Thousands raised after railway landslip

The landslip means about four miles of track is shut

Almost £36,000 has been raised for a heritage railway after a landslip caused substantial damage to its tracks.

About 30m (32yds) of the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) track and track bed was damaged in the slip on 30 January.

The heritage railway runs for 16 miles (28km) from Kidderminster, Worcestershire, to Bridgnorth, Shropshire.

"I think this has really hit home with people just how bad a situation this is and how much we do need support...but it's fantastic that we've had this response," said Lesley Carr, the railway's head of communications.

A section of the track is impassable after the embankment collapsed about 300m (328yds) north of Sterns on the Shropshire section of the line.

The affected area lies between SVR's northern terminus station at Bridgnorth and the smaller Hampton Loade station.

Adam Checkley, from Network Rail, said they believed the damage was storm-related.

"It's the river and the sheer power of the river that's probably taken the wing wall of this particular structure away and the earthwork has followed it through," he told the BBC.

"That's the initial assumption - we'll work on that with the teams and the engineering teams to work out exactly what happened but it's definitely storm-related."

Adam Checkley, from Network Rail, said they believed the damage was due to recent storms

Gus Dunster, SVR's managing director, said they were grateful to supporters who have donated money.

"We're going to have to appeal, as we normally do, to people who support the railway, look for any grant funding and other options that we can find ourselves eligible for," he said.

"It's got to be a big fundraising effort and a big engineering effort to get the railway open again."

Investigations and repairs were underway, Network Rail said

"Quite honestly the landslip has hit us really, really hard - it just was the worst news ever to get, just as you're poised to reopen for a new season," said Ms Carr.

"We're opening on the 15th of February for the half term and the top half of our line is cut off, we can't use it.

"That's pretty serious stuff not to mention how much money it's going to cost to get it put right."

Despite four miles (6.4km) of the northern track being unusable the rest of the line - about 12 miles (19.3km) - will be open for use.

"We are open for half term, everybody's visits can still go ahead," added Ms Carr.