THERE used to be popular song in the 1950s, a hit in the UK for Alma Cogan, called "A railway runs through the middle of the house."

Well, she could have been singing about the main Hereford-Paddington line just outside Colwall.

There’s a remarkable image in a new book by railway photographer Steve Burdett showing just what happened when the track layers turned up in the mid-1800s. A black and white cottage stood virtually on the pegged out route, but instead of veering slightly to one side to avoid it, the railway engineers went full steam ahead.

As a result locomotives on the rails would have ripped a corner off the property had not part of one wall been removed.

What led to this state of affairs has probably been lost in the mists of time but as Steve observes: “The house obviously predates the railway and one wonders whether any compensation was received for the loss of that side wall.”

Either way, It would certainly be a noisy place to sleep.

Just like the glory days of the steam locomotive, the era has long gone when little boys  grew up dreaming of becoming train drivers. Although that could be a touch disingenuous, because a few may still do, but not many.

However interest in the railways per se holds strong and whenever we publish photographs of trains of yesteryear on our Nostalgia pages, they engender more interest than any other topic.

Apart maybe from old buses or trams.

So Steve’s new book is certainly on the right track.

Railways around Worcestershire (Amberley £14.99) is his look at railway operations in the county over a 50 year period from the 1970s up to more recent times.

“The early Seventies was an era neglected by many photographers following the end of steam,” he said.

“However it is now quite apparent how the intervening generations have seen even greater changes. Across the area the railways are once again going through a transitional period, where traditional semaphore signalling controls operations at Worcester, while there is the creation of a new Parkway station on the city outskirts.”

His book features 180 full colour photographs covering all the county’s main stations – at Worcester, Malvern, Evesham, Pershore, Droitwich and Kidderminster – plus other locations, like Rainbow Hill tunnel at Worcester, Worcester viaduct and Colwall tunnel.

Also little builds like the signal boxes at Newland, near Malvern, which dates back to 1900, and at Henwick, Worcester, which is even older, going up in 1875.

Steve points out that the Henwick box, as well as protecting a busy level crossing – even busier now the nearby university is growing – is vital to operations at Foregate Street, as some trains turn back here.

It also forms the division if the two single lanes into the city. Incidentally, Henwick station closed in 1965, but over the years several suggestions have been made to re-open it as rail use has increased, especially for a park and ride facility.

At Newland, the halt that opened in 1929 as Stocks Lane was renamed Newlands East in 1943 when sidings were installed there for trains transporting injured Second World War troops to the military hospitals built at Blackmore Park.

Later the location became a depot specialising in pre-assembled track. This closed in 1982.

Incidentally Steve Burdett’s working career was not on the railways, but as a banker.

However, he always carried a camera on  his train travels to catch interesting scenes.

The hobby has certainly paid dividends.