Train man Grandma's bucket list wish fulfilled at Shrub Hill

Wheelchair-bound Rose Gardner, 78, fulfilled a childhood dream when she dispatched a Great Western train to Worcester Shrub Hill. 

This train-mad grandma's bucket list wish was fulfilled at Shrub Hill when she lived her dream by dispatching a train.

Mrs Gardner who has five children, 20 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren, dispatched the train from Honeybourne, the station where, as a child, she helped clean the Royal Train.

LIST: All aboard! Rose Gardner with GWR Station Manager for the North Cotswolds, Billy White (Image: GWR)

Mrs Gardner, who dispatched the 1234 service to Worcester Shrub Hill, said: “I’m an absolute train fanatic and this is something I’ve always wanted to do. I like the Flying Scotsman and I’m also a big fan of the GWR trains which go up to Worcester Shrub Hill – they go great guns.”

It promises to be quite a year for her as she ticks off a bucket list created because: “I’m getting older and there’s still lots of things I’d like to do.”

Earlier this year she had her garden in Upton Snodsbury replanted.

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In October she is going to see Daniel O’Donnell in concert at Scarborough.

She is planning to spend a couple of days by the seaside with her husband John and the bucket list has even included some long-awaited dental treatment.

Trains have played a big part in her family’s life.

As a child Mrs Gardner helped to clean the Royal Train when it stopped at Honeybourne on its way to Cheltenham Racecourse.

She said: “There was always lots of excitement whenever the Royal Train came in with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on board. We were allowed to clean the top half of the train and it really was something to look forward to.”

Having grown up around trains – her father worked in the nearby shunting yard and one of her brother’s was a stoker – she now enjoys playing train simulator video games.

ZEST: Rose Gardner is young at heart playing a train simulator before trying her hand at the real thing (Image: GWR)

“I enjoy playing on the laptop and taking the train through to a certain station. But nothing beats travelling on an actual train. I like sitting by the window and watching the countryside roll by,” said Mrs Gardner. 

GWR Station Manager for the North Cotswolds, Billy White, pictured, said: “Rose’s story proves trains have equal appeal for enthusiasts young and old. It was an absolute pleasure to make one of her dreams come true and she was a natural helping to dispatch the train. Hopefully we’ve been able to make it a special day for her.”