DEAN Forest Railway is celebrating 50 years since the first public train left Parkend station with an Anniversary Gala this month.

Three steam locomotives will journey through the Forest and a special plaque will be unveiled in Parkend to mark the anniversary on October 23 and 24.

The society (DFRS) had planned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the formation of the original preservation society in 2020, but were unable to put on an event because of the pandemic.

During the gala, DFRS will run an "intensive timetable" featuring three steam locomotives each day, including a Peckett locomotive called ’Rocket’, which will visit Parkend from Telford Steam Railway to run short brake van rides as a tribute to the journeys offered behind DFR’s ’Uskmouth No. 1’ in 1971.

The celebrations will focus on the railway’s Parkend birthplace, where there will be a display of museum artefacts specially chosen for display, while there will also be a ’Driver for a Fiver’ attraction open for visitors at Norchard Station in Lydney.

On the evening of October 23, the society is hosting a Members’ Social Evening at Norchard, during which long service badges will be presented to members and an anniversary book officially launched.

The book, called ’Five Decades in the Forest’, is described as a "definitive pictorial history" of the railway.

Written and collated by DRFS chairman Dr Alastair Clarke, the book comprises 164 pages of images, some of which have never been published.

Dr Clarke commented: "I enjoyed (if that’s the right word) an extra year to write ’Five Decades in the Forest’. It is intended as the definitive pictorial history of the Dean Forest Railway, from our society’s birth at Parkend in 1970, through the development of the Norchard site from scratch, all the way to the present day. Our line now runs four and a quarter miles from Lydney Junction to Parkend and all Gala train rides will be for our normal Rover ticket price."

More information is available at dfrsociety.org.uk/shop.