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Arley

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Added Arley station history on www.svrlive.com
===Station buildings===
The main station building at Arley dates from the opening of the Severn Valley Railway in 1862. The station was considerably smaller than it is now, passenger facilities being limited to the present waiting room with a partitioned booking office in the corner of the room and the gentlemen's toilets. Facilities were completed by a weighbridge on the site of the present day refreshment kiosk in the station yard. Extensions were later added, consisting of a Ladies' waiting room authorised in 1892 and an additional bedroom in the Station Master’s house added in 1901.
From opening, there was no passing loop and the single platform was very much shorter than the two the station has today. If you look at the face of the main platform from the down platform (or garden side) it is possible to see the shape of the original short, stone-faced platform which you can see was also more than a foot lower than the one in use now. The passing loop and a signal box were installed in 1883 together with a second platform, the existing platform being raised and lengthened. The shelter on Platform 2 is also original, dating from the opening . In 1907 both the platforms were further lengthened, since then the only significant change to the layout was the laying of that platform in 1883a second siding behind the signal box sometime before the 1930s.
The café building behind the station was built during the summer of 1992 on the site of the former weighbridge. It replaced a similar building known as 'Tom’s Cabin' (named after volunteer Tom McGee who ran the cabin and did much restoration at Arley over many years) that had become dangerous.
In 2018 an [[:Category:SVR fundraising lotteries|SVRA raffle]] raised over £7,000 for new facilities including a workshop and storage for Santa equipment to replace a small corrugated metal shed next to the gift shop.<ref>SVR News 200</ref> In late 2019 construction started on the new building at the north end of the station, with the roof coming from part of the old [[Bewdley]] platform canopy. It was also partly funded by the [[Arley Station Fund]]<ref>[https://www.svrlive.com/epfeb20 Express Points, February 2020] (Retrieved 4 February 2020)]</ref>.
===Restoration===
By 1972 the restoration had begun in earnest with much vegetation clearance, platform repairs, mains water and electricity installed for the first time, GWR gas lamps erected and new running-in boards erected. A summer camp school party gathered up the surfacing bricks on the down platform to facilitate its levelling and re-laying. The station was repainted in the early 1930s GWR style.
By spring 1973 the platform awning had been repaired, the former weighbridge converted into 'Sid’s Café' and the future car park to the rear of the down platform levelled. Further work saw the painting of the toilets and installation of new sinks, work in the gardens and the opening of the station shop.
===Restoration=== After closure to passenger trains, BR lifted the Up loop (the running line nearer the station building) through the station and the sidings, and the down platform edging was removed to ensure clearance for the coal trains which still passed through until 1969. When the SVR first re-opened the line between Hampton Loade and Bewdley in [[Severn Valley Railway Timeline 1970-1979 #1974 | 1974]], there was therefore no facility to pass trains, the Up loop (the running line nearer the station building) having been removed by BR in the 1960s. This was re-laid over the next year and re-opened on [[Severn Valley Railway Timeline 1970-1979 #1974 | 25 May 1975]].
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File:S0635 Arley Station 1972.jpg | Rebuilding platform 2 in 1972 (David Cooke)
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George Batchelor and Joe Hill both won numerous [[Awards#Prior to preservation|awards]] for the gardens at Arley. Joe Hill was the last resident Station Master; after he left the station came under the supervision of [[Bewdley]] and the house was occupied by Fred Jones and his wife Diane who both served as Porter/signalman. Their son David became a fireman and regularly worked on the line, exchanging tokens with his mother for the last time on the final passenger train to run on the branch on 7 September 1963.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books|Geens (1985)]] p. 18.</ref>After closure, the station house was still the home of Mr and Mrs Jones, who had staffed the station for many years.
===Traffic statistics===
==References==
[https://www.svrlive.com/ay-history Arley station history on www.svrlive.com]<br>
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