The Witches of Wansford

Saturday night was Halloween with Thomas at Wansford, and I went down as general factotum to help out here and there – my task was mainly to get the 150 odd participants on and off the special train at Wansford and Yarwell, then generally hang around; something I excel at.

After a thoughtfully provided fish n’ chip supper, I manned the ticket barrier to greet the arrivals, and I have to say the effort and time put into costumes – both adult and children – was incredible.  The station had been decorated by Jayne and her ever hard working team and certainly looked the part.

Thomas took the train through the haunted tunnel, and of course we really laid the ghost-who-lives-in-tunnel on thick and got huge cheers, ooohhh’s and general screaming from the carriages, although this had more to do with Jayne’s broomstick and Eddie’s backside rather than supernatural occurrences.

On arrival at Yarwell we got everyone off the train and those of us on duty were handed a Chinese lantern and told to set it off.  And how do we do that?  “Take it out of the plastic bag and set it on fire,” was the ever-helpful response.

Upon opening the plastic bag, I discovered that inside it I had a paper bag.  No, sorry, I stand corrected.  An orange paper bag with some string and cardboard in it, and some crudely applied black paper eyes and a mouth.  It was a pumpkin paper lantern. It wasn’t just an ordinary pumpkin paper lantern.  It was an incredibly cheap and naff pumpkin paper lantern that even Poundland felt that they were overcharging for.  By around 99p.

Eventually I managed to set mine on fire, although as Angie helpfully pointed out, setting fire to the outside wasn’t going to help much.  I’m not sure that I agree …

Chinese lanterns that you simply light and send soaring over the 

Nene Valley in an artistic and dramatic manner.  

Ours were nothing like this.

All ten lanterns eventually got lit and sent on their merry way.  One made it as far as the nearest carriage and crashed; four made it over the train and landed in the trees which presented the possibility of a lineside fire nearly in November (a first for any preserved line) whilst the remainder took off in spectacular style and sailed away into oblivion before landing on a Mondeo in Nassington and trashing the paintwork.

Now that we’d established a level, everyone got back on the train and returned to Wansford.  All passengers were helped to disembark so that they could go for food, party games and storytelling.  That was me done as I don’t do party games or story telling, except to my boss who wanted an explanation about the dent in the back of the artic I used on Friday.

So, I went and got the camera, as I fancied a night shoot around Wansford station.  Naturally I tried taking pictures of Thomas, but I needed a 30 second time exposure to capture the lighting, and no one could manage to keep out of the viewfinder for that amount of time.  The longest uninterrupted shot was 15 seconds, so that will have to do.

Away from the Halloween shenanigans there were some good opportunities, the best one being as Thomas shunted the coaches out of the station.  I managed to create this image of a train speeding through Wansford Station at night, which I particularly like.

As the party wound down I sought out the three resident witches who had been doing the entertainment, food and  - pretty much everything really.  Mavis, Jayne and Pat had really got into character and were only too happy to pose for photos.  Well, they’re certainly different from my usual models I have to say, and they did have a tendency to fondle their brooms that made the photo session look more like an audition for a porn movie rather than a children’s party.  Jayne’s face lit up when she found she had a broom to straddle, and getting her to pose motionless for a long exposure shot wasn’t going to happen.  She seemed to be thoroughly enjoying some questionable antics with a broom between her legs.  I shall say no more.  Happy Halloween!

 Getting the evil eye from Witch Pat

Jayne enjoying her prop way too much.

Sunday was the final running day of the 2010 season; so I went down to do booking office.  It was a dull, wet day and rather quiet, although as I had company in the booking office with Geoff, plus Liz and Percy next door in the shop, the time passed quickly and pleasantly enough.  I popped out to take a shot of the last train of the season departing Wansford on the final run – we were using Austerity No. 22, which made a fine sight heading down the line for Peterborough.

Well, that’s the season done.  Since joining the Nene Valley in February I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of something that manages to be interesting, rewarding, friendly and often wacky as my posts have shown.  I enjoy going down most weekends, have made many new friends as a result and come across a lot of very pleasant people both on and off the trains.

