by Mark Collins

This was the first item that was filmed for the series and the first time I had ever done a piece to camera!

Although it doesn’t show any trains running up and down tracks, it’s a history lesson in which all rail enthusiasts should be interested. I think I got sunburnt during the day.

It was a long day filming this piece as there were so many different locations at which to film. We began at Young’s Brewery in Wandsworth, moved to where the River Wandle meets the Thames at Wandsworth Creek, then down to the Wandle Industrial Museum in Mitcham and finally ending up at the park in Purley.

It was of special interest to me as I now live in this area of London so I now bore my family rigid every time we pass the park in Purley where the Surrey Iron Railway used to run.

Thanks go to Kevin Flynn the Head Horsekeeper at Young’s Brewery and of course to Eric Shaw who was most amenable in showing us the points of interest along the route of the Surrey Iron Railway.

Trainspotting.links (will open in a new window)

http://www.nina.gemineans.co.uk/history/industrail/ironrail.html
http://www.croydonsociety.org.uk/Focus/2001Summer/SurreyIronrailway.html
http://www.croydon.gov.uk/ledept/localstudies/cr-pastsurreyiron.htm