The mainline steam service, Shakespeare Express, run by Vintage Trains, is celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year.

The Shakespeare Express began running as part of the celebrations of the Great Western Railway’s 150th anniversary (GWR150) in 1985.

The plan was to run a weekend of Shakespeare Express trains from Birmingham to playwright William Shakespeare’s home town of Stratford-upon-Avon.

The weekend’s services were to form part of the then Birmingham Railway Museum’s GWR150 celebrations. Operator Vintage Trains is a subsidiary of the Birmingham Railway Museum Trust.

Eight Shakespeare Express trains ran on the inaugural weekend, on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 June 1985, meeting conditions set by British Rail:

• two locomotives would be provided
• BR would provide the set of Mark 1 carriages (repainted into chocolate and cream for the anniversary year)
• there was no limit on the number of trains that the museum could run.

The weekend’s train services cost sixteen thousand pounds.

During the years that followed, Shakespeare Express services ran on several weekends as ‘one-off’ charters.

The last services to run before British Rail was privatised were in April 1990, and were led by 6024 ‘King Edward I’ and 5080 ‘Defiant’, which between them hauled eight weekend trains.

This was the last occasion on which The Shakespeare Express operated with wooden body coaches.

From 1999, Shakespeare Express services ran on regular ‘Summer Sundays’, hauled by 4965 ‘Rood Ashton Hall’.

These still run on every Sunday in August, with steam trains running between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon. On occasions of extreme hot weather, the service has used diesel locomotives.

The Shakespeare Express now runs on Sundays between April and November, including every Sunday in August.

Last year, the operator added new routes to its schedule, with departures from Derby, Leicester and Worcester.

The service sometimes uses guest steam locomotives, including 4953 ‘Pitchford Hall’ in 2006. Last year, 45596 ‘Bahamas’ hauled the service’s second ever departure from Derby.

The Shakespeare Express services include onboard dining in authentic 1960s Pullman Cars.