Hard work for all of us but it went extremely well. Amazing to see how many visitors went to the trouble of dressing in 1940's style. Sad the Dakota couldn't fly due to the wind (I can only assume we didn't have wind like that during the war) To see the third rake full (and more) all day was quite a sight and yet the public loved it. I lost count of the number of times people said we were more friendly than other railways and better organised. Everyone should take a bow but in particular the organising group. Many thanks to everyone.
Colin Fewell
Just returned from the event, and can I say congratulations to all. As you say the atmosphere was excellent and the number who dressed accordingly only added to that.
ReplyDeleteThe trains were full to excess, music to the FD's ears, but it was a bit of a crush. Maybe once the second platform at Cheltenham is open a slightly more frequent service would enable the numbers to be spread better and also enable station hopping to be a bit quicker - the one frustration was wanting to be in several places all at the same time!
But these are just pointers towards ways in which an excellent event can be made even better.
Most enjoyable weekend as well, apart from Saturday's hailstorm, but just one puzzle - why no running to Laverton ? I'd thought it would have been perfectly feasible for the re-enactors to have set up sandbagged machine gun posts at each end of the viaduct, with sentries dotted about, all to add to the experience for the visitors, when vital structures on the railways were protected during wartime. A golden opportunity lost. Maybe next time ?
ReplyDeleteThe problem was logistics. We could only run three steam trains and we needed to have as frequent a service as we could between the main stations.
DeleteColin Fewell