Strange contraption identified

A photo we used in the paper the other day, showing a man by a strange contraption on the railway at an unidentified location, prompted a lot of interest from railway enthusiasts who identified it as a velocipede.

While that picture now turns out to have probably been taken in America, velocipedes were also used in Shropshire, as this view e-mailed in by Keith Beddoes, of Telford, shows.

He says: “Attached is a photograph of a velocipede on the section of track from Lightmoor junction to Horsehay and Dawley station. Lightmoor signal box can be seen in the background.

“Sitting on it is Jack Smith who was employed on the railways as a permanent way man and in the 1950s lived in Coalport station house with his family on the Severn Valley line.”