That was the 1940s weekend, thank you!

Wow, what an event! The 1940s weekend is now packing up after a truly fantastic couple of days. Throughout the entire railway, everybody got into the spirit of the time and there was a real buzz of enthusiasm and excitement everywhere. I am sure lots of lessons were learned for next year, but this year was outstanding.

A huge amount of effort had been put in everywhere, the displays at Bishops Lydeard, land girls encampments, the timber corps, military vehicles...and of course the whole event at Watchet where the entire town seemed to be out with displays and entertainment. Thank you to everybody who helped make this a such a success.

A massive thank you from me to Robin Wichard who oversaw the event and  to everybody who took part. I appreciate how much effort goes into this sort of thing and how much dedication is required. Well done, you should be proud of what you achieved. The railway looked at its best and everywhere i heard only positive comments. Well done and thank you.

My job, along with Mrs C, was to escort the King and his entourage around the railway and so I can only report on what I saw. We travelled by train to washford where we inspected the troops and took in the displays including the wonderful 'road up' gang and even the lad selling contraband chocolate from his violin case. Then a rapid drive in open top jeeps saw us at Minehead to sympathise with the bombed out refugees and also to inspect the military train and its crew. Another open top jeep ride took us to Watchet where the King was greeted by the mayor and shown around the town.

Sunday was much a repeat, but gave us the opportunity to visit the Victory Stores at Watchet station, a fantastic recreation by two dedicated individuals and again witness the military train passing through. Minehead station again to hear the entertaining UXB talk, then back to Stogumber for cream teas. 

Traveling around, the stations looked great, the bunting out, staff in period costume, windows taped up. Well done to our station teams.

There are so many highlights that it is difficult to single out anything. For me, travelling back to Stogumber, as I looked down the carriage all I could see were personnel in period costume, it felt fantastic and really looked the part. 

Here are some of my pictures, loads more on the Facebook page and of course on Steve Edges www.wsr.org.uk

See you all again next year!