The railway takes a break from passenger service until the Santa Specials start on 28th November, although much behind the scenes work by the unsung hard working teams such as loco maintenance, Signal & Telegraph, Permanent Way, Carriage and Wagon etc continues unabated out of the public eye.  There is a special train next Saturday in connection with a fireworks display at Ferry Meadows, and I’m planning to be on it – so the story continues…

Delivering The Mail

I mentioned last time that I’d been offered the opportunity to work on the Thomas and The Travelling Post Office (TPO) event this weekend, which offered something a bit different to my usual TTI duties.  Essentially I gathered that I was required for crowd control purposes as the event has its own Tour Group Leader (Marilyn) who takes care of the talky bits, and the TPO Group themselves handle the operation of the train.  So, it would be a nice easy day with only three trains to worry about, and all I had to do was escort the participants to and from the viewing gallery at Yarwell.  How hard could it be?

Well, anything that sounds too good to be true invariably is, and I really should have known better.  As there wasn’t much information about what would happen, I decided to wing it once the first load of passengers arrived for the 11:00 departure.  Passengers ride down to Yarwell inside the TPO coaches as part of the experience, but as they are parcels vans this means they are rather dark and gloomy inside.  Especially as the lights didn’t work because of a problem with the alternator!  However, everybody boarded and – we sat in Wansford.  I was aware that there was a complicated shunt movement going on, and this overran to the extent that we were some 30 minutes late in departing.  Not ideal when you’ve got 60 parents and small children confined to a parcels van by any means.

At length we arrived at Yarwell and our passengers alighted from the vans.  Fiona (another TTI) and I escorted the party down to the lineside apparatus that handles the dropping off and collecting of mailbags.  It took me back to school trip days, as we had to chivvy people along who kept stopping to go to the toilet / pick blackberries and stop to watch Thomas as he propelled the stock back to the tunnel mouth in readiness for the run up.

As I have the loudest mouth at the NVR I gave the group a short talk as to what was about to happen before Thomas did his three run pasts, dropping bags and collecting pouches on the way.  The audience was quite enthralled, especially the children who had a rare chance to witness Thomas in action from the lineside.  Normally they only see him at the station, so to witness a high-speed run is something of a novelty.  After the third run we escorted the group back to Yarwell and returned them to Wansford.  People were polite rather than effusive with thanks when they left; however we sorted out all the issues raised on the spot and placated those who were rightfully upset about the initial delay with some responsive action that kept everyone happy in the end.  Apart from a party of Americans, who just wanted to complain because – well, because they’re American and that’s what they do best.  Presumably if we’d been dishing out burgers on the train they’d have been happy, but basically they simply personified the stereotype American tourist that is often parodied on TV.  I don’t take Americans seriously as life is too short, so Marilyn handled that one.

Once the train was empty we had a chance to discuss what had gone wrong, and more importantly, how to build on the experience and improve it.  Now that I’d seen the operation I knew where the problems lay and how to sort them out.  By working closely with Marilyn we created a good PR team and worked off each other like a double act instead of getting in each other’s way.  This proved to be successful as the second and third trains ran very smoothly, and we received many compliments as passengers left us when we returned to Wansford.

When Sunday dawned everything was in position, so we began the day on the right foot with an on time departure and a full (84 passengers) complement.  By now we were familiar with each other and our roles, so the operation was slick and professional.  The crocodile to the apparatus was the slowest part, but you can’t hurry a toddler who doesn’t want to be hurried!  To help out, the TPO crew held the train at Yarwell until the group reached the viewing gallery so that they wouldn’t get distracted as Thomas trundled past and hold up the operation.  I also discovered that I could use the opportunity to create a party atmosphere down at the gallery.  I began with an explanation of what would happen, then each time Thomas reversed the stock down the line, I asked all the children to shout ‘Hello Thomas!’ as the loco passed.  With three runs taking place I urged them to shout louder each time, because if Thomas could hear them, he’d respond in kind on his whistle.  This duly took place on the third run thanks to an arrangement with the footplate crew who joined in the fun to make it special for the visitors.  During the mail drop runs, I scrambled up the bank to get a few pictures before returning to my temporary role as Butlins Redcoat – clearly I’ve missed my vocation in life.  Or I just like the sound of my own voice.

