The Transwilts Community Rail Partnership is very much looking forward - to encourage the use of the line as it stands, and the positive development of stations and services for current and future needs. So you'll find us concentrating on current services and levels of service, rather than historic issues, and general traveller's issues rather than rail supporter's elements. But historic and rail supporter's elements to have their place; the supporters are excellent ambassadors for the railway, and the historic elements and stations full of character will help make journeys enjoyable, and perhaps add purpose too - especially for tourist and other leisure traffic.

What *special* can the Transwilts line offer within (or close to) the railway curtilage for visitors to see?

- 1960s station / older parts within Steam museum, walls, brewery, Railway Village. You'll see "Intercity 125" trains headed for a wide vareity of destinations, as well as the occasional local services on the Transwilts and Stroud Valley lines.

- There's one of Brunel's original buildings in front of the station, and the station itself, complete with awnings, is a lovely structure with many historic features remaining

- the station here was completely demolished in the late 1960s, and all that remains are the stones at the edge of one platform and - if you look around - the old good shed which now forms a privately run engineering company.

- again, a modern station with little history remaining. But look carefully and you'll see an old platform edge on the opposite side to the current tracks - this used to be a "bay" where trains arriving from the Bath and Chippenham direction could reverse without blocking the main lines in the process while they did so, and take a look at the back of the southbound platform too and you'll see further evidence of time gone by.

- a hub of train activity; trains call here from and too Brighton and Portsmouth, Cardiff and Malvern, Weymouth and Swindon, and London and the West Country. You'll see freight moving in and out of the yard, and further activity as local trains start and shunt here. If you've very lucky, you may even see a steam excursion come through. The station itself has been much modernised in parts, but a great deal of the structure dates back to long ago, and you can still marvel at some of the engineering.

- the atmosphere of a country halt, yet these days set in the Dilton Marsh / Westbury Leigh suburb of Westbury. A wooden platform in each direction, curiously offset from each other, has been renewed over the years so there's little but atmosphere here that's really old. But the atmosphere on a hot summer's day, with the occasional train passing through on its long distance run from Portsmouth to Cardiff, is worth savouring. See too the celebration of John Betjamin's poem which (in darker days) perhaps saved the station from closure.

- A lovely country station. See the classic waiting room, the traditional buildings and footbridge, the sweep of the station approach. Watch here as trains from the Westbury direction will sometime terminate, shunt, pick up new passengers and return northwards.

- a railway crossroads - the Bristol to Soutampton line crosses the London to Exeter. You'll see trains in the colours of South West Trains as well as First Great Western. You'll see a curious extended platform at the London end, and a bay that's used to park spare trains at the country end. And you'll get a glimpse across the tracks of the South West Trains depot too. There are may old buidings, and a great wide subway under the railway too which must have been quite a piece of engineering in its day. And as you leave the station, cross over the road and take a look at the magnificent station frontage too.

Note - railways are operational facilities. You should keep to public areas at all times, and follow the instructions of any staff members. Photography is allowed on station property, but you should not use flash, and you should bear in mind the privacy of staff and passengers when taking pictures. If you'll be around for more than a short while at a staffed station, you're asked to make you presence and intent know to the senior staff member.

And finally - an honourable mention for Didcot - just one stop further from Swindon (two connecting trains per hour) where there's a steam centre and a real enthusiast's and visitor's heaven