THERE is a dreadful inevitability to the news that the cafe at the Steam museum is to close indefinitely.

The museum's story is that of a brilliant concept which was, if not strangled in its crib by over-optimistic predictions of visitor numbers, then at least half throttled.

The visitors who make the journey to Churchward have only the highest praise for what they see, hear and touch. This is no dull collection of relics: it is a magnificent evocation of Swindon's Victorian railway glory.

But as delighted as the visitors may be, they are too few. The result is that Steam has become a money pit for Swindon Council and, by extension, every council tax payer in the borough.

The closure of the cafe is the latest in a bitterly ironic series of setbacks for the multiple award-winning museum. Some commentators have suggested that the most prudent course of action would be total closure. That would be a tragedy and an insult to the memories of those who raised this town from a rural backwater 150 years ago.

If a solution can be found, then we owe it to ourselves and our ancestors to move heaven and earth in our search for it.