What makes the perfect heritage line? Stock? Scenery? Staff? Route? Ambience? TIM DUNN has a new element by which to rate a railway: self-reliance.

ABOVE: On June 2, 1980, 20066 hauls a coal train from Markam Colliery formed of mineral wagons and hoppers at Barrow Hill, having just come off the line from Hall Lane Junction and Seymour Junction. C

PART ONE

There’s no escaping it. The issue with charter trains, and why they cost so much to run, is the lack of decent, suitable and accessible rolling stock. There is also a definite lack of really nice coac

When my mother announced that she was going to visit her sister in Saltford, a village on the eastern outskirts of Bristol, I jumped at the chance of accompanying her. This was in the spring of 1952,

Mark Pearce’s