THE Scarborough & Whitby Railway was arguably one of the most scenic rail routes in the country.

An official Scarborough & Whitby Railway Company guide, published in 1897, put it nicely. “The line,” it said, “runs through pleasant, undulating pasture lands at either end, winds in and out amongst the gorse and heather-clad hills, dips into wooded dales, skirts the edge of a wild moor, climbs the highest cliff on the Yorkshire coast, runs round one of the bonniest bays in the Kingdom, and over a portion of its course is perched on the brow of a cliff against which the waves ceaselessly break.

In the short 20 miles it covers there is endless variety of wild and picturesque scenery.”

Sadly, today, no trains ply their way along the 21 miles of the route. The line, which opened on July 16, 1885, closed 80 years later, on March 8 1965. The last passenger train chugged along here on March 6 that year.

But today, it is still a treat for walkers and cyclists alike part of a national cycle route, as well as a bridleway.

Now, retired Scarborough museum worker and amateur local historian Robin Lidster has done lovers of all things to do with the railways a huge favour by gathering together a unique collection of historic photographs, which show the line in its glory days.

In Scarborough & Whitby Railway Through Time he has twinned these historic photographs with modern pictures showing the same scenes today, to provide a wonderful record of this most beautiful of railways.

There are some stunning photographs in Robin's book: from a locomotive standing silhouetted at the entrance to the Gallows Close tunnel in Scarborough to a shot of a steam locomotive struggling up the steep 1 in 39 gradient to Ravenscar. There are wonderful photographs, too, of many of the eight stations along the route, each with their own individual character.

The book starts at Scarborough, and through the course of 94 pages and 180 photographs, old and new, takes the reader along the complete route, finishing at Whitby Town Station.

* Scarborough & Whitby Railway Through Time by Robin Lidster is published by Amberley, priced £14.99. The book should be available (on sale or to order) through local bookshops, including WHSmith and Waterstones in Scarborough, Station Road Stores and Muir Lea Stores in Robin Hood's Bay and Holman's Bookshop in Whitby. Alternatively it can be ordered from Robin himself by emailing him at magiclanternman@talktalk.net