Virtual Railfan Tour - UK - Severn Valley Railway (Part one)
A Great Western Rose between two Southern Thorns! At Bridgnorth.
The Severn Valley Railway has been in operation for a long time and can be regarded as one of the more mature heritage lines in the UK. They took over a former British Railways line and the headquarters are at Bridgnorth. From there the line runs south through Highley and Ardley to Bewdley, a popular destination. From Bewdley the line now continues on to Kidderminster where there is a connection with Network Rail. Spending much time in Shrewsbury I would take the bus direct to Bridgnorth. The views along the Severn valley are wonderful and it is worthwhile to linger down to the river Severn.
We will take some time today looking at some of the locomotives and also the stations at Bridgnorth and Highley.
The Severn Valley receives many visiting locomotives. Here we see the beautifully restored Southern Battle of Britain Pacific "Sir Keith Park"
A general view of the Bridgnorth engine shed
On one visit I captured this Royal Blue restored coach
A nicely restored Great Western 2-8-0 although I never saw one in green. I drove one of these from Basingstoke to Reading as part of my BR training.
A Southern Railway West Country class Pacific "Taw Valley"
The SVR also has a collection of diesels such as this Western class in its original maroon livery. I rode many miles in these. There was a problem in that there were only two seats in the cab so if I was going any distance I looked around for a metal milk crate to sit on during the trip. It was uncomfortable and I finished up with "United Dairy" or some such embedded into my rear.
The Bridgnorth station cat is a railfan - it told me it preferred the Great Western locomotives
Ready for the off
There is a licensed pub right on the platform
The Great Western had its own cast metal bridges.
Highley is the first main station down the line. As with all SVR stations it has been exquisitely restored
Highley signalbox
The train is coming in from Bridgnorth and the signalman is crossing over to the platform to give the driver the token for the section to Arley
Train arriving at Highley
It is worthwhile making a stopover at Highley to visit the museum which is a short walk walk from the station
This is an old friend. A Standard class 4 2-6-4 tank.
On the front smokebox is the shed plate. 33B is the shed code for Tilbury. I worked at Shoeburyness which had code 33C, close to Tilbury. SC stands for self cleaning smokebox
I got out on these a few times while at Shoeburyness but being at the bottom of the seniority list I usually had to fire the older, more labor intensive LMS locomotives. The self cleaning smokebox meant that we did not have to shovel out the smokebox ashes and there was a rocking grate which made fire cleaning very much easier. They even had seats instead of a small flap of wood that would only fit one cheek. An hour's work to put away one of the older locomotives could be achieved in 15 minutes on one of these.
In the next part we will explore further south.
In the meantime Bridgnorth is well worth exploring including the funicular Cliff Railway
The Autumn Steam Gala brings in a lot of steam locomotives and a lot of spectators
A lovely set of photos.
ReplyDeleteWhen you're in the Railwayman's Arms at Bridgnorth, have a look at some of the relics around the walls. Not all are conventional relics, some commemorate the outer fringes of railfan activities. See if you can find the "Jim Bodfish memorial toilet seat". I'm not certain of the full history of this particular artefact apart from it originated from a BR mark 1 coach and was presented for the most outrageous act of rail fan activity in the previous year. (One year this may have included cooking baked beans and sausages on a camping stove on a Innsbruck to Oostende couchette coach!) Any activity involving Jim and his mates normally involved consuming lots of beer....
The Engine House at Highley is a brilliant idea. It gets people to break their journeys with a shop and cafe as well as keeping locos awaiting restoration and recertification undercover and not rusting in a siding. Perhaps I should badger my local lines (Mid Hants and Swanage) to do something similar.)