AS a schoolboy, Andy Spreadbury used his pocket money to travel by rail for a day of train-spotting.

That was about 40 years ago, and his passion for railways has never waned.

It is this same enthusiasm which has spurred him to launch a campaign to get a railway heritage centre

created at the doomed Eastleigh railway works.

The axe is set to fall on the Alstom plant at the end of the year and Mr Spreadbury fears that the town's railway heritage could be lost forever.

That is why he believes steps should be taken now to preserve a corner of the giant Campbell Road site for a permanent reminder of the area's proud railway past.

Mr Spreadbury, 49, who lives at North Baddesley, has asked the York-based National Railway Museum whether Eastleigh could be used as its southern branch.

Exhibits from York could then be showcased at Eastleigh.

Mr Spreadbury has had an encouraging reply from the museum chiefs but they have made it clear that initiative and funding would have to come from Eastleigh.

In a letter, museum head Andrew Scott wrote: "We have absolutely no money of our own with which to establish new operations and the funds would have to come from a local partner.

"If, in the light of the forthcoming closure at Eastleigh, the local authority is able to underwrite costs, we would be very happy to talk to them."

Mr Spreadbury, who is a member of the Eastleigh Railway Preservation Society, has put his plea for a railway heritage centre to Eastleigh council chiefs.

He says it would be catastrophic if the Alstom site was covered with housing and a role for the railways was lost.

Mr Spreadbury said: "The closure of the works is already being labelled locally as the end of railway history in the town."

He says that there is no centre in southern England which records the contribution that men and women made to the railways.

Mr Spreadbury claims that a railway heritage centre at the old works would provide a mainline running base for the National Rail Museum's locomotives such as Lord Nelson, which is currently being restored at Eastleigh.

He believes that the influx of visitors to the town would boost the local economy and could also create jobs for those made redundant by the Alstom closure. Instead of losing those skills, they could be used in restoring locomotives at the heritage site.