MELKSHAM Railway Station had a special visitor recently when a steam locomotive stopped to pick up passengers and take on water for its boiler.
The former London and North Eastern Railway streamlined ‘A4’ steam locomotive number 4464 ‘Bittern’ called in whilst en route from Banbury to Kingswear in Devon on a ‘Cathedrals Express’ special excursion train.
The locomotive, built at Doncaster in 1937 and now preserved, arrived at Melksham Station at 10.15am on Tuesday 21st May. A large crowd had gathered on the platform and on Bath Road bridge to welcome the visitor, a first in the 165 year history of the station.
The train returned to Melksham at 9.05pm and dropped off several locals and then took on more water from a waiting road tanker before leaving for Banbury at 9.15pm.
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