A retired train driver has published a collection of local people’s memories online to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the last train out of Wiveliscombe.

Adrian Wales, a driver and train driving instructor for 40 years, put out an appeal for people to send him their memories about the rail line that ran through Milverton and Wiveliscombe before it was axed and 2,363 stations closed down nationwide.

Almost 30 people responded with nostalgic memories, photographs, and more, and they are on Facebook under the Wiveliscombe & Surrounding Parishes Information site.

From scouring the tracks to find treasure in the form of coal for their homes, to watching trains filled with spring daffodils or sugar beet being loaded up, bound for London, the brief memories give a glimpse of life in bygone days when the railway was a vital rural link.

“(I have) memories of the waiting room at the station on frosty cold mornings with a roaring fire to keep us warm while waiting for our train,” said contributor Jess Bunn.

Mervyn Bellamy said. “As a boy I used to go with my father to get the sugar beet (from Fitzhead to Milverton) on the train to London. He was a farm worker and rabbit trapper, and we used to go and help the farmer get the cart and big cart horses ready. I would ride down to the station sitting on top of the sugar beets. There was also the rabbit train, taking rabbits up to London for food.”

Contributor Nic Pepperell remembers: “When I was about 12, my friends and I would try to go swimming in the water tower at the end of the (Wiveliscombe) station but were chased off by the station master.”