150 years for historic lines

The glorious sights, sounds and smell of steam trains have been thrilling visitors to Telford Steam Railway as it celebrates a milestone over the bank holiday weekend.

The three-day extravaganza was organised to celebrate the 150th birthday since the branch from Wellington to Shifnal, through Horsehay, was opened for passenger trains on May 2, 1859.

Visitors saw the train leaving the new station site at Lawley at 10.10am on Saturday, precisely the same time as the first train passed through the Heath Hill tunnel.

It comes after months of hard work by volunteers to extend the track from Horsehay to Lawley.

The railway was opened for passenger trains on May 2, 1859, although wooden wagonways and cast iron plateways had been in use more than 100 years earlier, supplying the first Horsehay blast furnace and the various Coalbrookdale ironworks and mines.

The site was at its height after the Horsehay Company Ltd was established in 1886, according to the railway's official history which can be read at www.telford steamrailway.co.uk

Its fortunes were declining by the 1920s but were revived during the First World War, when the lines were used to supply armaments and munitions.