Last month’s special charity rail trip over the Leiston branch line near the Suffolk coast raised nearly £9,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

The trip gave rail enthusiasts the chance to ride over what is left of the Aldeburgh branch – closed in 1966 in the wake of the Beeching Report – and also travel over the Griffin Quay freight-only line in Ipswich.

The train, run by Ipswich-based Charity Railtours, was the latest fund-raising effort and almost every seat was sold to enthusiasts keen to travel over normally freight-only lines.

Originally planned as a steam trip, problems with the Mayflower locomotive and with clearing it to run on the East Suffolk Line meant that it was pulled by a pair of historic diesel locomotives – but that appears not to have hit ticket sales.

It raised a total of £8,850 which has been donated to Macmillan by Charity Railtours founder Dennis Barnes.