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[[File:GWRplanAlveleySidings.jpg|thumb|300px|right|GWR plan of Alveley Sidings]]
A concrete arched bridge was built across the river Severn between 1936 and 1937. Coal was brought from the colliery to the sidings and colliery, initially by a narrow gauge cable-worked tramway across the bridge, and later by an aerial ropeway above it.<ref name ="Marshall101">[[Bibliography#Books | Marshall (1989)]] p. 101.</ref>
<gallery mode=packed heights=200px style="text-align:left">
Colliery6 Robert Evans.jpg|The river bridge and tramway.
Alveley_ropeway_Jim_Clemens.jpg|The ropeway as seen from the Severn Valley branch
</gallery>
The sidings were accessed via two ground frames, [[Alveley Sidings (North) ground frame|Alveley Sidings (North)]] and [[Alveley Sidings (South) ground frame|Alveley Sidings (South)]], which were unlocked by the [[Highley signal box|Highley]]-[[Hampton Loade signal box|Hampton Loade]] token. An intermediate token instrument was provided in a cabin between the two ground frames, with direct telephone lines to Highley Signal Box and Hampton Loade Booking Office, as well as the Worcester Exchange-Bridgnorth Signal Box omnibus line. The intermediate instrument allowed trains to be locked in so that other traffic could pass on the main line whilst shunting took place in the sidings.
The layout on the GWR side consisted of a front loop line, with a capacity of 50 wagons, and a number of other sidings and headshunts. Two connections to the private sidings were provided, one at the South end leading to the empty wagon sidings, which held 40 wagons, and another at the North end leading to the loaded wagon sidings, holding 36 wagons. The two rakes of private sidings were connected internally via the coal screens, the large buildings visible in the Sellick photograph, where coal was loaded into the wagons. GWR locomotives were used to set down and pick up wagons on these sidings, but were otherwise not allowed in the private sidings.
The GWR locomotives which operated coal trains from the sidings were subject to the Severn Valley Branch's [[GWR Power and Weight Classification#GWR route classification colours|'dotted blue' route]] classification between Bewdley and Ironbridge. Heavier [[GWR Power and Weight Classification#GWR route classification colours|'Red' locomotives]] were banned, although on at least one occasion the running department accidentally allocated a [[Tales from the Severn Valley#The overweight locomotive| GWR 5600 class locomotive which reached the sidings before the footplate crew realise that it should not have been there]].
==Preservation==
== Photographs ==
<gallerymode=packed heights=200px style="text-align:left">
File:GWR_Alveley_Colliery_2.jpg|GWR Notice covering the opening and operation of Alveley Sidings. 1 of 2.
File:GWR_Alveley_Colliery_1.jpg|GWR Notice covering the opening and operation of Alveley Sidings. 2 of 2.
