IT is 40 years since Wimborne railway station closed. The anniversary of the closure falls on May 2 and an A5-sized booklet entitled The Rise and Fall of Wimborne Station has been put together by Wimborne author and retired Southern railwayman Michael Webb and Littledown photographer George Marsh to commemorate the event.

Today, many still rue the closure of the line serving Wimborne, which followed the appointment of Dr Richard Beeching as chairman of the newly formed British Railways Board by the Minister of Transport in the early 1960s.

He was given a brief to make the railways pay and the effect of his plan was the closure of under-used and therefore uneconomic railway networks.

The booklet is both a station history and personal memoir as Michael began his 50-year railway career there as a "number taker" in 1942.

Later, Michael, who was to serve at virtually every station between Brockenhurst and Weymouth, served as a signalman at Wimborne signalbox (known as the 'lighthouse' because of its height and spectacular views).

The book is limited to a single print run of 500 copies only and contains all previously unseen photographs by acclaimed local photographer George Marsh.

George, a prolific photographer during the age of steam, has a personal archive of some 120,000 rare images.

Publisher Anthony Vent sent these photographs taken from the booklet, copies of which are only available directly from him at a cost of £2.95 (plus 25p postage and packing). Payment should be made out to Buggleskelly Books addressed to: Wimborne Station booklet, 22 Glassenbury Drive, Bexhill-on-Sea, E Sussex, TN40 2NY. Ten per cent of the income from all orders from Echo readers will go to the Bluebell Railway "Atlantic Project" which hopes to build a completely new Brighton Atlantic steam locomotive - a type regularly seen at Bournemouth Central in the 1950s.