Silver Link Publishing has over the past 28 years built a reputation for quality in production. Our softcover illustrated volumes have always been printed on gloss art paper and benefit from sewn binding to provide strength and longevity. Our hardback books are produced to the same high standards and also benefit from the use of traditional head and tail bands. We are now introducing the first of our Silver Link Silk Editions - which will feature a 'silver silk' bookmark (such silks date back to the reign of Elizabeth 1) and will be produced on a 170gsm gloss art paper. Such quality and tradition we believe will be very much welcomed by todays discerning print book readers and in particular the thousands of avid enthusiasts of The Severn Valley Railway in conjunction with whom we ar able to bring this first of an occasional release of Silver Link Silk Editions. The original Severn Valley Railway was 40 miles long and linked Hartlebury in Worcestershire with the county town of Shrewsbury, via Bewdley and Bridgnorth in the picturesque Severn valley.
It was part of the national railway network, and served the local community for 101 years, its trains carrying passengers, goods, produce and coal. With the rapid growth of road tranport in the mid - twentieth century, much of this traffic disappeared, and unsurprisingly the line was closed as a through route by British Railways in 1963. But that was not the end of the story. The enthusiasm of an expanding group of preservationists saw nearly half of the route - 16 miles - bought by the second Severn Valley Railway, in three stages between 1970 and 1984. The route was successively reopened for steam - hauled passenger services south from Bridgnorth to Hampton Loade, then to Bewdley and finally to Kidderminster. This album records some of the results of this success, seen on a northbound journey over the line through the lenses of some of its finest photographers. We hope you enjoy it!