The Melksham Railway Development Group has been doing sterling work - largely behind the scenes - to support and build up train services to and through Melksham. And look - the service has increased from none (a closed station) through one train a day up to 5.

Since the current service of 5 trains each way daily was introduced, ticket sales to and from Melksham have rocketed from 3000 per annum to over 27000 per annum. Never the less, the service is once again under threat and could be cut back by over two thirds next year. There's more details of that at the Save the Train website

But this page is here as a tribute to the MRDC and a Thank You for the work they've been doing. You don't often see them in public but all four officers were there on 10th December on the Santatrain ... if you knew who was who!


Peter Blackburn

John Hamley

John Money (a rare picture - he's usually behind the lens)

Gordon Dodge

Gordon - you may be very embarrassed by this, but we owe you a special Thank You - for all of your tireless efforts - not only the Santatrain but also so many other things just too numerous to mention.

Readers will note that I had one HECK of a job getting a picture of Gordon that wasn't surrounded by loads of other people, or with his head down handing presents to Santa in his role of Santa's helper.

This page is part of a series taken when Santa Claus visited Melksham and Swindon and traveled on the train. The home page of the series is at Santatrain. Other pictures of Santa are at Santaatswindon Santaontrain and Santaatmelksham. Other pictures taken than day Inmelksham Melkshamplatform Boardingmelksham Ontraintoswindon Leavingtrainatswindon Swindonstation Inswindon Readytoreturn Ontraintomelksham Leavingtrainatmelksham. Finally - Mrdc - Melksham Railway Development Group - who organised the day.

All pictures have a reference number and have been cropped and reduced in size for the web site. Please email me (graham@wellho.net) if you would like a full original, and quote the reference number beneath the picture to help me identify which is which.