Welcome

Welcome to the new blog for Bridgnorth Station, the spiritual home of the Severn Valley Railway in Shropshire, England.

Visit to read about the happenings on the station, and the progress made by volunteers on restoration, maintenance, improvement, and primarily enjoying our free time at the best station on the Valley (not that we're biased).

So to an appraisal of where we're at now.

Lighting: eight new lamp posts have been erected on platform 1. These still need their half harp tops, which we have made in-house, and luminaires, which are on order, to complete. Not only will they look good, we'll be able to see where we are going, too.

Duncan provided us with two photographs, which purported to show a GW streamlined diesel railcare at platform 1, but if you ignored that and looked beyond, there were a pair of very attractive corner brackets and luminaires, one each end of the canopy - so we propose to reinstate those, too.

There were originally seven of these around the station, but we've spent all available cash for now. These luminaires aren't cheap - 600 pounds each - but if anyone would like to sponsor some more, we'd be delighted.

Fences: the metal-peckers are still at it, chipping hammers to the fore, removing old paint from platform 1 railings. We have a new local volunteer here - welcome, Alan, who plans to bring a bit of naval quality to the work. Must make sure they don't end up in Dark Admiralty Grey. We have also to make up one and a half ramped sections of railing for the platform entrance to the beer garden, and that's in hand too.

Benches: another never-ending task, this. People sitting on them isn't a problem, but the weather is, this year's summer having not helped at all. We are steadily dismantling benches, one at a time, replacing rotten timber with new, and painting as required. They look good when finished, but all the layers of paint take some time.

We've got extra help here, too, from Richard, our DofE student. Don't tell the Duke, but we plan to keep him afterwards, as he's keen as mustard on steam in general and the SVR in particular. It's nice to see young faces, especially now there's three of them on the station.

Station canopy: oh dear, here's another big job to tackle next year, which needs to include replacing the main front timbers and re-securing the glass. Big job, which will repay careful planning.

Talking of repaying, we are into energy efficiency, too. The staff shower room has been refurbished complete with a new ceiling and eight inches of insulation above. We've halved the heating and the room is warmer. We'll use energy-efficient bulbs in our new lights, too, though you won't see them. Next in line here are improvements to the station heating system, again to reduce energy consumption while retaining warmth. Contrary to rumours, we won't be lighting the offices by our halos - we're not quite that good!

If you'd like to join us...

apart from physical work, of which there is always plenty, we need information about the station in its early years, from cutting the first sod, right through to closure by BR. We have plenty of data on the preservation era. All this is for the platform 2 waiting room. Old photographs, etchings, engravings, would be especially welcome; if we can scan them, they will then be returned. Not just trains, either. Who ran the station, who worked here? Photos of staff, details of their service, etc, would be very much valued.