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.
==Traffic statistics==
:''Main article: [[Traffic statistics published by the GWR for stations on the Severn Valley Railway in selected years between 1903 and 1938 are set out below.<ref>[[Bibliography#Books|Nabarro (1971)]] pp. 54-56.</ref> Hartlebury and Shrewsbury are not shown, as their reported totals would include only a small portion of traffic relating to the Severn Valley Branch. [[Buildwascommercial service]] is included for completeness, although a portion of traffic originating there would relate to the Wellington and Much Wenlock branches.''
{| class="wikitable sortable"|+ The GWR Traffic collected annual traffic statistics for 1903|-! !! colspan="3" | Passenger Traffic !! colspan="2" | Freight Traffic !! |-! Station !! Tickets issued !! Parcels despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Tons received & despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Total revenue (£)|-|Stourport||style="text-align:right"|29,300||style="text-align:right"|21,338||style="text-align:right"|3,155||style="text-align:right"|76,174||style="text-align:right"|24,437||style="text-align:right"|27,592|-|their stations. These were collated and recorded in books covering periods of six years. The picture shows an example of the data collected for Bewdley||style="text-align:right"|63,131||style="text-align:right"|15,577||style="text-align:right"|4,296||style="text-align:right"|16,588||style="text-align:right"|5,076||style="text-align:right"|9,372|-|Arley||style="text-align:right"|17,295||style="text-align:right"|2,453||style="text-align:right"|914||style="text-align:right"|881||style="text-align:right"|178||style="text-align:right"|1,092|-|Highley||style="text-align:right"|17,559||style="text-align:right"|3,247||style="text-align:right"|1,185||style="text-align:right"|140,939||style="text-align:right"|24,372||style="text-align:right"|25,557|-|Hampton Loade||style="text-align:right"|9,967||style="text-align:right"|2,691||style="text-align:right"|760||style="text-align:right"|1,488||style="text-align:right"|631||style="text-align:right"|1,391|-|Eardington||style="text-align:right"|5,944||style="text-align:right"|778||style="text-align:right"|290||style="text-align:right"|1,493||style="text-align:right"|609||style="text-align:right"|899|-|Bridgnorth||style="text-align:right"|52,796||style="text-align:right"|40,029||style="text-align:right"|9,318||style="text-align:right"|46,455||style="text-align:right"|15,536||style="text-align:right"|24,854|-|Linley||style="text-align:right"|5,280||style="text-align:right"|1,506||style="text-align:right"|403||style="text-align:right"|159||style="text-align:right"|71||style="text-align:right"|474|-|Coalport||style="text-align:right"|7,906||style="text-align:right"|1,325||style="text-align:right"|493||style="text-align:right"|11,021||style="text-align:right"|3,820||style="text-align:right"|4,313|-|Ironbridge||style="text-align:right"|29,845||style="text-align:right"|19,240||style="text-align:right"|3,314||style="text-align:right"|75,457||style="text-align:right"|24,895||style="text-align:right"|28,209|-|Buildwas||style="text-align:right"|9,693||style="text-align:right"|1,258||style="text-align:right"|598||style="text-align:right"|3,831||style="text-align:right"|700||style="text-align:right"|1,298|-|Cressage||style="text-align:right"|13,514||style="text-align:right"|2,692||style="text-align:right"|979||style="text-align:right"|5,768||style="text-align:right"|1,329||style="text-align:right"|2,308|-|Berrington||style="text-align:right"|16,855||style="text-align:right"|4,695||style="text-align:right"|881||style="text-align:right"|8,275||style="text-align:right"|1,951||style="text-align:right"|2,832|-|}1903 