Stations' new QR codes reveal history of railways

Passengers will be able to learn about the "unique" history of our railways thanks to new QR codes at stations.

Great Western Railway (GWR) created short films using archive footage that dates back to 1909.

Passengers travelling along seven trainlines through 24 different stations can use the codes to view the films.

A spokesperson from GWR said: “It’s a really important way of connecting and celebrating our heritage, particularly in rural communities in Wiltshire, Dorset and Somerset.

The idea was inspired by an old GWR publicity film which was released in 1936, called Great Western Approaches.

Business assurance director at GWR Joe Graham said: "We're really, really proud of our heritage.

"This is a unique opportunity to provide education and history to celebrate the rural past of our region, as well as looking forward and informing people of what happened in their community in the past.

"It's critical to ensure that we don't lose that connection," he added.

The routes covered are:

• Westbury to Salisbury
• Westbury to Weymouth
• Westbury to Bath
• Westbury to Swindon
• Westbury to Bedwyn
• Westbury to Taunton
• Taunton to Bristol

GWR worked with Windrose Rural Media Trust to create the films.

Trust's director Trevor Bailey said: “The whole idea is you’re making a film for a particular station which serves a particular community.

“When you’ve got an archive as big as ours, you have to really get in there and dig - fortunately, we know it quite well and it’s been digitised a lot."

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