Web family hunt turns up trolley

The trolley is being renamed Addick, after Charlton Athletic FC

A man searching the web for relatives who found a rail trolley with his name has saved it from the scrapheap.

Bernard Wickham, of Bromley, Kent, spotted the trolley's photograph on a website and offered to help fund its £5,000 restoration.

The Wickham motorised trolley is being handed over to the South Devon Railway to be brought back to use.

Mr Wickham, chairman of the Charlton Athletic Former Players' Association, is to re-name it Addick after the club.

The 68-year-old will attend the handover ceremony in Devon on Sunday.

It will be used by volunteer track workers and staff to help keep the wheels turning on one of the prettiest steam lines in the country Bernard Wickham

Mr Wickham said: "I was amazed to find that there was such a machine as a Bernard Wickham."

Seventy of the club's supporters also contributed to the restoration.

The trolley was first bought from its former manufacturers, D Wickham & Co Ltd of Ware in 1989.

The old trolley was bought by enthusiasts for a couple of pounds

It then lay in a garden in Sevenoaks until Peter Treglown, a Norwich-based marketing director of the South Devon Railway, offered to house it in his garage to save it from further deterioration.

The group then placed a photograph of it on their website.

Mr Treglown said: "A few of us bought it years ago for a couple of quid as scrap but it rather got forgotten.

"When Bernard found its picture on our website, he contacted me and asked to come and see it with a view to funding its complete restoration. I was absolutely delighted to take up his offer."

The trolley is to be used on the South Devon Railway running between Buckfastleigh and Totnes.

Mr Wickham said: "It will be used by volunteer track workers and staff to help keep the wheels turning on one of the prettiest steam lines in the country."