Each of the three trips loaded to capacity on Sunday which created a great atmosphere each time, especially the ‘Hello Thomas’ bit – the TPO crew told me later on that this could be heard all the way back at Yarwell Station!  Once the third run was complete and the groups returned to Yarwell, they had an opportunity to watch Thomas run round and get photos with him, and the TPO crew opened up the nets so that people could examine the equipment in detail that they’d just seen in use.  The train then left for Wansford, where the children had an opportunity to sort the mail into the original dockets inside the sorting coach; a great chance for more interactive fun that they enjoyed very much.

Overall, once the less than successful first run was over with, the event was very successful and up to the high standards of customer service we pride ourselves on delivering.  I was pleased with way that we acknowledged the problems and got together to tackle them head on in a straightforward manner, rather than shrug our shoulders and carry on regardless as some ‘service-led’ operations do all too often.  The end result was great teamwork all round, and more significantly, lots of happy and excited faces departing from the TPO coaches at Wansford.  That’s what makes being a volunteer on the railway worth doing in the first place.

So what next?  Well, next week a steam event is taking place and I’ll be here, there and everywhere, as it should be a busy and varied day.  More later!

A Smashing Bank Holiday at Yarwell

The Bank Holiday weekend was a busy one at the railway with a great atmosphere on the packed trains, especially the Thomas shuttles.  I worked as TTI on both Sunday (44422 and the Mk1’s) and again on Monday in the DSB’s that had class 14 D9516 up front.  Although the Mk1’s are the pick of the coaches to travel in, I must say that on a busy train the DSB’s are a lot easier to manage, being open plan.

Time keeping was good both days, and everything seemed to run rather smoothly except for a single instance of vandalism on Sunday; amazingly enough at Yarwell Junction; hardly downdown Orton to say the least.  A child picked up a stone and threw it at the DSB coach in the platform.  It bounced off the bodywork, so the girl chose another stone and lobbed it straight through a window, shattering it.  Had a family been sitting there – it was a Thomas shuttle, remember – they’d have been showered with broken glass.  Not an appealing thought by any means.  What made the incident worse was that the girl’s father was with her throughout the incident and said absolutely nothing.  So that’s another Vicky Pollard in the making it would appear.

Despite this, the weekend was good fun, and the people certainly enjoyed themselves on the trains I was working.  On Monday there was time for a spot of informal photography as the diesel hauled DSB’s tend to be quieter than the steam hauled Mk1 trains.  I had some lovely chatty family groups on board; a real pleasure to have time for a chat after a week in my lorry speaking only to dodgy car dealers!

Next weekend is promising another new experience for me as I’ve been offered the opportunity to work on the demonstration TPO trains that will be hauled by Thomas between Wansford and Yarwell.

Wedding Belle & Alarm Bells

Sunday was the busiest day that I’ve ever worked at the Nene Valley, which in one sense was unfortunate as I wasn’t in my usual peak physical condition to appreciate everything that was going on.  I wasn’t rostered in to begin with as I was attending a wedding on Saturday and expected to get a bit – ah, tired – during proceedings.  But the railway was desperate for staff with the extra activities, so I agreed to pop down and help out.

The wedding itself was excellent and celebrations continued long into the night, assisted by a glass or two as might be expected.  I was staying overnight at the hotel to avoid driving and eventually retired to my room for a good night’s sleep so that I’d be fighting fit and ready for duty.

