‘CLUN-USUAL’… FOR COALBROOKDALE

There’ll be some unusual track for Clun Castle on June 9, when it runs to Coalbrookdale on the Ironbridge branch. Unusual because when, if ever, has a 6ft 8½in-wheeled 4-6-0 high-stepped along the 1-in-50 single track? It’s also unusual because steam has, for years, only been an occasional visitor. A pair of trains are to shuttle ‘top-and-tail’ over the line, with pick-ups at Wellington and Telford, piggybacking on an itinerary taking No. 7029 from Dorridge to Cosford for the latter’s airshow.

However, like the trip with Nos. 9466 and 9600 in November 2009, but unlike the first preservation jolly with the former pannier tank two years previously, the latest train won’t run over the line’s Albert Edward viaduct. The 1863-built listed structure that spans the Severn at 160 miles 34 chains from Paddington is a close replica of the slightly older Victoria Bridge on the Severn Valley Railway.

In 2009, the reason was security concerns at the then still-active Ironbridge B power station, which controlled the metals on the other side of the bridge including sidings, loops and the site of Ironbridge Gorge station. Now, the power station is shut (it closed in 2015), regular trains have ceased – and because of its condition, the ‘Albert Edward’ is prohibited to all traffic.

So, the focus instead is that the train will make it over Coalbrookdale’s 275-yard viaduct around a mile further back and up to the bridge over the Severn, some 5½ miles or so from Madeley South Junction where the Ironbridge branch leaves the Wolverhampton-Shrewsbury line.

Could this be the final main line steam to venture onto the branch? VT has said the shuttles are “quite possibly the last chance”. After all, charters are hardly frequent visitors, and with no regular traffic the line could be put through the ‘network change’ process to allow it to be put out of use.

“In the first instance a Short Term Network Change will be progressed,” NR tells me, “this has, however, not happened yet.”