City News

IN THE early days of the Severn Valley Railway, ‘preservation’ was characterised by small groups of steam enthusiasts working quietly and diligently over many years, to restore rescued scrap-yard engines to their former glory.

Anyone paying a weekend visit to the quiet wayside railway station at Hampton Loade 35 years ago, would have found one such group of steam enthusiasts working methodically on the rebuilding of former Great Western Railway ‘Prairie’ tank No. 4141.

The engine, once used to run local passenger trains between Worcester and Birmingham, spent more than 12 years undergoing restoration in the sidings at Hampton Loade, although in the end it was sold privately and moved away by its new owners, and never turned a wheel in anger on the Severn Valley Railway.

But on Saturday and Sunday March 10 & 11 – more than 15 years after it left the line – ‘Prairie’ tank No.4141 will be back, as a ‘visiting guest’ at the Severn Valley Railway’s ‘Branch Line Weekend’, so ultimately fulfilling its destiny to run SVR passenger trains.

It will be a nostalgic return to Hampton Loade, not only for the locomotive, but also for Bill Bennett, the retired British Rail Permanent Way man who led the original restoration team. Now in his 80s, Bill still lives in the station house at Hampton Loade , from where he first masterminded No.4141’s rebuild in 1973.  It promises to be an emotional reunion for both man and machine.

No.4141 will be one of two visiting engines at ‘Branch Line Weekend’, the other being former Somerset & Dorset Railway ‘7F’  No.88, which comes on a one-week loan from the West Somerset Railway at Minehead.

‘Branch Line Gala’ weekend – replicating the days when small tank engines and trains of just a few carriages were the backbone of a vast network of branch lines throughout Britain - raises the curtain on the SVR’s 38th season of operation.

A much revised gala timetable sees no fewer than nine different engines in steam, and 42 train movements on each of the two days, including four goods train workings between Bewdley and Bridgnorth,  between Bridgnorth and Highley, Highley and Bridgnorth, and between  Bridgnorth and Bewdley.

Highlights will include the double-heading of a 10-coach train from Kidderminster by ‘Prairie’ tanks Nos. 4566 (recently overhauled and appearing its first SVR gala for 10 years) and 5164  (departing at 9am on both days). The SVR admits this isn’t very ‘branch line typical’ – but the train does split at Bewdley to form two classic branch line trains.

Providing an extra dimension to Branch Line Gala Weekend, will be the appearance at Bewdley station of five superb working scale-model traction engines, built by members of the ‘Black Country Live Steamers’ group. Examples of scale models under construction, to include steam launches as well as steam engines, will also be shown to visitors.
   
Both of the SVR’s two miniature lines - the 7 ¼-in. gauge Coalyard Railway at Kidderminster  and the 32mm gauge Paddock Railway at Hampton Loade, are expected to operate with visiting ‘guest’ engines.

Travel on all gala trains is by ‘Rover’ ticket, the one-day ticket (adults £15, Senior Citizens £13, children £7.50) and two-day ticket (adults £25, Senior Citizens £21.50, children £12.50) also being valid for rides on the sometimes overlooked Bridgnorth Cliff Railway, Britain’s only inland electric funicular line, which has been carrying passenger up the 111-foot incline virtually without a break since 1892.