Tanfield Railway 1940s
Weekend - September 24th & 25th
This was the first Tanfield Railway 1940s
event since 2019, our last show before Covid shut the world down. It's been a
long time coming back and I think it was the first large event at the railway
since covid restrictions ended. For the first time, we decided to camp there,
living a little further away now and with high fuel prices. Lynne had also
just bought a new modern plastic tent and wanted to try it out before the year
ended. She's not a huge fan of crawling around in canvas tents.
We took the Dodge and M201 to the show,
arriving late on Friday afternoon in order to get set up and settled in. The
new tent was hidden under our large camo net in the corner of the field and
while of modern design, it blended quite well into the trees behind. We were
expecting some of our friends the following day, members of our unofficial
group "The Hedgehog Heroes". The name came from the Beamish show a
few years ago, where a member of the public tried to steal a ration box for a
hedgehog house. I'd recently got some magnetic plastic patches made, copied
from an original bomb group patch of a hedgehog. All our vehicles now carry
this patch.
Two locomotives were running during the weekend - Austerity class 0-6-0 saddle
tank No.49 and recently restored "Horden". The main events field was
located between the Marley Hill yard and Andrews House station. The military
vehicles and the dioramas were located in this field. The Seatones singing
group were based at Andrews House station while swing bands played in the
carriage shed and another singer performed at the other end of the line at
East Tanfield station.
At around 2pm, a seven vehicle convoy set off from the show field along the
main road, which runs more or less parallel to the railway, down to East
Tanfield station. We stayed there long enough for a coffee & cake stop
before returning to the Marley Hill show field. It gave the public at both
stations the chance to see the vehicles on the move, rather than just parked
up for the day.
Also early afternoon, my daughter put on a
bridesmaids dress and joined two other young re-enactors for a wedding
photoshoot on and beside the train. Straight after that was an outfit change
for the evacuees leaving on the next train.
Sunday's show followed the same format with another convoy mid
afternoon. Some of the vehicles present on Saturday were only there for one
day, but several different vehicles turned up on Sunday, so the overall
vehicle count was about the same. At times, it was a chilly weekend, thanks to
a stiff Northerly wind on Saturday, but thankfully the wind dropped for Sunday
and was a little warmer from the West.