Kidderminster Turntable
The 70ft vacuum turntable ex-Fort William arrived on the SVRSevern Valley Railway in June 1980. The Railway originally planned to install it at Bewdley South, in the fork between the Kidderminster and Stourport branches, but the development of Kidderminster led to its installation there instead. During the run up to installation a number of the large and small cast iron pads that support the ring rail were found to be missing. Patterns were made at the SVRSevern Valley Railway's pattern-shop from original drawings and replacements were cast. With the SVR Charitable Trust more recently wishing to add some additional connections to the turntable the pattern set for the larger ring rail pads was refurbished at the Pattern Shop at Bridgnorth to allow further pads to be cast.
A second turntable ex-Whitchurch was already in the SVRSevern Valley Railway’s possession at that time, originally intended for installation at Bridgnorth. This turntable is no longer at the SVRSevern Valley Railway, reportedly now being in Mallaig, Scotland.
A third turntable was acquired in 1998 ex-Bristol (Bath Road), also for installation at Bridgnorth. Pending a decision on where it should be installed, it was moved into storage at Eardington where it remains.
The Kidderminster turntable is owned by the SVRSevern Valley Railway Charitable Trust.
References
See also
Towards Kidderminster
List of infrastructure
Towards Bridgnorth
Kidderminster Station
