Repairs complete on Severn Valley Railway's catastrophic landslip - in time for Flying Scotsman this Friday
Repairs are complete on the Severn Valley Railway's catastrophic landslip near Bridgnorth - just in time for a famous locomotive's visit this week.
The work at the Mor Brook Bridge, which was the site of the landslip earlier this year, has been completed thanks to an ambitious and unique joint volunteering effort by many companies across the rail sector.
The completion is a huge bonus for the heritage railway, as well as Bridgnorth and Shropshire, fully reopening one of its biggest and most popular tourist attractions.
The Severn Valley Railway (SVR) said the work has been achieved in "record time and at zero cost", ahead of ‘Flying Scotsman’ hauling the first public service this season to reunite the whole line on Friday (July 25).
The heritage railway said that with only a short timescale to complete the job, one of its directors used his extensive network of mainline railway contacts to secure volunteer people power, equipment, support services and consumables at no cost to the line.
On Wednesday, July 16, the ‘orange army volunteer all stars’ came together to complete the work, following repairs to the damaged bridge and embankment at Mor Brook.
SVR director Steve Featherstone said: “It was clear we needed a very fast solution for our track re-lay, once we’d secured the visit of ‘Flying Scotsman’, and we had an incredibly short timescale to get things done. I started making phone calls to contacts in the rail industry, and was completely knocked out by their willingness to get involved and the generosity of so many companies.
“It’s been quite a job pulling all this together, but it has worked out tremendously well. The camaraderie and atmosphere onsite was amazing.”
The companies taking part in the exercise included A P Webb, AWE Technologies, Balfour Beatty, Central Rail Systems Alliance, CML, Colas, Crown Group, Forestry, Rail & Civils Ltd, Ganymede Solutions, Interflon, Network Rail, Rail Power and Construction Ltd, Shannon Rail, Staytite, Vital and VP Rail.
“Whilst repairs to the embankment and bridge structure were covered largely by insurance, the track re-lay element wasn’t,” Mr Featherstone added. “In record time, this superb team has been able to carry out a task that would have taken the railway’s own very small permanent way gang around three weeks to complete. It’s made all the difference, and we are hugely grateful.”
Denise Wetton, Network Rail central route director, said: “In 2023, the SVR’s managing director Gus Dunster and I signed the first ever partnership agreement between Network Rail and a heritage railway. The Mor Brook rebuild and reinstatement is a great example of what can be achieved when everyone works closely together.”
Mr Dunster added: “It has been great to see the whole railway community pitching in to help us. With ‘Flying Scotsman’ coming for our grand reopening, it was essential we got the track reinstated safely and quickly. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who played a part in the orange army volunteer all stars. What an achievement this has been!”
The SVR has quickly moved on to run proving trains across the repaired embankment, and will hold the official passenger reopening of the full line this Friday with ‘Flying Scotsman’ hauling the inaugural service.