Pictures show rural railway at end of age of steam

Locomotive 7827 Lydham Manor heading south from Lampeter with the morning Carmarthen train on 11 March 1964

Previously unseen photos have been published of the final years of the steam railway around Lampeter, Ceredigion.

Photographer Vernon Parry captured some of the final steam-powered services in the Teifi Valley and the Aberayron Branch between 1963 and 1965.

The photos, published in a new book by David Gowan, show the railway in rural Ceredigion as the age of steam was drawing to a close.

Below is a selection of the images published in the book from Mr Parry's collection of some 5,000 negatives and travel notes.

North-bound goods train at Lampeter on 10 March 1964

Driver Mr Ben Thomas, Vernon Parry and guard Mr D J Walters at Pont Llanio station and milk depot on 2 April 1965

British Railways standard class 3 number 82009 draws into Maesycrugiau with a southbound train on 10 August 1963

Great Western Railway mixed traffic locomotive 6347 passes Llangybi with a goods train to Aberystwyth on 14 August 1963

Two boys watch as Pannier tank 7437 shunts a milk and goods train at Lampeter in August 1963

Railway staff in front of the last train ever to leave Aberaeron on Friday, 2 April 1965

The morning milk train from Green Grove approaches the summit of the Aberaeron branch (near the watershed between the Aeron and Teifi valleys) on 11 March 1964

The last but one train to leave Aberaeron – photograph taken near Llanerchaeron on 1 April 1965

The last steam train to leave the milk depot at Pont Llanio on 3 April 1965