It's just the ticket for Gloucestershire tourism... after fifty nine years of being without a rail connection, one of sorts is inching closer for Berkeley and Sharpness.

A ripple of excitement went through the sleepy market town on Tuesday when a string of carriages for renovation and use on the resurrected Vale of Berkeley Railways was freighted by lorry along Salter Street – their destination, space at the former laboratories yard at the town's nuclear power site. These carriages will join Mail coaches stationed at the site in 2017.

Last year, the Vale of Berkeley Railway Trust (VoBR) set out bold plans as part of an ambitious project which is targeted for completion in 2025.

In all, the VoBR now has three active work sites: at Sharpness Docks, where the main engineering base is located, at Oldminster Sidings, which has been cleared for track relaying and work on building a maintenance shed, and at Berkeley's station, the foundations of the original building currently being uncovered by volunteers who meet there each Wednesday.

In June, the VoBR was granted the lease for the old Dock Sidings in Sharpness by Network Rail. Since then, the governing trust has made huge progress with its plans to run both heritage steam and diesel passenger services on the branch line.

Howard Parker, Chair of the VoBR said: "No sooner had the ink dried on our Sidings lease than we started talking to Direct Rail Services (whose nuclear flask trains still use the branch) and Network Rail about requirements for VoBR trains to run just under two miles from Sharpness to Berkeley."

Once a safe demarcation between VoBR and Network Rail operations has been made, the rest of the branch beckons, he said, given a "ready-made mainline connection at Berkeley Road, making an overall run of four miles".

Plans include a potential stop at Cattle Country amusement park, reinforcing the strategy to make tourism by rail part of the county's sustainable transport infrastructure.

Step one, said Mr Parker, is the transformation of the Dock Sidings at Sharpness into a depot where rolling stock can be stable, maintained and restored.

"We'll call it 85E, following the designation of Gloucester's local sub-sheds until closure in the 1960s. Volunteers are making great progress clearing 30 years of undergrowth, then we have points and track to re-lay and our depot to build."

With initial costs elements such as the point timbers along costing £50,000, the VoBR is heavily reliant upon volunteer help and sponsorship donations.

The heritage railway group, formed in 2015, ultimately aims to have the railway up and running as a showcase tourist attraction which in turn will celebrate the history of the joint GWR & LMS Severn & Wye Railway.

Volunteering enquiries can be made through valeofberkeleyrailway@gmail.com .