A birthday trip on the Severn Valley Railway

Son the Elder's birthday wish was a day out on the Severn Valley Railway, so off we went.

Our starting point was the heritage station in Kidderminster in the West Midlands, which has a Victorian pillar box ...

... and a reasonably authentic-looking tobacconist, except that it was selling second hand books about steam trains. 

Once aboard, the ticket collector came and clipped our tickets. It was all very exciting.

We'd decided our outward journey should be straight through to Bridgnorth at the end of the line. En route we stopped at Bewdley, Arley, Highley and Hampton Loade. 

Bewdley

Trimpley Reservoir

We passed oceans of bluebells and universes of wild garlic.

A glimpse of the River Severn

Diesel locomotive 'Sir John Betjeman' in commemorative London Transport livery

Hampton Loade

Bridgnorth

We had an hour and a half to spend at Bridgnorth, so after lunch in the refurbished Refreshment Room, we climbed Cannon Steps to Bridgnorth Town Park, which is sited on top of a sandstone cliff in the grounds of the ruined castle.

A glimpse of Bridgnorth High Town

It turns out Brignorth Castle was strategic in rebellions against Kings Henry I, Henry II and Edward II before being destroyed by Parliamentarians during the Civil Wars. My kinda town.

A wallflower growing on the walls of the ruined castle

Looking down on the Severn Valley Railway

The train we took back down the line as far as the village of Highley, where there's an engine shed housing a number of heritage locomotives, was one of the familiar green and yellow Diesel engines of my childhood, and it struck me that almost all the people with legitimate feelings of nostalgia for steam trains are now old enough to be dead. 

Not that Diesels were any less mucky, mind. 

While Son the Elder visited the museum, I enjoyed the view of the River Severn and videoed a steam engine on its way to Bridgnorth. I even began to wonder if I was in danger of turning into a train spotter, except it was flowers and wildlife I'd been happily identifying as we chuffed our leisurely way through the valley. I even saw two rhinos in fields alongside the track just outside of Bewdley, attractions at the West Midlands Safari Park, which I remember visiting nearly 30 years ago when my kids were small. Sadly, my phone battery conked before we reached them on our return route, so no photos of tranquilly grazing rhinoceroses in the Worcestershire countryside were taken after all. Maybe we'll have to come back for that.