VISITORS to Newent Onion Fayre might be forgiven for thinking they are seeing steamy visions of the past, and it won't be down to tears through too much peeling.

Despite Mr Beeching's brutal rail cuts in the Sixties, Newent Train Station will live again, although buying a ticket to ride will be a problem, due to the size of the station and the trains.

In his garage, Newent man Derek "Dood" Pearce has created a scale model of the station, faithfully reconstructing virtually every detail.

His masterpiece of railway history will be on show at this year's Newent Onion Fayre, on September 12, for anyone wishing to take a walk down memory's rails.

Mr Pearce said: "I have worked on this for some time from the original plans and produced an actual working model. I am very proud of the result as it follows the layout with almost 99% accuracy".

One admirer is Newent photographer, Colin Thomas who said: "It is clear that this could only have been achieved by great deal of painstaking research and patience and the result is truly stunning.

"The photographs don't do justice to it."

Newent Station was a stop on the Ledbury and Gloucester Railway, otherwise known as "the daffodil line", because wild daffodils from local fields were transported along it every spring, to cheer up wards at Birmingham Hospital and elsewhere.

The station opened in 1885 and was closed for passengers in 1959.

However, the line remained open for freight until 1964, when the Beeching axe fell.

The station was located opposite what is now the Newent fire station, and the buttresses of the station's bridge can still be seen intact on the nearby Station Road.

Little else remains.