Revenue totals: Passenger traffic £26,586 (20%), Freight traffic £103,605 (80%) {| class="wikitable sortable"|+ GWR Traffic statistics for 1913|-! !! colspan="3" | Passenger Traffic !! colspan="2" | Freight Traffic !! |-! Station !! Tickets issued !! Parcels despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Tons received & despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Total revenue (£)|-|Stourport||style="text-align:right"|36,902||style="text-align:right"|32,380||style="text-align:right"|4,300||style="text-align:right"|88,667||style="text-align:right"|31,006||style="text-align:right"|35,306|-|Bewdley||style="text-align:right"|82,475||style="text-align:right"|19,845||style="text-align:right"|4,702||style="text-align:right"|17,020||style="text-align:right"|4,074||style="text-align:right"|8,776|-|Arley||style="text-align:right"|15,796||style="text-align:right"|3,219||style="text-align:right"|761||style="text-align:right"|1,399||style="text-align:right"|301||style="text-align:right"|1,062|-|Highley||style="text-align:right"|29,030||style="text-align:right"|7,308||style="text-align:right"|2,515||style="text-align:right"|219,271||style="text-align:right"|32,774||style="text-align:right"|35,289|-|Hampton Loade||style="text-align:right"|10,350||style="text-align:right"|3,076||style="text-align:right"|579||style="text-align:right"|4,632||style="text-align:right"|1,270||style="text-align:right"|1,849|-|Eardington||style="text-align:right"|6,690||style="text-align:right"|961||style="text-align:right"|311||style="text-align:right"|1,704||style="text-align:right"|464||style="text-align:right"|775|-|Bridgnorth||style="text-align:right"|69,062||style="text-align:right"|48,730||style="text-align:right"|9,802||style="text-align:right"|50,213||style="text-align:right"|16,470||style="text-align:right"|26,272|-|Linley||style="text-align:right"|4,780||style="text-align:right"|1,537||style="text-align:right"|433||style="text-align:right"|772||style="text-align:right"|149||style="text-align:right"|612|-|Coalport||style="text-align:right"|6,622||style="text-align:right"|1,257||style="text-align:right"|490||style="text-align:right"|6,823||style="text-align:right"|1,850||style="text-align:right"|2,340|-|Ironbridge||style="text-align:right"|24,247||style="text-align:right"|19,681||style="text-align:right"|2,719||style="text-align:right"|65,253||style="text-align:right"|18,948||style="text-align:right"|21,667|-|Buildwas||style="text-align:right"|9,601||style="text-align:right"|2,445||style="text-align:right"|582||style="text-align:right"|3,980||style="text-align:right"|600||style="text-align:right"|1,182|-|Cressage||style="text-align:right"|14,353||style="text-align:right"|4,109||style="text-align:right"|1,064||style="text-align:right"|5,305||style="text-align:right"|1,449||style="text-align:right"|2,513|-|Berrington||style="text-align:right"|14,073||style="text-align:right"|6,989||style="text-align:right"|989||style="text-align:right"|7,992||style="text-align:right"|2,053||style="text-align:right"|3,042|-|}1913 Revenue totals: Passenger traffic £29,247 (21%), Freight traffic £111,408 (79%)the years 1935 to 1940.
<gallery mode=packed heights=200px style="text-align:left">
File:Traffic_Bewdley_1935-1940.jpg|Bewdley statement of traffic 1935-1940
</gallery>
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ GWR Traffic statistics for 1923
|-
! !! colspan="3" | Passenger Traffic !! colspan="2" | Freight Traffic !!
