Return to Bridgnorth

A pleasent, but much less dramatic sequel to the story entitled 'Last train from Bridgnorth.'
It is 5.30 a.m. on Friday March 21st 2008, and I have given up trying to sleep. I normally shy away from glory turns, but this time, if only to give some sense of completeness, but I was getting jittery, and had not had a very good night's sleep.
So, off I went, to make a cuppa, and put the radio on to take my mind off it. I had been over the line in my head dozen's of times over the past few days, making sure I could remember where everything was and wracking my brains to see if there were any points I had forgotten, I didn't want to do it again.
The last person to work a public train the full 16 miles of the Severn Valley line had been me, on June 19th 2007, working the last train of the day out of Bridgnorth, so I had been selected to take the first one back in.
I was unususlly well organised, and Already knew that the Driver would be Jason Holders, and the loco, 45110.
A few were surprised to see 5110 on the re-opening train, as she is on an extention to her ticket, and looked in a very tatty state, but, as was pointed out to me, the loco that hauled the last train, had been taken to Bridgnorth for repairs, the two manors were the wrong end of the line, and 5110 is the only operational loco that is actually owned by the SVR, so it was appropriate that she should work the train.
I checked the train over, took the weights down, and waited for the loco, which was late owing to a cock up with the signal box opening times.
When the loco finally arrived, we did a brake test, and pushed the coaches back, then I went to see the driver with a request.
'Here is something you haven't heard for a while Jason,' I said, 'Passengers for Northwood, in the van'
'Right,' he replied, 'Where is the van?'
'Third coach'
'O.k., where is Northwood?'
'On the right, just past the level crossing on the right,' I laughed
We left Kidderminster standing room only, although my ticket inspectors assured me that there would be a lot getting off at Bewdley just to say they were on the first one. How wrong they were, as no one at all left the train at Bewdley, and a whole load more got on, us loosing two minutes getting them all on.
We were right time off Kidderminster, but we soon started loosing time because of the sheer volume of people, and by the time we left Highley, we were already 6 minutes down, having picked up people at Bewdley and Arley, much to our surprise, before Highley, no one had got off, and we reckoned, on top of the 276 tons of train, we had 30 tons of passengers aboard.
Leaving Highley, the eerie silence that had fallen over the valley on June 19th, was now well and truely shattered, as 5110 dug into the climb.
Highley bank is neither long, nor, at 1 in 100, very steep, but the reverse curves at the top are very tight, and add a lot to the rolling resistance of the train, so as 5110 leaned into the left hander, the sheer weight of 8 mark ones and heaven knows how many people was really starting to tell, but with no traffic for months, the grease which invariably makes it's way down the bank under the wheels of trains from the flange lubricators at the top, had been fairly well washed off the rail head, so, even though we were slowing drastically, 5110 kept her feet all the way over the bank, an un-usuall occurance in recent years, although, we were not doing much more than a good walking pace by the miners crossing.
We had stopped earlier at Northwood, becoming the first train to call at any of the halts since the storm, and made up the set with a pick up at Country Park, before heading down to Hampton Loade, and onto the section which had re-opened a few weeeks earlier.
After as quick satation stop as I could manage, and we were off over the lane that had made the national news when it's entire surface was ripped off by flood water, and down the Waterworks towards Sterns, which was now 15 mph, although retained the 5 mph timings for the section, allowing us to make some time up, then it was one last climb over Eardington bank, through Eardington Station, over crossing cottage and over the top, and by hell, did it feel good to be doing that again.
Finally, at 11.03, just three minutes down, to a chourus of whistles from 5110 and 7812, the first down train crossed what was about to become the first up train, and rolled into platform 2 at Bridgnorth. The Severn Valley Railway was now back open!

 

A very nice Story there, Olly, and one that befits the experience of yourself and the SVR from last year.

Thanks very much for sharing.

Cheers,

Dom Greenop
DMR

 

Thanks Dom, it isn't as dramatic, or really as interesting as the story about the day the line got wrecked, but I thought it still needed telling, to bring a sense of compleatness to the tale.