Going from platform 4 to eternity

JOJO MOYES

Old sailors get sprinkled onto the waves, while proud gardeners end up fertilising their rose bushes. Where better for the trainspotter to end his final journey than pulled into the sidings?

Fans of coal and steam and ardent followers of number plates may soon be able to enter the big sleep by sleeper, as plans are being drawn up for Britain's first burial ground for railway buffs.

The organisation behind the plans, the Midland Railway Trust in Ripley, Derbyshire, aims to set up a trackside cemetery and hold wakes in its dining cars after the departed has departed from platform 4.

A planning application to change the use of a one-and-a-half-acre site at Golden Valley has been lodged with Amber Valley Borough Council and the borough council is due to discuss the plan later this month.

"The intention is to build a small station, adjacent to the burial site so that special trains will be able to stop there," said Alan Calladine, spokesman for the Midland Railway centre.