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Kidderminster Railway Museum

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The Railway Museum building can be seen behind visiting loco ‘The Coffee Pot’

Although it works closely with the SVR, Kidderminster Railway Museum is run by an independent organisation formed by a group of SVR members in 1989. The Museum, which opened the following year, is housed in the 1878 constructed two-storey former GWR grain and wool warehouse adjoining Kidderminster station.

Contents

Organisation

The museum is operated by The Kidderminster Railway Museum Trust Limited, a private company limited by guarantee, Company number 02033064.[1]

The Trust is a registered charity, No 518479. The Charity Commission records the Trust’s objectives as being “An independent museum established for the collection and conservation of relics and documents depicting the railways of the British Isles, and subsequently making them available to all those who wish to access them”.[2]

Grants

On 23 May 2001 The Heritage Lottery Fund awarded the Trust £177,500 for roof and canopy restoration, to provide additional storage space for the museum's collections and release further floorspace for new displays.[3]

Collection

The museum has on display an extensive collection of smaller historical railway items such as totem boards, signalling equipment and locomotive name and number plates. The museum also houses the former Midland Railway booking office from Alvechurch. Working 'hands on' exhibits include a telephone exchange formerly used on the SVR in preservation, and a lever frame from the north Signal Box at Rogart, Scotland.

  • Some of the exhibits

  • Some of the exhibits

  • Lever frame

The upper floor of the building houses an extensive collection of books and railway photographs. The photograph archive includes more than 150,000 prints and negatives and around 25,000 colour slides. This research facility is available to review on request; for details see the KRM Web site.

The Museum is also host to a small collection of rolling stock outside in the vicinity of the relocated Wrangaton Signal Box.

  • Wrangaton Signal Box

  • GWR PW Brake Van 40362 outside the Museum

  • GWR Workshop Van 14984 awaiting restoration

This border marker was formerly located on the Tweeedmough to Kelso line.[4] It was erected on the Museum site in 2016.

  • Border marker

Events

The museum arranges a regular programme of films, with guest presenters showing historic railway transport films. It operates signalling weekends using its large collection of signalling equipment for basic tuition before participants go on to work in one of the SVR's signal boxes when steam trains are running. Other events include railway photograph fairs and "Photographs on the road". The museum also hosts meetings of groups associated with the SVR. Exhibitions are also held and an incomplete listing is below:

  • 6-15 June 2015 - exhibition of signalling
  • 9-24 June 2018 - Gerald Broom GRA exhibition of paintings.
  • 4-19 August 2018 - an exhibition of photographs to commemorate 50 years since the end of scheduled steam services on British Railways. In addition on 4-5 August out of service locomotives LMS Stanier Class 5 45110 and LMS Stanier 8F 48773 were on display with public access to the footplates.
  • 19 May 2019 Colin Gifford launched his new book Transition, compiled and published in conjunction with Kidderminster Railway Museum (ISBN 978 1 9164001 0 8)

Railart

The Guild of Railway Artists stages its annual (previously biennial) art exhibition at Kidderminster Railway Museum. Frank Hodges, chief executive officer of the Guild was reported by the Kidderminster Shuttle in 2014: "The Guild looks upon the museum as its home venue having exhibited some ten times since its first event there in 1994.”[5] Further exhibitions were held or planned as follows:

  • 27 August-2 October 2016
  • 26 August-1 October 2017.[6][7]
  • 25 August-30 September 2018[8]
  • 17 August - 29 September 2019

Kidderminster Railway Museum has a small buffet, and also sells new and second-hand books.

  • Interior view (Wikimedia Commons)

As an unconnected enterprise, The Engine House at Highley displays a collection of larger items such as locomotives and rolling stock.

See also

The Engine House Visitor Centre at Highley
Rolling stock at Kidderminster Railway Museum
List of Charities associated with the SVR
SVR Archives

References

  1. ↑ Companies House
  2. ↑ Charity Commission
  3. ↑ HLF (retrieved 27 December 2016)
  4. ↑ Information from David Postle
  5. ↑ Kidderminster Shuttle 27 August 2014 (retrieved 27 December 2016)
  6. ↑ Unofficial SVR Forum (retrieved 27 December 2016)
  7. ↑ SVRLive (retrieved 26 August 017)
  8. ↑ KRM website (retrived 6 January 2018]

Links

Kidderminster Railway Museum website
The Guild of Railway Artists' website

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Welcome to the Severn Valley Railway Wiki

From this week's featured article
E1682 is a BRBritish Rail or British Railways Mk 1 Buffet Restaurant carriage. It was acquired by the SVRSevern Valley Railway (BRBritish Rail or British Railways) Buffet Car Fund in 1981 and used for many years on the Severn Valley Venturer dining service. (Full article...)
Schematic Map of the SVRSevern Valley Railway
BridgnorthEardingtonHampton LoadeCountry Park HaltHighleyThe Engine HouseArleyVictoria BridgeNorthwood HaltWyre Forest LineBewdleyStourport BranchBewdley TunnelConnection to Network RailKidderminsterMaps#Schematic maps of the pre-closure SVRMapandlinks3.png
Click on the map for a
larger interactive version

For 101 years between 1862 and 1963, the Severn Valley Railway formed part of the national railway network, running for 40 miles between Hartlebury and Shrewsbury. Established as a separate company, it was mainly operated by the Great Western Railway (GWRGreat Western Railway) and later by British Railways (BRBritish Rail or British Railways).

The present day Severn Valley Railway (SVRSevern Valley Railway) was established in 1965 to preserve part of the line as a heritage railway. Today it has six stations and two halts and runs for 16 miles along the Severn Valley between Bridgnorth in Shropshire and Kidderminster in Worcestershire, following the course of the River Severn for much of its route. Operations involve a mixture of steam and heritage diesel-hauled services.

This unofficial website is a project aimed to collect information and record events relating to the SVRSevern Valley Railway, both past and present.

For timetables, fare information, and news about special events, please visit the SVR Official Website. Other news and information of interest to members, shareholders and enthusiasts can be found on SVRLive.

In April 2023 the SVRSevern Valley Railway announced the launch of a Survival Fund to enable it to overcome the current financial crisis and implement longer-term plans for its future. Information and details of how to donate may be found on the SVRSevern Valley Railway's Survival Fund page.

Categories of article

History of the Severn Valley Railway

Current events on the SVRSevern Valley Railway

Information about the SVRSevern Valley Railway

Miscellaneous


Query Corner

Unsurprisingly, there are a large number of questions about the SVRSevern Valley Railway, both in pre-preservation days and for a number of historical items since then. Take a visit down to Query Corner to see if you have a recollection relating to some long forgotten event, or know of a reliable source (maybe an early edition of the SVR News?) that might have the information we need!

In addition are a number of stub articles requiring further input.

Adding to this Wiki

This site, or "wiki", is a collaborative effort, and anyone who has any knowledge relating to the SVRSevern Valley Railway should feel free to contribute. Once you have created a user account and logged in, you can modify any page by clicking the "Edit" button in the top right hand corner. For some tips on how to format pages, and some guidelines on how to make this wiki accessible can be found on Tips for contributing to the SVR Wiki.

Alternatively, if you don't feel confident editing this Wiki (although there is no reason you shouldn't!!), each article also has a "Discussion" page, which can be accessed by clicking the relevant button in the top left hand corner. This allows you to make additions, suggestions, or corrections to a page without making any change to the article itself.


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