After my full-on day on the rails, Saturday, and following a day to recuperate, it was back on the railway, today, for a special charter.
To celebrate the 75th anniversary of heritage rail, Heritage Railway Association, Vintage Trains and Severn Valley Railway got together to put on this special charter.
The train was scheduled to leave Birmingham Snow Hill station at 11:30 which was a lot later than a lot of the charters that we have done in the past. This gave us time to get ready, catch a bus into Birmingham and grab a coffee.
As we were sat in Costa, just outside of the station, I noticed a couple walking towards the station.
“I’m sure that was Liz and Simon”, I exclaimed to Sue, “they like trains, I wonder if they’re on our train?”
We finished our drinks and made our way to Snow Hill and platform 2 where we were told the special would be leaving from. As we arrived on the platform, there in front of us were Liz and Simon whom we know from geocaching.
We made our greetings and after ascertaining that they were indeed on ‘our’ train, I asked which coach they were travelling in.
“Coach F, table 8”, I was informed.
“Coach F, table 7”, I replied. We would be at adjacent tables across the aisle.
Before long, Clun Castle (7029) pulled our train into the station. We would be going out the opposite way so our loco had to run around and attach at the other end.
As in true charter style, we left a good ten minutes late heading through the tunnel connecting Snow Hill and Moor Street. This was constructed back in 1852 using the “cut and cover’ method of digging a trench then partly covering it to form a tunnel. Birmingham’s Great Western Arcade was build on top and follows the line of the railway.
From Moor Street, we continued out to Tyseley thereafter taking the right-hand branch towards Stratford-upon-Avon via Earlswood. This line (as one of two connecting Moor Street and Stratford) has faced closure many times but local pressure groups fought, successfully, to keep it open and is now known as the Shakespeare Line. At Wilmcote, we joined the original line to finish our ride into Stratford.
On the way to Stratford, I remembered that there was an adventure Lab (in fact two) along this stretch designed to be solved from the train. I mentioned this to our caching chums so there were three of us ticking the boxes as we proceeded. This resulted in another eight caches found for Team Balders.
After a half hour leg-stretching and bladder relieving halt, it was back on board for our return to Birmingham, this time travelling on the other, original, route via Solihull.
After reaching Hatton, we had a bit of a run to Dorridge which gave the engine a chance to show it’s paces reaching over sixty miles per hour.
Passing through Snow Hill, we were now on the Great Western Route which roughly runs alongside the Midland Metro as far as The Hawthorns. It was along this stretch that Simon disappeared, which Liz explained as “He’s tram-spotting”.
Just before he returned I noticed that one passing tram bore the name of Ozzy Osbourne and mentioned this on his return. In hushed tones, Simon whispered, “There are at least four trams called Ozzy Osbourne!” My illusions shattered.
Reading the handbook for today’s trip I learned that The Hawthorns is one of only two stations in the UK starting with ‘The’. Annoyingly, the other one wasn’t mentioned.
I hate that sort of thing. Like when you’re told that something is the second best but you’re not told what’s first. Anyway, a quick Google revealed that we had already passed through the other earlier – The Lakes.
We passed through Stourbridge Junction and I was disappointed that we didn’t catch a glimpse of the little Class 139.
Before long, we reached Kidderminster where we briefly stopped to pick up some Severn Valley Railway (SVR) staff before crossing over onto SVR metals.
A Class 08 diesel took us into the other Kidderminster station (Kidderminster Town) where it was replaced by a Large Prairie Saddle Tank to transport us along the SVR.
Meanwhile, Clun Castle turned around using the turntable at Kidderminster before parking up to await our return later in the day.
After many minutes waiting, we pulled out of Kidderminster Town heading north towards Bewdley passing the West Midland Safari Park on our right.
At Highey, we were to disembark but as it’s only a short platform, well a lot shorted than our eight coach train, we had to alight in two batches with the train pulling forward between.
Disgorged, the passengers made their way to the Engine Shed which houses a small museum and more importantly today, a snack bar.
Pork baps and cheese & onion pasties later, washed down with a Baileys hot chocolate, we made our way back through the fading light to await boarding.
It had turned a little chilly with the setting of the sun as we sat on the platform.
Pinned to the departures board was a sign proclaiming ‘No Passenger Trains Today”. As expected, we had the SVR all to ourselves which would explain why there had been no stops for tokens and passing traffic.
At around five (17:00) our train pulled in and the first tranche of passengers boarded assisted by the station master resplendent in his 1920’s uniform, looking like an extra from The Polar Express or The Railway Children.
With the, mainly First Class and Pullman, passengers aboard, the train pulled forward enough for us riff-raff to board.
After another few minutes (no rush, we’re not holding anyone up) we continued our exploration of the Severn Valley Railway arriving at the Northern terminus of Bridgnorth in the dark.
The timetable stated that we would be hauled from Bridgnorth by Clun Castle but as we waited carriages were shunted around before ewe saw the dark hulk of 5140 run around.
So with the large prairie in front, we were pulled back to Kidderminster where Clun Castle took over for our return to Snow Hill, back on Network Rail.
The train made good time and as we shot through Stourbridge, I was rewarded with the sight of the Stourbridge shuttle waiting to take passengers along the 0.8 mile branch into town.
We pulled into Snow Hill only around ten minutes late. We said bye to our geocaching buddies before alighting.
We had a bus to catch to get home but had enough time for a last minute snap of Clun Castle.
We had about a fifteen minute wait in the cold for the bus but it was on-time (give or take) and we were back home before ten.
An enjoyable trip and being a bit shorter than most charters we weren’t nodding off on the way back.
