Trains taking to the tracks on Ironbridge line for 'final time'
Steam trains will run once more through Coalbrookdale – in what could possibly be the last journey along the disused rail line.
Heritage rail company Vintage Trains will be running two special excursions along the mothballed Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale branch line on June 9. The services will be pulled by the Castle Class steam locomotive 7029 Clun Castle.
The line closed to passenger services in 1963 – before the infamous Beeching cuts – but continued to serve the Ironbridge power station until its closure in November 2015.
Passenger services to Coalbrookdale were briefly resumed between May and September 1979 to mark the Iron Bridge bicentenary.
Since then the line has been mothballed and faces an uncertain future, although Telford Steam Railway is campaigning for it to be opened as a heritage railway.
The special trips on June 9 will depart from Wellington station at 1.30pm and 3.30pm, stopping at Telford station, before heading for Madeley Junction.
There it will reverse down the branch line until it reaches the Albert Edward Bridge, next to the power station.
