Severn Valley Railway Timeline 2003

2003 timetable

This page details events on the Severn Valley Railway during 2003.

During the year the total mileage since opening day in 1970 exceeded 1.5 million miles. Another year of record passenger numbers saw more than 248,000 carried.

Page under construction / revision as of October 2025.

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March 2003

The Spring Gala was based on a Welsh Branch Line theme. Visiting locomotives were Taff Vale Railway 0-6-2T no 85 from the Worth Valley Railway and GWR Collett 5600 class 0-6-2T no 5637 from the East Somerset Railway.

April 2003

61994 The Great Marquess was bought by John Cameron from the family of the late Earl of Lindsay. Plans were announced that the locomotive would be overhauled at the SVR, including the repair of the driving axle which had failed in 1997.

May 2003

A ceremony was held at Bridgnorth Station on 1 May to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the closure of RAF Bridgnorth, the former RAF national service training centre at Stanmore Park

Summer 2003

The SVR News ‘Boardroom Notes’ stated: “Although we will continue to monitor the position, the possibility of a connection to Ironbridge is now unlikely since the BR Residual Property Board has apparently concluded that there is no requirement for a railway north of Bridgnorth and has put Bridgnorth tunnel up for sale.” The Railway was commited to an number of other capital projects at the time, including Highley Museum, for which Stage 1 Heritage Lottery Fund approval had recently been received, and construction of the final wing of Kidderminster Station.

Autumn 2003

Considerable discussion took place with Shropshire County Council over plans to build part of the National Cycle Route 45 on the SVR property between Hampton Loade and Highley. Agreement was eventually reached for this to proceed.

September 2003

Autumn Steam Gala visitors were LBSCR Stroudley A1X Terrier ‘Knowle’ (BR 32678) from the Kent & East Sussex Railway and BR Standard 5MT 4-6-0 no 73096 from the Mid Hants Railway. 6201 Princess Elizabeth was also on the Railway at the time.

Locomotive Mileages

A table of locomotives used during the year is shown below.

Locomotive	Miles	Comment
813	980
1501	8,303
5764	6,163
7714	4,163
7802 Bradley Manor	10,797	Including 3 main line railtours
34027 Taw Valley	4,302	Including main line railtours
42968	11,266	Returned to service
45110	5,439
46443	8,730
48773	8,609
60009 Union of South Africa	6,234	Including main line railtours
686 The Lady Armaghdale	1,937
Guests and others	1,213
Total	78,136

See also

• The Severn Valley Railway in preservation

Great Western Railway

Charles Benjamin Collett, Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Great Western Railway 1922-1941

Severn Valley Railway

British Rail or British Railways

London Brighton & South Coast Railway

William Stroudley, locomotive superintendent of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway 1870-1889

The 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.