SVR Brings the Seaside into the Heart of the West Midlands!
It's almost 100 miles as the seagull flies from the Severn Valley Railway to the nearest ‘decent’ sandy beach at Barmouth, on the mid-Wales coast. Or if you don’t mind a muddy estuary and the constant drone of traffic on the M4 motorway, there’s always Severn Beach, a mere 85 miles ‘down country’ on the outskirts of Bristol.
But on the weekend of September 6th & 7th, the Severn Valley Railway will give local families the best possible reason NOT to have to go driving off to the coast. It’s bringing the seaside to the West Midlands!
Buoyed by a fantastic response to its first-ever ‘Seaside Special Weekend’ last year, the 16-mile Kidderminster - Bridgnorth steam heritage line is once again importing tons of prime sandcastle-making sand to make its own ‘beach’ at its wayside country station at Arley, laying on free donkey rides, Punch and Judy shows, a Fortune Teller to read visitors palms, a bendy balloon man and a face painter - and even giving away free sticks of peppermint seaside rock to all ticketholders. Just about the only thing missing, will be the sea itself!
Unprepared for such an enthusiastic response to its ‘toe-in-the-water’ Seaside event in 2008, the railway actually sold out of buckets and spades, and had to send out to Kidderminster for more! This time there will be no shortage of them though, the SVR promises.
The first lorry-load of high-grade sand - deemed to be just perfect for making sandcastles - will be delivered on Wednesday to Arley station yard, where the beach, contained by dozens of straw bales, will laid out.
Turning back the clock to the days when most people travelled to the seaside by steam train, a succession of departures from both Kidderminster and Bridgnorth at 45-minute intervals will give passengers a big choice of where to go and what to do.
‘Arley Sands’ will be the main focus for most visitors because of its beach, Punch & Judy shows, bendy balloon man and face painter - but there’s a huge bouncy castle at Bewdley station, and palmist Gypsy Jane will be telling fortunes there in the waiting room on
Platform 1.
The donkey rides - with at least eight or nine donkeys - can be found at Highley station, where the railway’s Engine House Visitor Centre has its own play area, and where Highley Assistant Station Master Tony Clifton will be laying out his own very impressive model railway layout.
Visitors arriving at Kidderminster will be able to take a free ride in a classic 1929 open-sided charabanc (on Saturday from 10am to 3pm Saturday and on Sunday from 10am to 5pm) to Hoo Brook and return, buy a Candy Floss, or indulge the miniature ‘live steam’ line that children just love - the Coalyard Miniature Railway beside Kidderminster Railway Museum. Almost a third of a mile long and this year celebrating its 21st anniversary - this delightful 7¼ inch gauge line will be fully up and running with its quaint mixture of ‘sit in’ and ‘sit-astride’ coaches.
At Bridgnorth - the northern terminus of the 16-mile SVR line in Shropshire, visitors will find several fairground rides, including the very seaside ‘Chairoplanes’. Like almost everything else at Seaside Special Weekend, they will be free too!
Says SVR General Manager Nick Ralls: “We’ve all experienced visitor attractions where the public is expected to pay, pay and pay again, and apart from adding up to an expensive day out, it tends to leave a bit of a sour taste.
“We want ‘Seaside Special’ weekend to be an event which families will thoroughly enjoy and will want to come back to again next year - so all the attractions directly associated with the event are included in the cost of a normal priced rail ticket.
“That includes a free stick of seaside rock for every ticketholder - and yes - it does has ‘Severn Valley Railway’ running right through the middle of it! We’ve come to an arrangement with Teddy Gray, the Bewdley confectioner, and he will be making our seaside rock in his sweet factory….in Dudley!
“One other nice thing about ‘Seaside Special’ weekend, is that the kids won’t be asking from the back of the car: ‘Are we there yet, dad?’. Our seaside is right on everyone’s doorstep!”
The SVR’s busiest steam timetable gives visitors a choice of 10 departures from both the Kidderminster and Bridgnorth ends of the line, the first from Kidderminster at 09.55, and from Bridgnorth at 11.10 on both days.
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