Two men, who 50 years ago were university students determined to preserve the Swanage Railway line, have recently returned to lay flowers at a memorial to generations of dedicated railway volunteers.

The Dorset heritage line between Wareham and Swanage was just weeks from demolition when Andrew Goltz and John Sloboda, at just 22-years-old, were inspired form the Swanage Railway Society.

In May 1972, the railway enthusiast pair travelled from London and took a walk around the Corfe Castle station and disused tracks. They hatched a plan to reopen the 10-mile line, which had been closed by British Rail in January that year.

The tracks were lifted in June 1972, and the society then had a four-year fight on its hands to rebuild the line and relay the tracks, so that steam trains could again be used on the Isle of Purbeck.

Andrew Goltz flew in from Poland, where he now lives, to be reunited with his old friend John, who travelled from London, to revisit the railway and see the memorial stone.

Andrew said: “It’s very moving and gut-wrenching to be back. The castle ruins rising above Corfe Castle station had a powerful magic and I remember walking along the rusting tracks on that warm early summer day with John saying the memorable words: ‘This is all too attractive to be allowed to be swept away

for a Corfe Castle by-pass. We have to save it’.”

John said: “It has been very emotional to see the difference between what we saw in 1972 and what we admire today which is a vibrant and loved working railway to which many people have given the best part of their lives to make the success that it is today.

“There is such a lot of care and love for the Swanage Railway which is wonderful.”

Andrew and John enjoyed a steam train trip to Harman’s Cross station – between Corfe Castle and Swanage – to visit a poignant memorial stone at Harman’s Cross paying tribute to generations of dedicated Swanage Railway volunteers.

Joined by Catherine Shaw, a granddaughter of one of the Swanage Railway Society’s early campaigners – Dorothy Gosling who retired to Swanage with her husband in the 1960s – Andrew and John laid flowers at the stone.

Swanage Railway Trust chairman Gavin Johns said: “It was very moving to meet

Andrew Goltz and John Sloboda because without them – and the other volunteers they recruited to their campaign 50 years ago – there would not be the Swanage Railway that so many people enjoy, which contributes £15 million a year to the local economy.”

Swanage Railway Company chairman Robert Patterson said: “What the Swanage

Railway Society’s dedicated volunteers achieved, against the odds, shows what the power of the human spirit can achieve. I pay tribute to all those volunteers who gave so much over the years to the Swanage Railway, many of whom are no longer with us.”