Ann Middleton is commercial manager at Didcot Railway Centre

IT'S been a quiet time of year for Marmalade, Didcot Railway Centre’s cat – or should that be mistress.

Now that we are open every day, it is getting more challenging to find a quiet place to snooze in peace.

Unlike many other tourist attractions we allow visitors to bring dogs into the centre provided they are on a lead – or rather we allow dogs with well-behaved owners – which really gives Marmalade another reason to stay out of the way.

She can often be seen early in the morning or after we have closed but in the hot weather it's a bit too warm to hunt during the day so she can be found resting in the shade under the honeysuckle outside the mess room or asleep on her chair inside.

Sometimes we see her exploring the engine shed, on the steps of the coal stage or even wandering down to Brunel’s broad gauge.

But she's not that interested in the history and is just following our volunteers around.

We tell her she is a cat and it's dogs who follow their owners around but she doesn't seem to worry.

But things might be getting a bit more challenging because in recent months we have had another four legged visitor: a male tabby cat has been seen around the centre.

When we saw him from behind we thought he was Marmalade but when he looked at us he has a couple of greyish rings around his eyes so we have nicknamed him Biggles.

There have been a few stand-offs around the mess room.

Marmalade is quite a small cat but she is quite fluffy, and even fluffier when she is defending her territory.

At the moment Biggles knows his place, though if Marmalade leaves any food, he will eat it up.

But he has won the hearts of some of our volunteers and now has his own bowl outside.

We don't know how long he will stay around or if he will eventually wander back to wherever he came from. I think it will depend on Marmalade's eventual view of him.

If he does take up a more permanent residence, he may even start his own Twitter account too.

If you are visiting Didcot Railway Centre, look out for our feline residents as well as our Great Western Railway artefacts.