In Search of the Great Western Railway 1965 -1974

     In 1965 we became well aware of the pace of destruction of branch lines and stations under the infamous "Beeching Plan", and the relative lack of attention given to this in the railway magazines compared to the contemporary demise of steam locomotives.

    Chris Leigh, Paul Chamberlain and myself decided to explore and record as much of the old Great Western Railway routes, as our limited resources would permit.  In this first of a series of three articles, we record our travels during the period Autumn 1965 to Spring 1967 in detail...... 

 Our second article covers the period from mid-1967 to Spring 1971, and part three from then on to 1974......