File talk:Sun (London) - Saturday 24 July 1847.jpg

It would be interesting to know exactly which proposed railway this article related to. Marshall notes that the Shropshire Union Railways and Canal Company plans for a railway over essentially the same route were surveyed in 1846 by Robert Stephenson and Frederick Swanwick, while the line was not re-surveyed by Robert Nicholson for the Severn Valley Railway Company until 1849. Therefore a survey already carried out in 1847 looks like the SURCC scheme. However the article refers to joining the OWW "near Stourport" which sounds more like the Severn Valley Railway's Hartlebury connection than the SURCC which originally proposed a railway all the way to Worcester (although the SURCC's plans may have changed in the same way that the Severn Valley Railway Company's did subsequently). A similar article advertising the formation of the Severn Valley Railway appeared in Herapath's Journal on 26 June 1852.

In passing, Marshall also notes that the Bill of Parliament to enact the SURCC's plans "was advertised in the local press in Shrewsbury and Worcester during November 1846", which was earlier than this article. However neither Marshall nor Vanns states what the SURCC planned on calling their railway, therefore "The earliest known reference to the Severn Valley Railway in a newspaper" may still be correct.--Robin (talk) 16:04, 22 October 2019 (UTC)