Next stop is 60s poster campaign

These 1960s-inspired posters showing the stations along the historic 16-mile Severn Valley Railway are helping get up steam for a fundraising campaign.

For the colourful posters have been created and are being reproduced for sale in a bid to raise cash for the tourist attraction's on-going flood damage appeal.

They are the handiwork of Shropshire resident Alan Reade who has used his passion for art to help the famous Bridgnorth to Kidderminster heritage line.

Mr Reade, of Claverley, near Bridgnorth, is a civil engineer by trade, and an artist in his spare time. He designed the posters to sell with all proceeds going to the flood appeal, which was launched following the flood devastation suffered by the railway line in 2007.

The 68-year-old said he wanted to do something different to help the popular tourist attraction.

He has produced artwork for commercial purposes all his professional life, but also paints watercolours as a hobby, selling scores of landscapes, mostly of Shropshire, through galleries in Ludlow, Church Stretton, Craven Arms and Bridgnorth, over the past 40 years.

For the Church Stretton Arts Festival last year Mr Reade produced four paintings of Severn Valley Railway steam trains in the countryside near Hampton Loade with the idea that the proceeds would go to the SVR flood relief fund.

But none of the paintings sold so it was back to the drawing board for a new fundraising idea.

Mr Reade said: "Unfortunately none sold, so I decided to try to raise funds by producing colourful 60s-style posters representing each of the six principal stations on the famous tourist line from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster."

Prints of all the posters are available from the Engine House Visitor and Education Centre at Highley, which is open when trains are running.

For more details call 01299 403816.