Watch more of our videos on Shots! and live on Freeview channel 276 Simon Pilkington, managing director of PRA Operations Planning, has planned three return trips on the Severn Valley Railway from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth stations, where visitors will be able to hop on in return for a £30 donation to Hope House children’s hospice. Simon, from Shrewsbury, has worked in the railway industry for almost 42 years in a number of roles from Station Announcer at Paddington to Shift Manager in an Operations Control Office. More recently he has been involved in timetabling and set up my own company in 2010.
He is also a father and grandfather and will be joined on this nostalgic journey through beautiful countryside by his staff team, fellow rail enthusiasts and his family. He said: “I have worked in the railway industry for almost 42 years in a number of roles from Station Announcer at Paddington to Shift Manager in an Operations Control Office and more recently have been involved in timetabling and set up my own company in 2010 which still is going today.” He is raising money for Hope House in memory of his father who died in 2015 at the age of 90.
He said: “My father, Arthur Pilkington, was in the RAF, then a police sergeant for South Wales Police. He attended the heart-breaking Aberfan mining disaster in 1966. I dread to think of some of the sights he saw with so many children losing their lives in the incident, 116 of the 144 deaths were children.
“He was a great fat.