Steam trains

The Severn Valley Railway - for which I used to work many years ago, so my comments are completely unbiased - is by far (and I hope that my friends in Yorkshire won't mind me saying this) the best and most incredible preserved steam railway anywhere.

When you have done the SVR you have done the best.

The Great Central is a nice preserved railway nearer to Loughborough than to Nottingham. It does have steam main line, but is relatively short distance. Nice stations, nice folks, nice trains, a nice short trip. Fine for nearby.

Or if you have all day get back to Kidderminster and the SVR....

Thanks, Nigel. Riding on the Severn Valley steam train was such a great experience. Though I don't think we will be near it on this next visit, I've considered taking a train to Kidderminster just so we could ride it again. I believe it says a train from Nottingham to Kidderminster takes 2.3 hours. Do you happen to know if a person can take luggage onto this train? If yes, we could ride from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth (which we love!), stay one night and then take the train back to Kidderminster. Does that make sense? We will have a rental car around Nottingham but want to turn it in and just take trains from there. Thanks for any thoughts you have.

There are two currently separate GCR operations, one centred around Ruddington near Nottingham towards Loughborough, the other from further south in Loughborough and north Leicester. Not absolutely clear which you mean, but reference to the first suggest the Nottingham one, sometimes called GCR(N). There is presently work towards reconnection, but this requires a lot of engineering.

For anybody reading this who is interested in full size steam railways: - some of the others are:> West Somerset Steam Railway; Gloucester Warwickshire Steam Railway; North Yorks Moors Railway; Llangollen Railway; South Devon Railway; Dartmouth Railway (which is actually Paignton to Kingswear + ferry). None of these are near to Nottingham.
https://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk
https://www.gwsr.com
https://www.nymr.co.uk
http://llangollen-railway.co.uk
https://www.southdevonrailway.co.uk
https://www.dartmouthrailriver.co.uk
https://www.watercressline.co.uk

Several narrow gauge steam railways also exist with the greater concentration being in Wales.

Thanks for the information.