Eardington Halt railway station
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eardington Halt is a closed railway station on the Severn Valley Railway south of Bridgnorth in Shropshire.
Eardington opened as as one of the original stations on the Severn Valley line, with a brick waiting room and single platform, but was not readily accesible from the nearby villages of Chelmarsh and Eardington and was demoted to a halt.
In the later years under British Railways control, Eardington Halt had much of its custom from fishermen at weekends and during the summer months. Eardington closed in 1963 along with the Severn Valley line under the Beeching Axe.
Eardington reopened when reached by preservationists in 1970 reaching down from Bridgnorth. Several attempts were made to restore the halt but Eardington was deleted from the timetable in 1981 because of poor custom, land slippage and the fact that the station is situated on a 1:100 gradient, hard work for engines without them stopping half way up it. Another problem is the combination of the shortness of the platform face, normal SVR practice of marshalling the guard's compartment in the centre of the train and the arched overbridge immediately to the north of the platform, which would prevent the traincrew from being able to see the guard if the train was stopped with the guard's van on the platform, as is correct practice.
Its siding is now used for the storage of Permanent Way vehicles. A small band of volunteers have occasional "work-ins" to keep the station environs tidy.
There have recently been calls to restore the station for use on gala weekends and such. (This did actually happen on the Autumn 1998 steam gala, when the Hampton - Bridgnorth local called in each direction, but in the timetable it wasn't officially booked to stop!!! Possibly something to do with the owner of LMS 0-6-0T 47383 driving his engine on two LMS coaches, and a big fire and head of steam for making up time on starting away...)
| Preceding station |  Heritage railways |
Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bridgnorth | Severn Valley Railway | Hampton Loade | ||
