DIDCOT Railway Centre is launching a £125,000 fundraising drive so it can steam ahead with future development plans.

Bosses want to buy a 50-year £125,000 lease from Network Rail so they can pursue long-term plans including an extension, new engine shed, visitor centre, a larger shop and better catering facilities.

The centre, next to Didcot Parkway rail station, has to raise £62,500 by May and the remaining £62,500 the following May. The lease will expire in 2019.

Manager Roger Orchard said: “We have a lot of support from people who are not members of the society but still care a lot about railway preservation.

“There are also visitors who have enjoyed numerous trips with their children over the years and we would urge them to support us as well. To lose the site at some point would be a blow to railway preservation.”

Adrian Knowles, a spokesman for the Great Western Society, which runs the centre, said: “There are 4,000 members in the Great Western Society and if each member was prepared to donate the price of a meal out we would get close to our target.”

didcot@oxfordmail.co.uk l Contributions are welcomed by cheque, payable to Great Western Society and limited to: Richard Croucher, chairman, Great Western Society Ltd, Didcot Railway Centre, Didcot, OX11 7NJ.