QUESTION about severn Valley railway

[whole diary]

[infoman]

Does the heritage railway have access to the British Rail main line?

Thanks in advance.

[grahame]

Does the heritage railway have access to the British Rail main line?

Thanks in advance.

I believe it is one of so many that has access but it's used only in "special" circumstances.

To my knowledge the only one with regular services onto the network is the North Yorkshire, and the only ones with trains scheduled onto their tracks from the main network are the Swanage (to Corfe Castle) and last year's trial on the West Somerset to Bishops Lydeard.

[rogerw]

There is definitely a connection between the SVR and main line at Kidderminster. It is fully signalled and used for stock movements and specials. I travelled over it last November.

[grahame]

There is definitely a connection between the SVR and main line at Kidderminster. It is fully signalled and used for stock movements and specials. I travelled over it last November.

Indeed. Huge contrast between that and others such as the Bodmin and Wenford which can transfer stock only via a short shared siding.  And I don't think there's a crossover at Bodmin on the main line so arriving stock has to take a trip down to Lostwithiel and back.

[Reginald25]

Agreed that some railways have limited connections, such as at Bodmin. But these railways are so much better off than the likes of KESR, Shepardswell, Avon Valley, Buckingham Rly Centre, Lavendar and LLangollen (and many others) that have no external connection.

[SandTEngineer]

There is definitely a connection between the SVR and main line at Kidderminster. It is fully signalled and used for stock movements and specials. I travelled over it last November.

Indeed. Huge contrast between that and others such as the Bodmin and Wenford which can transfer stock only via a short shared siding.  And I don't think there's a crossover at Bodmin on the main line so arriving stock has to take a trip down to Lostwithiel and back.

Correct. The siding connection to the B&WR is in the Up Main at Bodmin Parkway, so any Down direction traffic has to go Up to Liskeard to be reversed via a crossover there.

[martyjon]

Does the heritage railway have access to the British Rail main line?

Thanks in advance.I

When the Great Western Society was running it's Vintage Train one of its outings was to the SVR from Didcot and we had a non-stop run from Bewdley to Bridgenorth with token exchanging being on the hoof.

[eightonedee]

Add the Wensleydale to your list, too. It gets the occasional railtour visiting and a few trains loaded with tanks (army type!) on their way to Catterick. The connection is to the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) with a junction taking trains form the Darlington direction onto the railway

[trainbuff]

Surely the Paignton and Kingswear/Dartmouth line does as well. It gets the Torbay Express in Summer

[MVR S&T]

Yes indeed:
https://photos.signalling.org/picture?/8576/category/2389-2007_september

[infoman]

Thank you for those pics of the Paignton signal box.

Returning to to SVR,I looked at google maps, and I can't see where the access is.

Would any one have a layout of the station area.

[Oxonhutch]

Connecting line is in the centre of this Google view.

[MVR S&T]

And the signalbox view:

Old:
https://photos.signalling.org/index?/category/246-kidderminster_junction&acs=kidderminster

New:
https://photos.signalling.org/picture?/16332/category/1546-2013_february