Naturally, things didn’t go quite to plan.  The hotel was, like all British hotels, ridiculously over heated with radiators on even in the middle of our Lincolnshire heatwave.  I opened the only window to the regulation 6 inches before it jammed but that didn’t help.  Teams of navvies were practising riveting in my head – possibly related to all the free alcohol, but there’s no absolute proof of that.  Consequently sleep was impossible until I finally drifted off in the wee small hours.  And promptly awoke again, because I’m at that awkward age where waking up in the night is a daily occurrence.  Off to the bathroom where I made the catastrophic error of turning the light on.  This was connected to an extractor fan, which in turn was connected to a jet turbine in the car park and made enough noise to wake up everybody in the hotel plus several surrounding streets.

Return to bed, where I managed to get to sleep for a good five minutes before the alarm woke me up ready for the new day.  Oh goody.  Back into the bathroom, but this time sans illumination so that at least the jet turbine didn’t kick in.  The shower had two temperature settings, flay the skin or frostbite, so I was in and out as quickly as possible and wishing that I hadn’t left my burns kit bag at home.

Down to breakfast at the appointed hour of 08:00, only to discover that the appointed hour applies to guests, but not the staff who were having a lie in.  At 08:15 a waiter turned up and offered coffee and toast, but anything else was out of the question because the chef wasn’t in, and even when she did turn up she’d need to ‘turn everything on’.  I was too under the weather to argue, so accepted lukewarm coffee to go with toast that I consumed with those horrible packs of butter that had been left out in the restaurant all night with the radiators turned on during a heatwave, plus those plastic packs of marmalade that can only be opened by an arc welding kit.

I had to leave by 08:30 to get to the railway on time, so that ended my experience at this establishment – I won’t embarrass the Kings Hotel of Grantham by naming and shaming them – oops.  Sorry.

At Wansford I was able to get breakfast from Jayne’s ever reliable café and remedy that particular problem, but I still generally felt shattered from the previous day’s events.  And the NVR was in for a busy time as it was a major family fun day, with two mainline trains running as well as Thomas on the Yarwell shuttles, a Routemaster bus service, a kids play park had been set up in the fields and it was the peak holiday season.  I was working as TTI on the DSB rake of open coaches, and were we busy or what?!  All trains loaded very well and the atmosphere was great.  I also worked a couple of Thomas shuttles during the layovers at Wansford, as it was helpful to have extra bodies available to load and unload bikes, buggies, prams and toddlers.  The day passed very quickly and only on the last train of the day did I have the chance to sit down as the service returned to Wansford.

Unusually I was too busy / knackered to take photos, so those on this page are representative of the services we ran.  For the record, Thomas top n’ tailed with the Polish Tank (Piotr?) on two coaches up and down to Yarwell, whilst the Mk1 rake and DSB stock were hauled by our class 14 diesels due to continued ban on using steam locos on the eastern end of the line.

By the time I got home I was ready only for bed – or scrap heap depending on your point of view.  However, my initial task was to get the wedding photos uploaded and onto Facebook; such are the rituals of life in the 21st Century!

Many Happy Returns!

Things have been that busy lately that I just haven’t had the time to record all of them.  The weekend deserves a mention, however, as it was the hugely successful Thomas’ Birthday Weekend at the NVR.  Although I was down for Booking Office and TTI, the Thomas crowd needed a hand with various activities – and as this entailed being outside in the stifling plus 30° heat it certainly beat staying indoors in the stifling plus 30° heat.  There was an advantage somewhere, I think ….. Anyway, I was off like a shot.

Three trains ran on Saturday, all sell-outs, and were great fun to be part of.  Sunday required a bit more work, but thankfully only two trains would run as the 3 pm service was cancelled due to a lack of bookings.  Apparently there was some football game on TV, and rather than come out and enjoy themselves, people preferred to stay indoors and watch a ritual national humiliation that was only ever a matter of time.

The Thomas event was kept separate from the main line trains, and comprised of a 3 coach Wagon-Lit train hauled by Thomas to Yarwell where all the families de-trained for the birthday party.  Here they gathered for photos around Thomas and the Wansford Controller (formerly the Fat Controller but his local Burger King closed down).  

