THE summer holidays may well be approaching the end of the tunnel, but visitors to STEAM are still pouring onto the platforms to make tracks into Swindon’s past.

This week, enjoying the museum’s fun activity trail, the Track It Down Trail, which sees museum-goers hunting for objects, shapes and colours, were regular visitors Anna Holbrook with daughter Eve and her friend Amelia.

She said: “They have so many activities for the children, and all of the guides are really friendly and very happy to help. And the kids are all completely okay to run around, most of the time you wouldn’t take a three-year-old to a museum, but here you have the run of it.”

Museum staff are now busy preparing for the fourteenth Swindon Railway Festival, and the return of star guest Pete Waterman, who has attended every event since its creation.

Duty officer Geoff Davies said: “We get quite a lot of real aficionados coming to the event, if you want to talk trains this is the place to be. But of course we also get lots of youngsters coming in too, starting from Thomas the Tank Engine and you can see that they are going to be lifelong enthusiasts, which is very gratifying for us.”

The Swindon Railway Festival will be held at Steam over the weekend of September 12 and 13 from 10am until 5pm each day. For more details visit www.steam-museum.org.uk.