The Severn Valley Railway, obviously, runs down the valley of the River Severn. It runs for 16 miles, which is a goodly portion of the aforementioned valley, linking Bridgnorth in Shropshire to Kidderminster in Worcestershire. Think Birmingham and then west a bit, that's where it is. It's one of Britain's longest heritage railways and also one of the most popular, helped by being linked to the main railway network at one end. It runs daily from Easter to the end of September, plus most weekends, and is a thoroughly splendid day out. [7 photos]
The ticket everyone buys is the Freedom Of The Line. This racks up at £22 but, with an end-to-end-journey taking 70 minutes and at least half dozen trains a day in each direction, that's not so bad. Buying your ticket in advance saves money, but if you're a single traveller the postage fee ensures it only saves 45p so I didn't bother.
Most of the line was closed to the public for three days last week while some mysterious filming took place. Thankfully I visited the morning after, otherwise my trip to the SVR would have been impractically curtailed. Several large trucks were parked outside Kidderminster station when I arrived, into which a whole slew of props were being transferred from piles laid out across the main concourse. I spotted posters and fake clockfaces, carts topped with hardback books, a stack of carefully undated copies of the Evening News and a surprisingly large number of sweet jars. A poster on the wall suggested the fictional setting was the town of Basilwether, which I hoped might be a useful clue but proved entirely unGoogleworthy. All the smart local money is on a Sherlock Holmes film, either the next Robert Downey Junior or the less canonical 'Enola Holmes' featuring Helena Bonham Carter.
Most of the day's services are hauled by steam, but one diesel plies the route too (marked in the timetable in case you'd prefer to avoid). Trains are formed of a hotchpotch of carriages, each labelled outside to confirm its type and year of construction. Some are compartmentalised (and much sought after), others boast a central gangway (less so), and some are a lot more luxurious with reserved signs stuck to the window for group travel. Look carefully for the buffet car, or perhaps smart waiters will walk through to your seat and wave a drinks menu at you - it happened to me once. The trains are also really long, which they need to be when it's busy, but this means at most of the intermediate stations several of the carriages overshoot the platform.
On departing Kidderminster I strongly recommend you sit on the right hand side because that's where the elephants are. West Midland Safari Park brushes right up against the side of the track, which initially offered a clear view of two rhino and a herd of deer, plus several cars snaking through. Then suddenly a large elephant appeared a few steps behind the strengthened fence, endearingly nuzzling its calf with its tusks. Those on the left of the train seemed very pleased with their speckled poppyfields, but didn't realise they'd missed the Serengeti.
The first station is Bewdley, which is where the proper Severn valley first swings into view. I'll tell you more about Bewdley tomorrow, it's a very visitworthy town. After this the train climbs patiently to Northwood Halt, one of the line's two request stops (but just popular enough that the train stopped on each of the four occasions I passed). The railway only crosses the river once, which it does before Arley, where you might spot some high-wadered anglers casting idly in the waters. And then my favourite stretch followed, running through grassy meadows parallel to a shallow shoal-y river that just happens to end up being the longest in the country.
Highley was just another station until the SVR implanted their Visitor Centre here, essentially a long loco shed with an upstairs cafe and viewing platform attached. If you didn't buy a Freedom Of The Line Ticket this costs £6.50 to enter, and I'd say isn't worth the extra, the engines and carriages being interesting but relatively few in number. I had to manoeuvre past a school party enjoying an end of term treat and hide briefly in the mail van, but I suspect that was still preferable to the onslaught of summer-holidaying families which kicks off next week.
A further request stop serves the Severn Valley Country Park, which isn't worth your time, after which comes another charming riverside stretch on the way to Hampton Loade. This station's possibly unique in being named after a village you can't get to, not without hopping into a car and driving through a ford (or, if particularly well-prepared, wading through the Severn). A long-standing passenger ferry once crossed the river here but the floods of June 2007 destroyed it, and a subsequent rebuild fell into silent disrepair in 2017 and hasn't run since. You'll see none of this from the train, sorry.
And finally, unhurriedly, the train aims for Bridgnorth at the end of the line. This is another visitworthy town, even more so than Bewdley, so I'll tell you more about that tomorrow too. What I will say for now is that you shouldn't just plonk down in the Railwaymans Arms for a pint, but cross the high slung footbridge in front of the station and explore. I hung around until the very last train before heading back, and sat in an almost empty rear carriage all the way back to Kidderminster, admiring the sylvan scenery one last time. You don't have to like trains to enjoy the Severn Valley Railway.
Kidderminster station had been stripped of its Hollywood anachronisms by the time I returned. The newspaper kiosk had been rebranded to a different era, the concourse was considerably easier to navigate than before and a grey plywood 'urinal' had been removed to reveal a red telephone box underneath. It's a K6 telephone box, which means the mystery film must be set before 1935 otherwise they'd have kept it on show. That's all the speculation I have, sorry.
