The Severn Valley Railway, disused section,Shrewsbury to Bridgnorth Part 1 

I've only just discovered these wonderful videos, so sad there will be no more. RIP Malcolm.

I think others will agree that it was very short-sighted to build houses over the course of the line. Even if the railway never gets restored, old trackbeds make excellent cycleways and footpaths, which are usually havens of relative quiet which also act as corridors of nature, with the adjoining verges encouraging a lot of wildlife.

Thanks - What a lovely way to get through the lockdown by watching yr film. Bravo (thumbs up)!

I must be one of the people left who has traveled from Shrewsbury to Bridgenorth on this line. Back in the '50s I always went from Bridgenorth to Hartlebury to catch the Worcester train.

There’s a halt between Berrington and Cressage and it’s cound halt the station opened in 1934 and closed here 29 years later

Stuff like this reminds me of the time I went to go see the Endor Furnace. Giant old iron furnace that looked like a castle.

Superb research. Thank you.

Just found your video which I enjoyed, as a ex steam fireman and driver, at Stourbridge shed we had a great little job,light engine to Dudley, pick up RAF train from Cardington to Bridgnorth, unload the lads and empty stock to Shrewsbury, and back light engine, great little job.Kind Regards

Your videos are really interesting. Great detective work!

The section from Cressage to Buildwas is actually fairly intact, and it is possible to walk most of it, although much of it is quite overgrown nowadays - even three or four years ago it was a lot easier to walk. It's a really nice walk as in the middle section it runs right next to the Severn. There are bridges, walls, cuttings etc still there. The only section impossible to follow is the Cressage to Sheinton section, although even here the line of the track is mostly obvious.

Buildwas station was a junction station because this is where you change here for the wellington to craven arms railway and as of today nothing of the station survives

That 'Oliver Cromwell 'is one HELLUVA lump ! I saw it on the East Lancs run, on one of the steam anniversary sessions. Impressive seems to be an understatement !

I can’t see them ever reopening it sadly, perhaps to some degree of the route, but shrewsbury could never happen. financially as well it would be a poor move to advance as the railway doesn’t have the funds, it’s brillaint what they do at the moment and there is continuously so much to keep paying for each year, repairs etc. Keep it up severn valley railway :)) 👍🏻👍🏻

Love those Gresley coaches. Remember them on the Kings Cross -Cambridge flyer.

Very enjoyable. Never new the line went from Bridgnorth to Shrewsbury. Always stay in Shrewsbury after attending Dapol open day each year, all the way from Scotland

Thanks for uploading this, shame to see that it'll almost certainly never be possible to extend it back it into Shrewsbury

I live near the green way through Sutton and often use it to walk and cycle into town. What a shame it is not possible to cycle the old route to Bridgnorth.

The line between Berrington and Bridgnorth is actually still fairly intact if the Severn Valley Railway association wanted to extend the line all the way back to Shrewsbury then what they could do is have the line going north out of berrington but reroute it a bit so it joins the mainline just south of the a5 I really do think they could do it

Thought I recognised your voice, great job Malcolm

Great clip taken there"! As you stated and from what one can see there is no chance to get the line to shrewsbury" BUT""" From what i have seen from Bridgnorth it could easy get to Ironbridge (Old Power station site) and then to join up with the Telford railway, Lets hope this may work,.

Ironbridge power station is now closed and the towers demolished. I was on one of the last track inspection trains to Iron Bridge before the power station shut and the line from Maideley closed along with it.

Thanks for this

Great job, truly fascinating stuff. Give this man his own programme like Fred Dibna.

If memory serves, they're basically stuck at Bridgenorth, getting out would require reinstating a low bridge across a busy road. I've severe doubts they'd ever get permission to reinstate it over an A road regardless of the state of the track-bed out of there.

In the US railroads were and still are in private hands. At the time of the majority of rail building, in the pre & post Civil War era, the railroads and the government were notoriously corrupt. This gave railroads surprising power over their rights of way. In fact railroads have a control of these narrow paths that is not unlike a small state. It is very rare that a railroad will relinquish rights to these lands here in the US.

V. Interesting, I used to cycle along the Shrewsbury section quite frequently as it cut out a lot of busy roads in Shrewsbury. As conservation volunteers we also repainted the crossing gates in the Ironbridge Gorge! This was in about 1985.

Such a shame, so much lost in the name of the rubber tyre and tarmac and look where its got us!

You like to do what I do here in the U.S. Railroad archaeology. There is much to be seen by those who care to see. Thanks!

🚂👍

Excellent.

Dramatic changes in a relatively short period of time!

Well in theory the line could go all the way back into Shrewsbury but rejoin the mainline just outside. Maybe join onto the Marches/Heart of Wales Line at the South side of Shrewsbury. It would actually keep in line as far as Shrewsbury. Would be amazing if this happened.

Ive not been there in years

This is both fascinating and sad to see. I would love to see steam return to the Ironbridge Gorge. I actually live a few yards from the trackbed of another (connected) line that I would dearly love to see brought back to life, but am afraid I am unlikely ever to see either happen. The shortsightedness that destroyed or built over the trackbeds has never ceased to astonish and depress me. Our national love affair with roads and the motor car that looked so promising in the Beeching era proved not to be perhaps the utopian dream everyone expected. Now that we need to think of more sustainable ways to move people and things about, so many wonderful opportunities are likely to be beyond reach, simply because to reverse forty years of thoughtless and lazy planning and the resultant buildings would be so fantastically expensive. Closing the lines was bad enough, but eliminating the chance to reopen them again in the future always struck me as madness. I'm no rail expert (to say the least!), but it strikes me that rail has to be among the most energy efficient forms of transport across land - once the groundworks and infrastructure are complete, surely it takes less energy to move a thousand tonnes by rail than it does to drag it uphill and down-dale by road. Also trains can be run on electricity so much more simply than road transport, with its dependency upon batteries (I wonder how environmental those will turn out to be in the long run?). Plus the geographical footprint of even a double tracked mainline is a fraction of that of a motorway. I know there are many here who can fill in the facts, whereas I (in my comparative ignorance!) can only guess and hypothesise, but I'd be fascinated to know how the tonnage of goods and number of passengers carried, and the fuel/energy required to do so, by even a single track line like this one, compares to the equivalent road use.

Good video

Could they join up to Ludlow’s line as that is in use?

Houses and road! Why did they ever build on it

I am interested in your video workflow. To the untrained eye this video appears full of jarring jump cuts, ever varying horizons and radon frozen frames. I take it this was all intentional?

Hi Holden, good video, but why no coalport station that is preserved and has two refurbished coaches as holiday let's?

I heard that they were talking of physically linking the gloucester via worcster to kiddiminster...any truth

very good video and interesting .but who will put the money up? SVR

problem is most of the footpaths are owned by sustrans,and they won't allow anyone to take over rebuilding train lines

I would love to get the old station and tracks built again u no how much economy it would create jobs money and international trade for all weres all the equipment at these days

just build around the houses or find a way to have them demolished

If the Severn valley railway can never get back to Shrewsbury why not try to get it back to berrington

Very interesting video. Thank you. However, I wish you were better able to hold your video camera horizontal, as some of the angles are really disconcerting and limited how much of the video I could watch at a time without getting a headache.

Isn't Shrewsbury a type of crappy biscuit

.