A NEW book is guaranteed to stimulate a few pangs of nostalgia in those Vale people who remember and pine for the Golden Age of Steam.

Eight stations in the Vale area, which all closed in the 1960s, are pictured in Herefordshire and Worcestershire's Lost Railways by Peter Dale.

The book shows 52 pictures - mainly fully operational stations - dating back to the turn of the 20th century. Evesham, Harvington, Weston Subedge, Broadway, Bredon, Eckington, Defford, and Fladbury are all featured.

It also provides the dates when ten Vale stations closed and information about the lines and the services which had operated.

This includes details of how the Evesham branch of the Midland Railway was established to give local people greater access to the north and the doubling of the Honeybourne branch to bring it up to main line standards.

In 1910 there was a service of eight trains each way between Honeybourne and Cheltenham with two on Sundays. As well as these local services a number of express trains used the route, including the Wolverhampton to Penzance service known as The Cornishman.

The local rail services were dominated by The Great Western Railway (GWR), often referred to as one of the 'Big Four', and the Midland Railway until nationalisation in 1948.

According to the book: "Under British Railways a Modernisation Plan introduced in 1955 spelled the beginning of the end for steam on Britain's railways, while the Beeching Plan of 1963 saw the start of widespread closures of many minor, and some major, lines.

"It is hoped this book will evoke memories for older readers of the relaxed form of travelling before the advent of motorways and perhaps encourage younger ones to make the acquaintance of the preserved lines in the area - The Severn Valley Railway at Kidderminster and the Gloucester-Warwickshire Railway at Toddington."