|-
! Station !! Tickets issued !! Parcels despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Tons received & despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Total revenue (£)
|-
|Stourport||style="text-align:right"|37,736||style="text-align:right"|22,474||style="text-align:right"|6,286||style="text-align:right"|96,711||style="text-align:right"|49,168||style="text-align:right"|55,454
|-
|Bewdley||style="text-align:right"|92,463||style="text-align:right"|16,783||style="text-align:right"|7,584||style="text-align:right"|20,171||style="text-align:right"|7,553||style="text-align:right"|15,137
|-
|Arley||style="text-align:right"|12,898||style="text-align:right"|1,341||style="text-align:right"|862||style="text-align:right"|1,828||style="text-align:right"|996||style="text-align:right"|1,858
|-
|Highley||style="text-align:right"|22,234||style="text-align:right"|4,873||style="text-align:right"|2,838||style="text-align:right"|175,115||style="text-align:right"|41,695||style="text-align:right"|44,533
|-
|Hampton Loade||style="text-align:right"|9,077||style="text-align:right"|3,117||style="text-align:right"|778||style="text-align:right"|900||style="text-align:right"|599||style="text-align:right"|1,377
|-
|Eardington||style="text-align:right"|5,267||style="text-align:right"|2,259||style="text-align:right"|389||style="text-align:right"|2,355||style="text-align:right"|1,275||style="text-align:right"|1,664
|-
|Bridgnorth||style="text-align:right"|40,127||style="text-align:right"|44,603||style="text-align:right"|10,231||style="text-align:right"|49,210||style="text-align:right"|28,320||style="text-align:right"|38,551
|-
|Linley||style="text-align:right"|4,569||style="text-align:right"|836||style="text-align:right"|462||style="text-align:right"|212||style="text-align:right"|51||style="text-align:right"|513
|-
|Coalport||style="text-align:right"|8,984||style="text-align:right"|1,885||style="text-align:right"|754||style="text-align:right"|9,253||style="text-align:right"|3,857||style="text-align:right"|4,611
|-
|Ironbridge||style="text-align:right"|32,384||style="text-align:right"|17,827||style="text-align:right"|4,742||style="text-align:right"|62,216||style="text-align:right"|29,153||style="text-align:right"|33,895
|-
|Buildwas||style="text-align:right"|7,098||style="text-align:right"|1,023||style="text-align:right"|432||style="text-align:right"|3,838||style="text-align:right"|755||style="text-align:right"|1,187
|-
|Cressage||style="text-align:right"|12,558||style="text-align:right"|11,119||style="text-align:right"|1,871||style="text-align:right"|4,020||style="text-align:right"|1,852||style="text-align:right"|3,723
|-
|Berrington||style="text-align:right"|9,014||style="text-align:right"|5,380||style="text-align:right"|973||style="text-align:right"|5,042||style="text-align:right"|2,379||style="text-align:right"|3,352
|-
|}
1923 Revenue totals: Passenger traffic £38,202 (19%), Freight traffic £167,653 (81%)
The data collected for each station included the numbers of tickets issued and the associated passenger revenue. "Coaching receipts" included revenue from parcels traffic (the number of parcels were not recorded for some years in the early 1940s). The tonnages of freight handled were also recorded, although from 1940 onwards the GWR ceased to record the revenue associated with that freight.
{| class="wikitable sortable"|+ The linked article sets out the traffic statistics recorded by the GWR Traffic statistics and BR for 1933|-! !! colspan="3" | Passenger Traffic !! colspan="2" | Freight Traffic !! |-! Station !! Tickets issued !! Parcels despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Tons received & despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Total revenue (£)|-|Stourport||style="text-align:right"|17,137||style="text-align:right"|28,787||style="text-align:right"|4,176||style="text-align:right"|133,929||style="text-align:right"|61,403||style="text-align:right"|65,579|-|Bewdley||style="text-align:right"|56,012||style="text-align:right"|15,578||style="text-align:right"|4,007||style="text-align:right"|15,158||style="text-align:right"|6,802||style="text-align:right"|10,809|-|Arley||style="text-align:right"|8stations on the Severn Valley Railway in selected years between 1903 and 1952. Hartlebury and Shrewsbury are not