Full steam ahead at Severn Valley Railway

The Severn Valley Railway is resuming steam-hauled passenger services from Wednesday 17 August.

Because of the prolonged spell of hot, dry weather, the railway had switched to running heritage diesel services only, because of the risk of lineside fires starting from ashes or cinders emitted by steam locomotives.

“We are delighted to be able to return to our steam services,” said Helen Smith, the SVR’s managing director. “The fact that at long last we’ve had some rain is very welcome, and means we’re able to operate steam once more.

“We want to thank our visitors for their understanding towards the difficult situation we’ve faced this summer. It’s wonderful to see people enjoying a great day of heritage travel on the SVR, and in many cases, they don’t mind whether it’s steam or diesel-hauled.

“We are extremely fortunate to have a superb fleet of heritage diesels to turn to. Without them, we would have been forced to shut down completely, because of the fire risk.”

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