THE West Somerset Railway Association has been given a £22,540 Local Heritage Initiative Award to help archive a host of railway records electronically. The money will be used to cover the first year costs of the archive project, which will involve digitally photographing records, drawings and publications held in the Gauge Museum. An indexed database will be created and put on the railway's website to help people studying railway heritage. The money will cover the cost of providing a computer in the museum's theatre, complete with a large screen for both individuals and groups to access the newly recorded information. A heritage trail will also be created from Bishops Lydeard Station to the village with local schoolchildren being encouraged to become 'Brunel Detectives' to find out about Brunel's links with the West Somerset Railway. A spokesman for the association said local schoolchildren would be working closely with the railway throughout the project to ensure there was "a hands-on approach" to recording information about how the railway developed and how local people and industry relied on it. Schools would also be encouraged to forge formal links with the railway under the banner 'Steaming Back' as part of their local heritage studies. The Local Heritage Initiative is a nationwide grant scheme which helps groups to investigate, explain and care for their local landscape, landmarks, traditions and culture. While the grant comes from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the scheme is run in partnership with the Countryside Agency, together with additional funding from the Nationwide Building Society.