shown,663||style="text-align:right"|997||style="text-align:right"|477||style="text-align:right"|54||style="text-align:right"|47||style="text-align:right"|524|-|Highley||style="text-align:right"|21,548||style="text-align:right"|6,237||style="text-align:right"|1,877||style="text-align:right"|177,543||style="text-align:right"|24,932||style="text-align:right"|26,809|-|Hampton Loade||style="text-align:right"|4,704||style="text-align:right"|1,183||style="text-align:right"|350||style="text-align:right"|335||style="text-align:right"|147||style="text-align:right"|497|-|Eardington||style="text-align:right"|3,361||style="text-align:right"|438||style="text-align:right"|150||style="text-align:right"|604||style="text-align:right"|217||style="text-align:right"|367|-|Bridgnorth||style="text-align:right"|17,232||style="text-align:right"|38,478||style="text-align:right"|4,755||style="text-align:right"|31,651||style="text-align:right"|15,708||style="text-align:right"|20,463|-|Linley||style="text-align:right"|3,482||style="text-align:right"|931||style="text-align:right"|303||style="text-align:right"|253||style="text-align:right"|90||style="text-align:right"|393|-|Coalport||style="text-align:right"|5,771||style="text-align:right"|690||style="text-align:right"|412||style="text-align:right"|5,950||style="text-align:right"|2,750||style="text-align:right"|3,162|-|Ironbridge||style="text-align:right"|19,195||style="text-align:right"|21,354||style="text-align:right"|3,276||style="text-align:right"|40,780||style="text-align:right"|18,322||style="text-align:right"|21,596|-|Buildwas||style="text-align:right"|5,983||style="text-align:right"|1,029||style="text-align:right"|489||style="text-align:right"|49,309||style="text-align:right"|4,105||style="text-align:right"|4,594|-|Cressage||style="text-align:right"|5,852||style="text-align:right"|3,985||style="text-align:right"|736||style="text-align:right"|3,225||style="text-align:right"|1,081||style="text-align:right"|1,817|-|Berrington||style="text-align:right"|4,811||style="text-align:right"|2,807||style="text-align:right"|456||style="text-align:right"|6,085||style="text-align:right"|1,362||style="text-align:right"|1,818|-|}1933 Revenue as their reported totals: Passenger would include only a small portion of traffic £21relating to the Severn Valley Branch. [[Buildwas]] is included for completeness,464 (14%), Freight although a portion of traffic £136,966 (86%)originating there would relate to the Wellington and Much Wenlock branches.
At stations along the branch during the heydays of the 1920s, freight traffic accounted for around 80% of the revenue. By the time the recording of the freight revenue ended in the late 1930s, the freight total had reached almost 90%.
{| class="wikitable sortable"|+ GWR Traffic statistics for Information up to 1938|-! !! colspan="3" | Passenger Traffic !! colspan="2" was included in [[Bibliography#Books| Freight Traffic !! |-! Station !! Tickets issued !! Parcels despatched !! Revenue Nabarro (£1971) !! Tons received &]]; despatched !! Revenue (£) !! Total revenue (£)|-|Stourport||style="text-align:right"|16,269||style="text-align:right"|36,566||style="text-align:right"|4,078||style="text-align:right"|130,922||style="text-align:right"|61,178||style="text-align:right"|65,256|information after that date has been obtained from the original records for the GWR Worcester Division held in the National Archives. The book for the period 1947-|Bewdley||style="text-align:right"|60,251||style="text-align:right"|14,120||style="text-align:right"|3,748||style="text-align:right"|10,874||style="text-align:right"|3,833||style="text-align:right"|7,581|-|Arley||style="text-align:right"|11,623||style="text-align:right"|926||style="text-align:right"|526||style="text-align:right"|44||style="text-align:right"|24||style="text-align:right"|550|-|Highley||style="text-align:right"|21,335||style="text-align:right"|6,584||style="text-align:right"|1,606||style="text-align:right"|154,202||style="text-align:right"|23,128||style="text-align:right"|24,734|-|Hampton