FIFTY years in operation and some very stylish celebrations have earned the Severn Valley Railway a top industry award.

The Worcestershire heritage railway has been named the winner of the annual award (large groups) in the 2015 Heritage Railway Association Awards, which recognise a wide range of achievements and distinctions across the entire heritage railway industry.

With titles handed out in eight categories, covering areas including modern traction, interpretation and carriage and wagon, the awards bring together the whole spectrum of heritage railways great and small from across the UK. With very stiff competition for the annual award, judges named the SVR joint-winner along with the Isle of Wight Steam Railway. Achieving 50 successful years in operation and celebrating last year’s Golden Jubilee in style were elements that impressed the judges, who stressed on the difficulty of keeping a railway running for a handful of years, not to mention half a century.

The HRA’s Awards chairman Mark Smith said: "I am very pleased to be able to present the Severn Valley Railway with this award. It is so well deserved. The Railway has achieved so much in fifty years and, most importantly, it used great imagination in providing a series of events last year in which everyone could be involved and that were little short of spectacular.

“I suppose that I should confess that I was at Bridgnorth on the opening day in 1970 with a number of fellow volunteers from the narrow gauge and that with all the confidence of the very young, we predicted a very uncertain future, knowing the high costs of running much simpler operations than this. It is a real delight to be able to come back and admit just how wrong we have proved to be.”

Nick Ralls, the SVR’s general manager, added: "We are absolutely thrilled to win this award, and feel that it is testament to the great work of our volunteers who have been instrumental in ensuring that the SVR has gone from strength to strength over the last 50 years and who helped us to organise a pretty good party to celebrate it.”

Wolverhampton Banqueting Centre was temporarily transformed into the Low Level Station, once the GWR’s most northerly broad gauge station, for the awards presentation evening, complete with sound, lights and smoke effects and the unexpected arrival and departure of an original GWR steam-hauled passenger train.

Awards were presented by Mark Garnier MP, chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Heritage Railways and keen railway enthusiast.

Following its very successful Spring Steam Gala at the weekend, the SVR is now preparing for its Easter Holiday opening, when it will be running daily, intensive passenger services along the length of the line. A 120ft, fully-functional model tramway display will be on show at The Engine House Visitor Centre from April 2-10 and then 16-17. Children can also join in an eggs-citing competition to spot the Easter-themed clues hidden around the Engine House.