Objectives

Its major objectives are:

1. Improving the public presentation and display of the wonderful collection of historical wagons residing on the SVRSevern Valley Railway. Possible ways include the stationing of wagons at suitable locations, and the operation of more demonstration freight trains.
2. Keeping alive the craft of operating freight trains by running more freights and thus retaining the skills of the operating staff. This will have the effect of increasing the interest for visitors to the Railway
3. Improving the workshop facilities available to the Wagon Dept to ease and accelerate the restoration of wagons. Its hoped to "piggy back" this onto current plans to improve the carriage restoration facilities at Bewdley.
4. Improving the conservation of wagons, both restored and not, by providing covered accommodation for at least the most vulnerable.

The wagon shed project

Seen from Stourport Road Bridge, the proposed location for the wagon shed is the area to the right of the line.

Extract from 1951 OSOrdnance Survey Map showing Foley Park sidings and Foley Park Halt

The site at Bewdley Triangle is no longer available, and attention has turned to the site of the GWRGreat Western Railway sidings adjacent to the former BSC works at Foley Park.

1. In February 2016 the site was cleared of undergrowth to allow a detailed site survey.
2. In April 2016 the information was used to prepare possible track layouts and illustrations.^[3]
3. At March 2017 the survey had been used to prepare outline plans, discuss them with the SVRSevern Valley Railway management and other key parties, and obtain approximate prices for creating such a facility.

The proposals utilise the full area of the former Foley Park Sidings. This originally held 4 tracks with a headshunt over Lisle Avenue underbridge to reach the start of Falling Sands Viaduct. The platform at Foley Park was originally on the south side with an access pathway (which still exists) to Stourport Road. On construction of the sidings the platform with pagoda shelter was moved to the north side.
Stourport Road overbridge was constructed for double track. The clearance work so far has not uncovered any track drainage suggesting that the design should incorporate a new drain and/or French drains to discharge at the east end where St Francis Group have their outfall to the canal/river. The design seeks to accommodate a 60 wagon three road storage shed with an external run round loop and the engineering siding at the east end. The latter would facilitate the offloading of permanent way materials and visiting locomotive loading with road access off Silverwoods Way.
It is envisaged that the shed would be a standard ‘Agricultural’ type building with 5 metre spaced portal frames (on pad foundations in the sandstone formation) and propriety cladding with windows and photovoltaic panels on the roof to provide an income source and lighting. Electrical and water supplies could be accessed off Stourport Road. The 3 roads would be fed from the east with only a single road emerging from the west end of the shed. The latter would allow demonstration wagon events linked to the car park access off Felix Baxter Drive.
It is envisaged that there would be raised walkways between the internal tracks allowing limited access for viewing. At present, the southerly road would contain historically significant non-runners with the remaining roads having different demonstration goods trains with brake vans at each end. There is provision at the east end for a large locomotive (e.g 8FThe British Railways system of classifying steam locomotives by power using a number from 0, least powerful, to 9, most powerful, followed by either F for freight, P for Passenger or MT for Mixed Traffic. or 28XX) to sit in front of the doors. The run round loop and headshunt are around 175 metres long to accommodate typical freight trains or engineering trains. The engineers siding has been designed to allow road vehicles to run along as well as offloading ballast or rails. The actual access road alignment awaits discussions with the developer of the commercial plots and their servicing requirements.
Initial estimates suggest around £200,000 for design, supply and erection of the shed with additional works needed on earthworks, drainage, fencing/security, electricity and water supply. Construction could be phased, with the engineer’s siding being required sooner for trackwork delivery and the works to the cabling and relaying needing to be planned together. When many of the wagons are moved it would be possible to proceed with the Bewdley plans as a separate phase.^[4]

See also

Goods Wagons
Wagon Department

References

1. ↑ Fathers, P., SVRA Forum 10 December 2010 (Retrieved 4 January 2018
2. ↑ 'Job vacancies', SVRLive, 28 March 2017
3. ↑ SVRSevern Valley Railway News June 2016
4. ↑ SVR Wagons website (Retrieved 16 July 2017)