28 FROM TREVITHICK TO TOM ROLT: THE ROOTS OF HERITAGE RAILWAYS - A unique panorama of preservation. It is 50 years since the meeting which led to the formation of the Talyllyn Railway, Britain's first heritage line, took place. We trace the development of the ideas that preceded the groundbreaking decision to save this line. In the first part, Hugh Madgin follows locomotive preservation from 1839 up to 1950.

28 THE HERITAGE RAILWAY TIMETABLE - A unique time chart listing major landmarks of the post-1950 preservation movement and comparing them with developments on the main line and other railways in 'regular' use forms the background of this special millennium edition.

35 FROM TREVITHICK TO TOM ROLT: ALONG THE ROAD TO TOWYN - From light railways and miniature lines in Victorian times through efforts to save the Southwold Railway, Robin Jones retreads the path which led to the first volunteer takeover of a railway.

40 DUKE OF GLOUCESTER: THE ENGINE 'COMPLETED' IN PRESERVATION - The story of unique BR Standard 8P Pacific No. 71000 has with much justification been hailed as preservation's finest hour in terms of locomotive restoration. For the grup, which was once laughed to scorn for wanting to save it, went on to make modifications which realised the true potential of its design, as Des Shepherd recounts in the light of the engine's imminent return to main line steam.

44 TRAILBLAZING TIMES: THE VOLUNTEER'S STORY - Author Derek Harrison retells in words and pictures his experience as a teenage volunteer on the newly-preserved Welsh narrow gauge lines in the 1950s and early 60s.

60 SERENDIPITY AND THE STEEL QUEEN - The remarkable story of how the actions of a spinster in a quiet country village unintentionally 'held the fort' long enough for the first volunteer-led preservation of a BR branch line, as a live steam venue, to take off.

68 THE MIDDLETON MILESTONES - The fact that the first train on a standard gauge preserved railway was run by a diesel not a steam engine - hauling a tramcar as opposed to a conventional carriage - is often overlooked. Ian Smith reviews this and the many other landmarks of the Middleton Railway, thriving 40 years on as one of Britain's top industrial railway heritage sites.

74 SETTLE & CARLISLE - WHERE THE PROTESTERS WERE PROVED RIGHT - One of the biggest victories of the preservation era was not the reopening of a redundant line to heritage traction, but the saving of one of Europe's most spectacular main line routes. Were the campaigners driven by pure nostalgia or did they have a head for business which the BR 'experts' lacked? Eleven years on, the increasing return of traffic provides the answer, writes Roger Hardingham.

82 THE REDISCOVERING OF LITTLE SWITZERLAND - Five decades since the heritage railway era began, and the preservation cycle is in full swing. With scenes evocative of the earlier days of lines like the Bluebell and Severn Valley, the Churnet Valley Railway is all set to become one of the future premier heritage lines, as Robin Jones found.