Loade||style="text-align:right"|5,116||style="text-align:right"|659||style="text-align:right"|304||style="text-align:right"|555||style="text-align:right"|201||style="text-align:right"|505|-|Eardington||style="text-align:right"|2,075||style="text-align:right"|277||style="text-align:right"|90||style="text-align:right"|1,434||style="text-align:right"|273||style="text-align:right"|303|-|Bridgnorth||style="text-align:right"|13,500||style="text-align:right"|37,800||style="text-align:right"|3,190||style="text-align:right"|29,141||style="text-align:right"|15,367||style="text-align:right"|18,557|-|Linley||style="text-align:right"|3,750||style="text-align:right"|722||style="text-align:right"|263||style="text-align:right"|454||style="text-align:right"|201||style="text-align:right"|464|-|Coalport||style="text-align:right"|5,741||style="text-align:right"|1,257||style="text-align:right"|366||style="text-align:right"|4,937||style="text-align:right"|1,771||style="text-align:right"|2,137|-|Ironbridge||style="text-align:right"|23,637||style="text-align:right"|23,712||style="text-align:right"|3,151||style="text-align:right"|27,170||style="text-align:right"|11,969||style="text-align:right"|15,120|-|Buildwas||style="text-align:right"|7,720||style="text-align:right"|1,465||style="text-align:right"|561||style="text-align:right"|324,330||style="text-align:right"|23,092||style="text-align:right"|24,555|-|Cressage||style="text-align:right"|5,161||style="text-align:right"|2,024||style="text-align:right"|447||style="text-align:right"|2,399||style="text-align:right"|1,023||style="text-align:right"|1,470|-|Berrington||style="text-align:right"|3,348||style="text-align:right"|2,967||style="text-align:right"|303||style="text-align:right"|6,086||style="text-align:right"|1,774||style="text-align:right"|2,077|-|}1938 Revenue totals: Passenger traffic £18,633 (11%), Freight traffic £143,834 (89%)1952 confirms that the process continued into the BR era.
==Accidents==
*On 27 November 1896, James Worral, a painter, was working on the new platform at Kidderminster when he was "drawn by the engine between the train and the metals and frightfully injured".<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000350/18961128/050/0005 Worcestershire Chronicle Saturday 28 November 1896 on the British Newspaper Archive]</ref>
*On 14 October 1901, John Hughes, a goods guard, was killed at Kidderminster. The returns of Accidents and Casualties as reported to the Board of Trade by the several railway companies in the United Kingdom during the three months ending 31 December 1901 show a goods train was being propelled into a siding when the guards van was derailed at hand points. The van turned over whilst Hughes was attempting to jump clear and he was crushed beneath it. Hughes was held to blame for the accident as he failed in his duty to ensure the points were properly set. For future safety, the Board of Trade said the GWR should consider replacing the point lever with one being properly weighted to allow the point to always fall into a safe position. A coroners’ court jury’s verdict was accidental death, with the jury censuring the GWR and its servants. The trades union, Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (now RMT), retained Wilcocks Taylor solicitor and obtained substantial compensation of £271.16.0. The solicitor’s fee amounted to £5.4.10.<ref>MSS.127/AS/7/3 Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Record of accidents, inquests, Board of Trade enquiries, and legal cases, p. 12, Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick via [http://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk/the-accidents/ the Railway Work, Life & Death project] (Retrieved 8 August 2021)</ref>
*In October 1902, Lewis Turner, a 56 year old engine driver at Highley Colliery, was travelling as a passenger when he overslept and missed his station. Upon being woken, he tried to leave the train while it was still moving and fell under the wheels and was killed.<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000405/19021101/152/0012 Wellington Journal on The British Newspaper Archive]</ref>
*On 7 January 1931, Fireman William Clayton "...was coupling an engine to coaches. He requested <nowiki>[Driver]</nowiki> Lloyd to "Ease up" and lifted the engine shackle over the draw-bar hook. The engine recoiled due to the braked coaches and Clayton's head was caught between the shackle and the closed gangway" at Bewdley resulting in cuts to his head and face.<ref name="RWLDP">[https://www.railwayaccidents.port.ac.uk./ ‘Railway Work, Life & Death’ project, run by the University of Portsmouth, National Railway Museum and Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick]</ref>
*On 15 April 1939, Police Constable A. R. Rudge was killed by being crushed between the buffers of two wagons at Kidderminster goods yard.<ref>[https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000768/19390415/264/0006 Birmingham Mail - Saturday 15 April 1939 on the British Newspaper Archive]</ref>
