Passengers stranded 30ft up Bridgnorth cliff for almost an hour due to fault

The popular Bridgnorth Cliff Railway is out of action thanks to a problem with a 75-year-old part which meant five travellers were trapped in a carriageway at about 8pm yesterday.

Brian Thompson, 88, was one of the unfortunate passengers who got stuck on the way up into High Town for an evening meal with a companion.

The former RAF airman who lives in Low Town said: "When it started to move at all there was a grating sound. It went about one third of the way up and the other one a third of the way down, and it just halted.

"Eventually the fellow who was the operator at the top, he came down some very dicey-looking steps to offer us reassurance that we weren't going anywhere but we weren't going to come loose. He was quite helpful and very reassuring.

"If you don't know what the problem is then it can be quite unnerving. There were only three of us in our carriage, I don't know how many were in the other carriage, but he did a good job of keeping us in a positive frame of mind.

"It was an experience you didn't expect when you pay your 50 cents or whatever. It was quite an evening. I'm almost 90 and it was quite exciting."

The cliff railway operators confirmed that the stoppage was because of a fault with an electrical winding system which dates back to 1944, and that engineers from West Midlands Rewinds will carry out the repairs tomorrow.

They said that the fire service helped get the carriages back down to earth, and that a firefighter joined the passengers to reassure them.

Bridgnorth Cliff Railway director Malvern Tipping said: "The stoppage is a nuisance and disruption to service. However, our general manager, Karl Braden, is on top of the case and has called in the experts in the field to enable the necessary repair to the electrical winding.

"We have the original 1944 engineering and service document on file. Fortunately, I only made a digital scan of this a few month ago, because I did not want to have engineers using the original of what is now a historic document. This meant that we were able to email a copy over to the engineering company within seconds. It so happens that they are very familiar with the system.

“I do not know at this stage how soon the cliff railway will be re-opening. We will use all endeavours to make it as quickly as possible so as to minimise disruption to our passengers and visitors to the town. In the meantime, the closure will give us the opportunity to tidy the place up.

"From time to time Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service does undertake training sessions at the cliff railway. I would like to thank them for their prompt action and especially for the reassurance that their officer gave to the stranded passengers whilst the carriage was being slowly descended by manual means.”

The affected passengers will all be given a free mug and a strip of free tickets.

The operators will use the closure to undertake re-decorating at the railway.