Anniversary train
Forty-year anniversaries do not come round very often, about once every four decades is my guess. So when one does appear on the horizon, it is worth grabbing hold of, if only to use as an excuse for a party.
The anniversary in question was that of Southport Model Railway Society, a club of modest size and reputation in the posher part of the north-west between Liverpool and Blackpool. A distinctive feature of the club (one of many, if we are to be unabashedly honest) is the number of garden railway enthusiasts in its membership, somewhere around a quarter of the total.
So in early 2013, when plans were outlined to celebrate forty years of the club’s existence, it was not surprising that a 16mm element was suggested. It was decided by t’committee that this might take the form of an anniversary-themed special train. It would be run on the club’s very own garden railway on the occasion of the SMRS Official Birthday in May of that year. Members would be invited to submit a coach or wagon, suitably decorated. No prizes would be awarded and there would be no judging, official or unofficial, just the pleasure of taking part in a unique event.
So it was decreed, and so it was done. Six items appeared on the day, four decorated wagons and two coaches, whose passengers appeared to be making full use of comprehensive buffet facilities. One wagon had as its load an 00 gauge private owner wagon, one of a batch made for us by Dapol and bearing the name 'G. Watkinson & Son'. George Watkinson was a coal merchant whose business operated from the 1890's at Hesketh Bank station on the old Southport and Preston Railway.
The stock was assembled into a train behind my Roundhouse Jack Marazion, itself a special edition model. At or about midday precisely it was flagged off down the clubhouse garden, past numerous members and guests enjoying a barbecue and various other refreshments, not all alcohol-free.
Now it has to be said that the current state of the club’s external layout is not as wonderful as it might be, age having taken its toll as it does on all of us. Plans were in hand for a major revamp on a new alignment, but were delayed while the more pressing matter of a new roof for the outside convenience was attended to. So the running was a touch temperamental, but despite that the train provided a welcome addition to the celebrations. A Locomotion railbus was also steamed, and a Colonel Stephens railcar graciously given running rights, despite being battery-powered.
Once all the comestibles were consumed a circumnavigation of the town was undertaken on a vintage bus, courtesy of Merseyside Transport Trust, stopping off on the way for a trip on the Lakeside Miniature Railway. The day concluded with a dinner at a local restaurant, complete with guest speaker.
Since then components of the celebration train have run on two other railways, including my portable layout Walmer Bridge at the Woodvale Transport Festival, and the not-portable-but-you-still-have-to-hump-it-about-the-loco-shed layout Hundred End at the West Lancashire Light Railway’s summer gala. Further outings are likely, even inevitable.