Rail enthusiasts brave windy weather for whistle-up

Visitors at Didcot Railway Centre filmed GWR Prairie 4144 sounding its whistle

Heritage rail enthusiasts braved windy weather on New Year's Day to mark the start of a landmark anniversary year for railways.

Hundreds turned out across the south of England for the "whistle-up" to mark 200 years of passenger rail travel.

The co-ordinated event involved locomotives across the UK and beyond sounding their whistles and horns at noon.

Swanage Railway, North Dorset Railway, Isle of Wight Steam Railway and Didcot Rail Centre were among those taking part.

Billy Johnson has volunteered for Swanage Railway for 15 years

Swanage Railway Trust's T3 class steam locomotive No. 563 blew its whistle as it left Swanage station, driven by Billy Johnson from Swanage and fireman Aidan Strand from Hamworthy.

Mr Johnson, who has volunteered for the railway for 15 years, described it as "an honour and a privilege".

"There is so much to celebrate in terms of what the railways have contributed to the prosperity and development of the country, as well as the Isle of Purbeck, over the past 200 years," he said.

Isle of Wight Steam Railway said it welcomed hundreds of visitors on New Year's Day

Swanage Railway Company chairman Gavin Johns said: "Two-hundred years ago passenger train services started on the Liverpool and Manchester railway and it was a true game changer, not only in Britain but across the world, because railway technology was rapidly exported."

Organised by the Heritage Railway Association, the whistle-up involved locos as far afield as Holland, South Africa and Sierra Leone.

Steve Smart sounds the whistle at Havenstreet on the Isle of Wight

In Oxfordshire, Didcot Railway Centre marked the occasion with its GWR Prairie 4144.

On the Isle of Wight, special new year trains - Hunslet Austerity WD192 Waggoner and WD198 Royal Engineer - joined in at Havenstreet.

And at the North Dorset Railway at Shillingstone, Dorset, the moment was marked by 1959 diesel-mechanical locomotive Hudswell Clarke Ashdown.

A diesel-mechanical locomotive joined in the moment in Shillingstone

The Watercress Line in Hampshire marked the start of the anniversary year with a whistle-up at midnight.