This year’s annual summer trip was to the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) and was lightly attended with the numbers not justifying the hire of a coach, as had been the case in previous years.

We are usually blessed with fine sunny weather for our annual outing but with a leaden sky we journeyed to Kidderminster more in hope than expectation. However, the day remained dry with sunny spells but quite high humidity. The SVR train timetables had been reduced due to covid measures and attendees were allocated a dedicated carriage seat for the day. This meant that journey planning became more important as it was not possible to hop-on and hop-off at each station.  So we boarded the 11 am Explorer service heading to Bridgnorth with firm plans in mind.

The riverside walk along the Severn pathway from Arley to the next station at Highly sounded attractive but proved to take much longer than expected and therefore missing the onward connecting train to Bridgnorth. So much for the firm plans in place and in desperation a taxi was summoned to complete the outbound journey.

Bridgnorth offered a number of photographic and refreshment opportunities before boarding the 4.20 pm train back to Kidderminster. As we walked back to the car park, the heavens opened but once again we had been fortunate with the weather.