Railway line through Abbots Bromley?

Published 29 November 2004

Promoters have indicated that the route could link the Stoke – Derby line from a junction near Uttoxeter to the Birmingham –Derby line at junction near the remote Fal Vale farm between Lichfield and Burton. The line is being promoted to facilitate the movement of China Clay from Cornwall to the Stoke on Trent Potteries, avoiding the busy bottleneck at Birmingham New Street Station. The promoters, ABP have also been keen to stress the potential value of the line to bring tourists to the area. They state that it is their intention to construct a station for the village at the site of the village hall and if things go according to plan, a start could be made in early December.

“Rumours that ghost trains are already running on the line are completely unfounded” said Abbots Bromley Players director Joan Machin. “It is completely untrue. We have only just started rehearsals and the special effects for our play are still in the development stage. Nevertheless, producing the impression of an express train crossing the stage for our production of Arnold Ridley’s play “The Ghost Train” will tax our production team to the utmost, though we have every faith that they can achieve it.”

Villagers shouldn’t be alarmed however. This is Abbots Bromley Players forthcoming production of the classic railway thriller,”The Ghost Train”.

The play, about a haunted railway station, was written by Arnold Ridley (who played Private Godfrey in Dad’s Army) and is set in the 1920s, when a group of passengers are stranded at a remote Cornish railway station for the night. Unfortunately for them however, the stationmaster informs them that they cannot stay on the station all night because regulations of the Great Western Railway do not permit and anyway, the station is haunted. He then regales them – in lurid detail – of the railway accident 20 years previously that occurred at the station and which is re-enacted each month by the Ghost Train that thunders through in the dead of night – and tonight’s the night!

Will it run?

Is everything really what it seems?

How can Abbots Bromley Players possibly run a railway train through the village hall?????

The play is being performed in Abbots Bromley Village Hall from 8th to 11th December.

Tickets are £5 from members, the village Post Office or Maggie Hoskisson on 01283 840828.

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