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Add reference to JB Mayers' work in signalling arrangements
The first full length working of the Severn Valley Railway was a special train of 22 carriages which left Worcester Shrub Hill at 11:30am on Friday 31 January 1862. This reached Shrewsbury at 2pm, after stopping at every station to be greeted by cheering crowds. The return journey was made with three more carriages and an additional engine.
Public services began on Saturday 1 February 1862, initially with just three return workings per day. The journey from Hartlebury to Shrewsbury stopping at all stations took around 2 hours 10 minutes. Initially there were only five stations at which trains could be crossed; [[Stourport]], [[Bewdley]], [[Bridgnorth]], [[Ironbridge and Broseley]] and [[Buildwas]]. <ref group="note">JB Mayers was Station Master at Stourport from around 1867. While there '' "he received instructions from late WS Tanner to prepare a signalling scheme to allow crossing places on the Severn Valley line to be varied (previously they were fixed in the working timetable with long waits ensuing). From 1875 he spent 20 years as Station Master at Kidderminster" '' (GWR Magazine June 1906).</ref> A number of the other stations would be provided with passing loops at later dates.
In July 1862 another act of Parliament was passed giving the Great Western Railway (‘GWR’) the right to buy the Severn Valley Railway Company before the end of 1871. However in August 1863 the GWR took over the West Midlands Railway, thus assuming the latter’s running powers over the Severn Valley Railway. The Severn Valley Railway was fully amalgamated into the GWR on 1 July 1872, by exchange of Preference Shares in the former for Consolidated Stock in the latter. From that point on, the Severn Valley Railway would be one of many of the GWR’s branch lines.
