Avon Valley Railway celebrates 50th anniversary

Bitton Station was left without track in the 1960s

A heritage railway is celebrating its 50th birthday.

The Avon Valley Railway, based in Bitton, near Bristol, runs on a three mile (4.8km) stretch of the former Midland Railway Mangotsfield and Bath branch line, which closed in the 1960s.

A group of volunteers got together in 1972 to try and re-open the railway. By 1974, they had laid 100 yards of track (91m) and trains started running again.

It is now visited by 80,000 people yearly.

When the volunteers began their work, Bitton station had been left to decay by British Rail.

"There was nothing there when the railway started," said former volunteer Colin Bazeley, who joined in 1972.

"We had no track, the station was in a horrendous state as it had been badly vandalised.

"When the demolition train went through, their cranes knocked corner stones out of the building and they were just left lying around.

"There was still a builder's yard outside the front and we were just volunteers playing with trains," he remembered.

In 1974, just a short stretch of the railway had been restored

Initially, the railway was set up to try and re-open commuter services between Bristol and Bath.

High costs and land development at the Bristol end meant the railway extended towards Bath instead.

The rest of the route is now the Bristol and Bath railway path, used by walkers and cyclists.

Geoff Clark used to travel on the original railway before it was scrapped

President of the railway, Geoff Clark, has been there for more than 50 years.

He said there was immediate interest when steam trains returned to Bitton.

"The first steam day was really popular, we had hundreds of people turn up," he said.

Since then, many hundreds of volunteers have signed up to run everything from catering to engineering operations.

The attraction was the second railway in the country to receive the Queen's Award for Volunteering in 2011.

"It's a very personal railway, we have a good rapport between the staff and volunteers," Mr Clark added.

Their first locomotive was named Edwin Hulse after a founding member of the railway

Now after 50 years the railway is looking to expand further beyond its current terminus, Avon Riverside station, opened in 2004.

"We'd like to do that, but we have to do a lot more work around Bitton station to provide better accommodation for the rolling stock," Mr Clark said.

"It is absolutely stupendous, the difference.

"Having been here from the beginning I would not have recognised it the way it is today," Mr Clark added.