Bevan got a passion for railways from the headmaster of The Downs School in Colwall, Malvern, Worcestershire, who managed the Downs Light Railway with a track gauge of . He set-up the Institute of Rail Welding in 2001, built a narrow gauge railway line at Granta Park and became chairman of the Bressingham Steam Preservation Trust, at Bressingham, near Diss, Norfolk, to which he donated an ex-NCB 1991 Hunslet battery-electric locomotive and three bogie coaches from the Southport Pier Railway"More 2ft-gauge stock for Bressingham", Norfolk Railway Society News Archive, July - August 2007. He eagerly supported the restoration of the steam locomotive Royal Scot, which had run on the west coast main line from London to Glasgow from 1927 to 1962.
