B'day boy hires Orient Express

If you want to celebrate, do it in style – that was the message from businessman and rail enthusiast Phil Swallow who hired the Orient Express for his 50th birthday.

He took 232 guests along for the ride on the steam-hauled train from London Victoria to Salisbury where a Western Class diesel took over the task of hauling the coaches to Kidderminster and on to Bewdley. Phil said on his arrival in Bewdley "I have been interested in trains for years and years and I had been on the Orient Express with my wife Caroline."

"I decided it would be a great way to celebrate my birthday with my friends.

"We will be going back via Birmingham and High Wycombe and enjoying a five-course meal. It is really a fantastic day."

Scores of enthusiasts flocked to Kidderminster and Bewdley to get a glimpse of the famous railway rolling stock and carriages which date back to the 1920s and 1930s and were built by Pullman's in Birmingham.

Phil, owns the 1946 Brighton-built Taw Valley locomotive, a West Country Class Pacific No.34027, which is currently undergoing restoration at the Severn Valley, and which became famous as the official Hogwarts Express during a promotion of the popular Harry Potter wizard books.

John Leach, marketing manager of the Severn Valley Railway, said: "Phil is one of our members and a shareholder, so decided this was how he wanted to celebrate his birthday.

"It was a really marvellous opportunity for people to see the luxurious carriages originally used on trains like the Bournemouth Belle and the Queen of Scots which have been gathered together and form the British part of the Orient Express train."

The train was specially personalised with a board declaring "Phil's 50th birthday bash".