A FORMER railway booking clerk from Bere Alston has drawn on his experience to update an informative book on his beloved Tamar Valley railway line.

John Snell, a local historian and retired railwayman, has written 'Tamar Valley Trains', which chronicles a now long-vanished era on the Plymouth to Gunnislake Tamar Valley Line.

Appropriately he launched his book at Bere Alston station on Friday.

It was a special day for John, who was joined by his wife Iris and friends, as they also celebrated his 80th birthday.

John joined British Railways as a booking clerk at Calstock Station on April 4, 1949 at the age of 15, going on to serve 46 years before retiring 15 years ago.

In 'Tamar Valley Trains' he records the scenes, sights and people he knew in this period, when Bere Alston was a busy junction, with through trains to Exeter, Brighton and London, and the line extended from Gunnislake to Kelly Bray.

It was also a time when much of the area's local goods arrived by train and mountains of Tamar Valley fruit and flowers left for markets across Britain.

John first wrote much of the text in 1997 and published a first edition that year. This quickly sold out.

It has been updated by Bruce Hunt of Saltash, editor of 'Just a Few Lines' — the newsletter of the Tamar Belle Heritage Group, based at Bere Ferrers station.

The updated version includes memorabilia of the line from this period, as well as a chapter on the centenary celebration of the Bere Alston to Gunnislake line in 2008, in which John played a key part.

The book includes an introduction for the book by Richard Burningham, manager of the Devon and Cornwall Rail Partnership, which works to promote the line. Chris Grove of the Tamar Belle Heritage Centre has also written a postscript.

Richard said: 'As well as a career railwayman, John is a life long supporter of the railway, particularly the Tamar Valley Line.

'When we meet, he'll always say how great it is to see the line doing so well and passenger numbers increasing. He helped with the launch of the improved train service in 2008.

'John has done us all a huge service in recording his memories of the local railway scene for posterity and I am personally really pleased to have been able to help publish this new and updated version of his book.'

Tamar Valley Trains' will shortly be available at local bookshops priced £5.95.