When a group of students knocked on Bernard Holden's door 50 years ago, he had no idea it would be the beginning of a long battle that would end with the Bluebell Railway.

"My wife said There are four young gentlemen at the door who want to talk to you'," says Bernard. Two years, several long public meetings and a parliamentary ruling later, the Bluebell Railway was born in 1960.

Never could the former British Army captain have guessed that he would celebrate his recent 100th birthday on the line he founded and fought to preserve.

But then railways are in Bernard's blood. A fourth generation railway man, he was born at Barcombe Station in 1908 where his father Charles was the station master. He says his father was an "ingenious"

man who loved the railways and hated nothing more than being disturbed while reading his morning paper. One of Bernard's oldest memories is of his father setting up the tallyman who would often bother him when he was taking in the news."Father got sick of him asking what was going on, so one morning when he said "What's the news governor?' my father told him the Dutch had taken Holland. He went around town telling everyone, but eventually discovered he'd been had. He didn't ask him again," adds Bernard.

Life on the station was noisy, but that is seemingly "all part of the joy of railway life." It wasn't until his father was promoted to Steyning Station that a young Bernard took his first ride on a steam train. "I remember being on the platform next to this big, beautiful engine named Besborough," he says. He was taken for a quick ride while his nervous mother looked on. "I was only six, so she insisted one of the older boys went with me."

After leaving Steyning Grammar school, where Bernard says - "I was so bloody perfect they made me a prefect" - he became a train's clerk and was sent to Southwater where he met his wife Lilian. At the outbreak of war he was responsible for organising the transfer of coal and ammunition around the South East. He also helped transport children from the capital.

"We then had to start evacuating children out of London," he says. "It was awful seeing the families separated and knowing that half of them would never be reunited again."

For Bernard, one of the most frightening moments of the war was in 1941 when he was seconded into the Indian Army to work on the Bengal to Assam Railway.

"We made a dash for it and went out into the Atlantic like an express train, but one of the ships in our convoy was sunk by a torpedo," he says. While the journey to India was grim, the food wasn't much better. "2,000 of us were stuck on the ship for eight weeks eating nothing but rotten fish. It was miserable."

Bernard returned home to the Southern Railway in 1946 and devoted the rest of his life to the railways - which he believes is the reason he reached such a ripe old age. "The secret is to keep working after you officially retire - as long as it's in a pleasant environment," he says.

"I had the Bluebell Railway."

Bernard's devotion to the Bluebell line was acknowledged in 1992 when he received an MBE for services to railway preservation. He says he looked "very pukka in a top hat and tails," but says he was left searching for words when the Queen asked him a question that wasn't about trains. "I was going to tell her about the railways, but she didn't ask," he says.

During his time there have been many train journeys, but Bernard's favourite was his honeymoon - a trip to the South of France - but not because it was romantic. "Travelling to France on the train in those days was a thrill... and you got nice meals."

Looking back over his long life, he says his proudest achievement, and one which may never have happened had it not been for four young men, is the Bluebell Railway. "You know, I thought it would never happen, but it did," he smiles.