Steam railway marks 60 years since line closure

A heritage railway is to mark 60 years since the original line was closed in 1966 with local actors recreating its history.

The Avon Valley Railway (AVR), based in Bitton, near Bristol, runs on a three mile (4.8km) stretch of the former Midland Railway's Mangotsfield and Bath branch line, which shut under the Beeching Axe.

Marking the anniversary, the tourist attraction, which opened in 1972, will host The People And Their Protest later, an immersive event using re-enactors to play protestors and Dr Beeching.

Matilda Snook, from AVR said a lot of the stations "were a big part of life and the community".

"It's important that future generations learn of the significance of that," she added.

In the 1960s, the British railway system was deemed financially unsustainable, with underused lines and high maintenance costs.

Dr Richard Beeching was tasked with modernising the railways by eliminating unprofitable routes and stations to create a financially sound network.

A total of 2,363 train stations were axed across Britain.

"Whilst the closure at the time would have been negative for the community, that's the reason that we now have our railway," said Snook.

"Ironically that decision has now led to these special places and parts of history that we've preserved," Snook added.

Trustee Joseph Dean said the anniversary would be used to renew the railway's aim of extending towards Bath, with a new plaque being unveiled at one end of the line.

"It has been a long term aspiration since we started in 1974 to sit alongside the railway path and take tourists back to Bath.

At the moment there's a lot of financial implications - building a railway isn't cheap, but we want to find the right support and people to get this moving," he said.

The charity-run railway is now visited by tens of thousands of people every year.

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