Preservation
With the exception of Country Park halt, Kidderminster is, by far, the youngest of the SVR stations. Bridgnorth to Bewdley passenger services started in 1974, and it was decided to extend the line to Kidderminster to attract more custom from what was (and still is) a bustling town close to the West Midlands conurbation. After Kidderminster goods yard became disused in 1982, the SVR purchased the line to the east of Foley Park. Sharing the British Rail station of Kidderminster was impractical, so SVR claimed a site to the west of the BR station.
Kidderminster Town lies only a few yards from Kidderminster station on the National Rail network. The name "Kidderminster Town" was chosen because GWR custom, where there were two stations in a town, was to give the "Town" designation to the closer one to the town centre, a measure by which Kidderminster Town just manages to beat its NR counterpart by around 50 metres / 150 feet.
When the station building was originally constructed insufficient funds meant only two wings of the basic building could be completed. Many of the typical Victorian GWR station fixtures and fittings also had to be omitted. The station design was based on a turn of the century GWR design for Ross-on-Wye station.
Since then a number of these missing features have been constructed and erected by volunteers including a cantilevered canopy in the 1880s Port Cochere style at the front of the building and the replica ornamental crestings adorning the two towers. The original iron crestings of this style are thought to have been cast by Macfarlane & Co at the Saracen Foundry, Possilpark, Glasgow. At the architect's request the replicas have been cast in aluminium to reduce the deadweight on the tower structures. To prevent corrosion due to electrolytic action all fixings to the roof structure have been electrically isolated from the aluminium castings with plastic washers etc. Examples of identical original cast iron crestings may be seen adorning Slough railway station, Wrexham General railway station and the HSBC Bank in Derby city centre.
The missing wing was completed in 2006, together with a canopy covering the station concourse. The design of the steelwork for this canopy has been closely based on the former GWR station at Wolverhampton Low Level.
In 2000, the carriage shed was constructed within the site. A fifth of a mile long, it is presently the UK's largest on a heritage railway with a capacity of circa 56 bogie vehicles.
In the Spring of 2012, it was a filming location of the fantasy adventure movie Mariah Mundi and the Midas Box, which is scheduled for release in 2013.
Read more about this topic: Kidderminster Town Railway Station
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