Malvern, Severn Valley Railway.

Off after breakfast to see IB's brother Nic and sister in law Sue for a ride on the Severn Valley Railway. Sue is a (mega!?) shareholder so can take three guests first class for free as often as she likes. We even parked the car for free. Having seen Malvern Station on Portillo we made a small diversion to have a gander

and were most impressed!

Arrived just in time for the 10 25 departure from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth but had plenty of time as it left 10 minutes late: no problem as we are having a lazy day and were in comfy first class!

 

Nic decided it was time for coffee, tea and a beer so we stroll down the corridors

 

to the buffet car.

Whilst we were waiting for our order we stopped at a station and a large group of walkers got on the train and as there were no seats they decided to occupy the very narrow corridors: it was very hard work to get back to the luxury of our first class compartment.

This was not the end of the problems caused by these passengers. It was wet by now and we failed to get up one of the steeper gradients on the line. So we ran backwards and the engine built up a full head of steam and another run up the gradient which we just made! By now we were half an hour late and we were sure that we travelled at well over the 25mph limit to try to get some time back.

We stayed on the train whilst our disgraced engine, Cheltenham ran around to take us back towards Kidderminster.

We broke our return journey at Highley so we could see the Engine House and have some lunch.

 

Here there is an excellent display of engines,

 

a royal carriage (George VI)

and a Post Office travelling sorting office.

And the only car on display was......

...this Morris Minor!

So back to Kidderminster Station

Back by car to Malvern for an excellent dinner at the Great Malvern Hotel

 

and then back to Tewkesbury in the pouring rain.