A FORMER West Meon coal merchant says he is hoping to expand his exhibition of historic photographs of the steam driven Meon Valley railway to include talks on the history of the line.

Ron Stone, 83, grew up in West Meon, and last year he opened a permanent exhibition of life on the railway line in The Angel Hotel on the A32 in Privett.

He said: “The exhibition has proved very popular, and hundreds of people have visited it and seen the photographs.

“There’s obviously an interest so I’m planning is to hold historical talks about the line in a room at the hotel, and hopefully even show some old films of trains running on the Meon Valley line.”

The line and it’s stations at East Tisted, Privett, West Meon, Droxford and Wickham were built by The London and South Western Railway, later Southern Railway and then British Rail.

The line opened in 1903 an d closed in 1955, after British Rail said it cost too much to keep running. .

Mr Stone used to run the family coal and fuel business in West Meon, founded by his grandfather in 1917, and has collected hundreds of pictures recording the 52-year lifespan of the railway.

Ron, who lived at Napps Hard in West Meon, only really became interested in the railway in 1970 after being given an old sepia photograph of the village station -- 15 years after the line closed.

Mr Stone, who now lives in Alton, said: “My father used to have the New Inn at West Meon, now called The Thomas Lord, and as a lad I used to climb the West Meon viaduct which carried the line to collect jackdaw eggs, and my brother in law was killed on the line at West Meon station.

“So I’d lived with the railway for the first 20-years of my life, and helped dismantle it when the last company to operate it closed it because it didn’t pay. That was British Rail.

“When it was shut everything went, the viaduct was metal and cut down, some bridges went, cuttings were filled in and some embankments were levelled, the rails were taken up, the only thing really left were the stations.

“I collected the photographs so it’s history wasn’t lost.”

The exhibition on displays boards in the dining room of the hotel is open daily; for opening time details contact The Angel Hotel on 01730 828 111.