By Mark Branagan Within three years of the last episode Britain's rural rail network had suffered the Beeching cuts and by 1968 main line steam travel had been pensioned off altogether.It seemed Railway Roundabout, which ran on the BBC Children's Hour slot for nearly 50 episodes, might end up like so many old shows that disappeared into the Missing Believed Wiped black hole in the Beeb's archives.So the National Railway Museum stepped in to purchase the whole series from its creators John Adams and Patrick Whitehouse in 1980 only for the film to spend nearly three decades in a storeroom behind the old lecture theatre at the museum.Finally in January the storeroom was demolished to make way for the NRM's 4m research and archive centre, Search Engine.

LEGENDARY locomotives will provide the backdrop for one of the performances for York's annual literature festival.

A long-held favourite of festival-goers, Discovery Days (Saturday, March 15, 10am-4pm at the National Railway Museum, York) is a feast of hands-on, practical activities designed to inspire, stimulate and challenge preconceptions of science and technology.

By Mark Foster IT is arguable whether John Backho

By Catherine Priestley RAIL skills are being revived at a former British Rail wagonworks more than two decades after it closed.Vehicle restoration company Rail Restorations North-East has moved into the disused workshops in Shildon, County Dur-ham.