol axis calling at Gloucester have had to reverse here, as well as those from Cheltenham. Before 1975 only trains Cheltenham - Swindon, London etc. did so, and the 94XX 0-6-0 Pannier-tank on the right is probably arriving on a train from Cheltenham destined to reverse. The 51XX 2-6-2T on the train at the opposite platform will have arrived on a train from the West, probably from Hereford via Grange Court (on the South Wales line). The 'Castle' 4-6-0 on the Up middle line is running light engine towards the nearby Horton Road GWR Locomotive Depot.