THIS is the moment a man risks his life, or serious injury, for a selfie with a steam locomotive.

He steps on to the edge of the platform at Stroud railway station just as the Oliver Cromwell, an engine hauling carriages full of rail enthusiasts on a tour through Gloucestershire, approaches.

The locomotive thunders past, and the man steps away just in time.

The footage shows the man standing over the yellow safety line which people must not cross until the train is stationary.

John Potter, who shot the video, was himself at the station to see the train... but from a safe distance.

He said he feared for the man's safety.

He also said his partner and her four-year-old daughter were with him at the time, and he dreaded to think of how they might be affected by seeing anything awful that might have happened.