Phil Gillam: Welcome train of thought for Shrewsbury rail fans

You are sitting there in your high chair with your little Noddy and Big Ears bib on, and your mother is moving a spoonful of baked beans towards your mouth, saying: Here comes the choo-choo. Here it comes. Choo-choo-choo-choo. And you're eyes are transfixed on this spoon-shaped locomotive carrying its cargo of baked beans.

Okay. Nowadays, it may not be Noddy and Big Ears on the bib and the baked-beans-laden engine wouldn't be steam, of course, it would be diesel or electric, but you know what I mean.

And then the next thing you know you have a whole generation of train-spotters who eventually grow up to be railway enthusiasts.

This term, railway enthusiasts, by the way, can cover a multitude of sins from the hard-core anoraks you see wandering up and down station platforms with camera, binoculars and notebook in hand to the less serious ones who really don't give a stuff (or a puff) about locomotive wheel arrangements, but are nevertheless enthralled by the magic of trains.

Count me amongst the second group. I care not a jot about the technical side of it all, but I love the romance of railways.

And railways of course run through Shrewsbury like the word BLACKPOOL runs through Blackpool rock.

Which brings me neatly to a wonderful little organisation known as the Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust.

"The trust's mission statement (and this is where I take a big breath) goes something like this:

The Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust was established as a charity in July 2003 to:

1.Raise public awareness of the railway heritage of Shrewsbury and its region;

2. Advance the education of the public about the railway heritage of Shrewsbury and its region through lectures, publications and other means;

3. Collect, document, conserve and interpret material evidence of the railway heritage of Shrewsbury and its region for the public benefit;

4. Establish and maintain a museum for the care, display and interpretation of material evidence of the railway heritage of Shrewsbury and its region for the public benefit;

5. Support the preservation and interpretation of historic buildings and other structures associated with the railway heritage of Shrewsbury and its region for the public benefit.

The trust is managed by an elected group of directors who form a committee that meets on a monthly basis to oversee the work of the trust."

Okay. That's it in a nutshell. Their chief concern is the upkeep of the old Abbey Foregate railway station which operates now as a quaint little museum of sorts.

But the membership's interests go far beyond that, and this breadth of interest in anything connected to railways is represented in their superb members' magazine, Abbey Lines.

My own trainspotting days came at the dawn of the seventies. Myself and my mate would hang around the sheds in Coleham, but they were clearly, by then, in serious decline; rat-infested, the roof and walls battered and half-falling-down.

And the place by that time had long since seen the end of steam. Instead, diesel locomotives which we knew as Brushes and Bo-Bos and Warships populated the place. The magic was fading fast.

But anyone like me who simply has a soft spot for railways should get to know the Shrewsbury Railway Heritage Trust. Check out their website at shrewsburyrht.org.uk

I heartily recommend the trust and their magazine to any Shrewsbury folk who have even the slightest interest in choo-choos!