Ghost trains: Spooky pictures show how long-lost locos would look if they were still running along their old routes today

• Photographer bringing back to life the Midland and Great Northern Railway
• Stuart McPherson skillfully merges images of past and present to create 'ghost images'
  

By Martin Bagot

Published: 12:20 EDT, 13 December 2012 | Updated: 15:37 EDT, 13 December 2012

These eerie 'ghost train' images are part of a project to bring back to life one of Britain's long lost railways.

When it operated, the Midland and Great Northern Railway (M&GN) was disparagingly referred to as the Muddle and Go Nowhere line - but after it was axed it earned the nicknamed Missed and Greatly Needed.

Photographer Stuart McPherson, who lives in Norwich near its former route, has attempted to bring it back to life with these incredible images of a time gone by merged with the present day.

How it used to be: Artist Stuart McPherson's M&GN Ghosts series combines the golden age of British railway with modern images

Times change: Here Mr McPherson captures the site of the former Honing station in Norfolk

The line served a mostly rural region across from Birmingham across the middle of the UK to Norfolk from 1893 to 1959.

For the  M&GN Ghost series photographer, Mr Mcpherson has skilfully woven pictures from its bygone days together with how the route looks now.

He said: 'The feeling I’m trying to convey with these images is that in the space of about 100 years the railways came along changed the world in an instant.

'They opened up entire countries to relatively fast and easy transportation overnight and they sparked the modern way of life that we now take for granted.

'They then disappeared just as quickly.'

Disused line: This former busy route is now abandoned but the image shows what was at the the old Crude City Station

Scenes from the past: rail lines through the eastern county of Norfolk including (pictured) Norwich City Station

Scenes from 1983 to 1959: Pictured is the site of the former Whitwell and Reepham station

Quite a turnaround: Pictured here is the former M&GN turntable which was demolished in the 1970s

Overgrown: May of the sites along the old railway are now popular with dog walkers

Rural stations: Many disused stations such as at Hindolvestone (pictured) connected villages to wider conurbations

Lives along the route: Mr McPherson's pictures combine people past and present

Water under the bridge: This image captures the scene near the former Drayton Station

'Nature got straight back to work reclaiming the remains'