A few years ago, myself and Chris Harvey were commissioned to write a song for the Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust about "The Old Potts" Railway. I was given a load of information about the line and found a potted history on the BBC website from which I wrote the song. Chris added the chorus and the tune and we put it on our CD "The Old Potts Railway and other railway songs"

The "Old Potts" Railway by Mark Dowding and Chris Harvey

In the 1860s the "Old Potts" it was born
But the "Big 5" wouldn't give them room – they treated it with scorn
It had to build its own line and station buildings too
Before it ran a service for the likes of me and you

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

Folk came from miles around to see the trains at Abbey station
They rode up and down the line to view the situation
From mines at Llanymynech down to Shrewsbury it ran
But once the novelty wore away the company's troubles began

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

To get across the countryside, where the landscape was so mean
A viaduct crossed the Severn at a place called Shrawardine
The line it went through flooded land where few folk they did go
Passenger numbers they were small and the trains were very slow

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

The debt collector he came in and seized a train at Foregate
With negotiations been and done they started out so late
He settled in a first class seat so he could mind the train
And went to Llanymynech where they started back again

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

The guard he asked the gentleman if he would change his seat
Into another carriage that was set aside so neat
But when they stopped at Kinnerley, his coach was hauled away
And that was the last of the train the debt collector saw that day

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

The company went from bad to worse the bills they couldn't pay
The line fell into disrepair, the viaducts rotted away
But up came Colonel Stephens, the saviour of the train
And used his money to open the line and the trains ran once again

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

He ran the line with rolling stock he got from near and far
An engine that was called "Gazelle" was sure to be a star
The "Coffee Pot" was the smallest locomotive in the land
And proved to be the biggest draw of Colonel Stephens' band

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

Again the railway failed to pay and ran into decline
But in the 1940s they opened up the line
To shunt munitions in and out of Kinnerley's hidden quarter
But once we'd seen off Hitler, the line sank into deep water

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

And so this little railway line became condemned to die
The tracks and trains and buildings joined the station in the sky
But the railway that refused to die lives on in name today
The ring road going round Shrewsbury is called the "Old Potts Way"

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day

The Old Potts, The Old Potts has gone for good they say
But the Old Potts, the Old Potts will rise again one day