Has there ever been a more interesting train on the whole of the British railway system than this? That’s the question posed by veteran Shrewsbury steam and railway enthusiast Russell Mulford.

The photo shows the diminutive locomotive “Gazelle”, linked with a former London tramcar. Together they are forming a passenger service on the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire Railway, for which this year is the centenary.

This photo from Russell’s collection was taken in the 1930s and shows Shropshire Railway Society founder member, the late Charles Nevett, on the footplate.

He passed on the photo of what may have been Britain’s smallest train to Russell.

“How many people remember ‘Gazelle’ – or even rode behind it?” asks Russell, who is society president and a director of Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust.

“Gazelle” may well have been familiar to some surprising names – legendary footballers Bobby Charlton and the late, great, Duncan Edwards, who was killed in the Munich air disaster of 1958.

The loco was in military use serving the ammunition depots in the Nesscliffe area at the time that Charlton and Edwards were both doing their National Service in the army at Nesscliffe in the mid-1950s.

The history of the line, known as “The Old Potts Railway”, is one of initial hope, followed by decline and closure, then renewed hope and revival, followed by decline and closure again.

And if we’re going to bring the story to the present day, there is a revival of sorts, as Russell and fellow enthusiasts are involved in a project to restore the historic line’s terminus – the Abbey railway station in the shadow of Shrewsbury Abbey.

Russell said: “It was 100 years ago this year that the then Mayor of Shrewsbury, Major Wingfield, athletically climbed to the roof of a carriage in Shrewsbury’s Abbey station and declared open the S & M Railway.

“The Abbey station had been built by the S & M’s predecessor, which began as a grandiose scheme under the title of the Potteries, Shrewsbury and North Wales Railway. Trouble is, the money ran out before it reached the Potteries or North Wales and the company was left with a short central portion, running from Shrewsbury to Llanymynech, with a spur running from a junction at Kinnerley to Criggion.

“The line struggled on from 1866 to 1880 when it was abandoned. For more than 30 years it lay derelict until, some years before the First World War, that ‘saviour’ of minor railways, Colonel Holman Fred Stephens, relaunched the project as the more modest S & M Railway, and acquired a number of secondhand locomotives and rolling stuck, including ‘Gazelle’ and its old coach.”The revived line was formally reopened to traffic on April 13, 1911.

Its first few days of operation were eventful and inauspicious. First, the engine and three coaches left the line on a sharp curve, alarming the passengers, but not leading to any injuries.

A few days later the engine drawing the train from Shrewsbury to Llanymynech ran off the rails at Maesbrook, causing considerable delays, but again fortunately without injury.

Russell says: “The line struggled on between the wars, but took on a new lease of life at the start of the Second World War, when the army began running the line and developing it to serve a large number of ammunition depots based on the Nesscliffe area.

“It continued in military use until 1960, when the army pulled out.

“The Abbey station area was reduced to a siding serving a local oil depot, but this operation ceased in 1988.

“The locomotive ‘Gazelle’, which many troops will remember, including England footballer Bobby Charlton – who did most of his National Service in the army at Nesscliffe – was preserved by the army, and is now in the care of the Colonel Stephens Society at Tenterden, in Kent.”

Work on the Abbey station project started in January. Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust was formed in 2003 and part of its brief was to explore ways the station could be saved in some form.

The main emphasis of the project will be to maintain as much of the old building as is practical and safe, while providing an area that can be used by the Trust for exhibitions and space for interpretation activities.

In the longer term the aspiration is to create a heritage centre with permanent displays, rooms to store artifacts, and as a base for meetings and talks.