Then they all sang a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday whilst Thomas responded with blasts on the whistle.  The children were given the opportunity to present the birthday cards that they’d brought with them; all of these went onto some large pin boards to be displayed throughout the weekend.  Finally everyone trooped into the marquee where an excellent entertainer, Mark, performed some juggling and tricks.  He had a great line of patter with the kids, and pitched it well – with just enough one liners that the adults appreciated to keep everyone amused.

And you thought that the original 

Rubik's Cube was difficult!

One of several reasons why I'm 

barred from the Kings Arms.

I admire any man who can do this with his balls.

At Wansford I generally did the meet-and-greet bit, before travelling down on the train to take pictures.  Down at Yarwell I manned the birthday card boards, and there were some hugely creative cards coming in.  This was an excellent idea and really got the kids involved.  

Some of the many cards received from children at Yarwell.

Yarwell only has rail access, so the following morning three of us took the first service train out of Wansford to set up the marquee.  As we rolled up the doors, a tidal wave of trapped heat swept out and engulfed us in seconds.  My shirt was soaked through already, and the clammy heat outside did nothing to help much, either.  The other removable walls were taken down, and everything set up in record time, which was just as well as the first Thomas was only 20 minutes behind us.  There was just time neck a bottle of water (thanks Hannah) before the train arrived.  I took photos and managed the birthday card boards again as I enjoyed the interaction of this activity.

Back to Wansford on the return Thomas, followed by a light lunch and several cans of Fanta.  It said Fanta on the tin, but in the heat I knew I’d been tango’d.  The 1pm Thomas was out next, so some platform duties to get people on board, then jumped on myself for the next part of the day – the really hot and sticky part.  After the party, everything bar the marquee itself had to be dismantled, packed and stacked and returned to Wansford in the brake compartment of the service train.  This was really not a day to be lugging plastic stacker chairs down gravelled platforms, but we managed it – with yet another Fanta as a reward once everything reached the platform.  At Wansford everything had to be taken off again, and then returned to its rightful place.  Finally, a group of us stripped the decorations and balloons from the coaches used during the party, and we were done!  None of us were in any state to have done the 3pm service and all of this clearing up afterwards, so for once in my life I was grateful for the lads having a kickaround in South Africa.  I bet it was warmer in Wansford, though!

Thomas was the only one of us who ended

 the weekend as fresh as he'd started.

The weekend was a huge success, and as people got off at Wansford the railway received many favourable comments.  Having seen what goes into these events first hand, I can say that Hannah, Bill and Paul put on a fantastic event that the public really appreciated.  If the NVR organised the Ingerland Team – well, who knows!

A Steamy Hot Weekend

It was certainly a hot and steamy weekend, and that was even before I left the house to travel to the Nene Valley for my Booking Office turns on Saturday and Sunday.  Generally speaking, if the temperature in Peterborough rises above 70ºC then the good citizens all pile into their cars and spend several hours baking away in traffic jams that eventually deposits them at the overcrowded seaside town of Hunstanton.  Quite why they put themselves through this when they have the delights of Ferry Meadows on their doorstep is a mystery.

It’s not that difficult a choice … is it?

Saturday was a normal operating day, whilst Sunday saw the annual and very popular event that is Thomas’s Big Adventure. This entails Thomas working a six-car rake over the whole length of the line more or less non-stop.  Given the age of the participants, plenty of events take place on the train to avoid any tears, tantrums or boredom setting in – and there are also activities designed to amuse the children.  They think of everything.  At Peterborough the loco runs round, but is also refilled with water – and a neat twist here is that the children take part in this activity themselves by filling the tanks by hand with buckets!  It’s a great way of keeping their interest and up and can wear them out sufficiently for the return trip to be thankfully mellow …

From an operational point of view the train was an interesting one as it consisted of two Danish open seconds, two Wagon-Lit saloons, a Belgian sliding door saloon and the unique Norwegian timber bodied coach with open vestibules.  I would love to ride the whole line on one of these open platforms sometime.  The Norwegian saloon is only used on special occasions and for film work – the vehicle’s X-Factor moment came in 1982 when it had a prominent role (along with the NVR as a whole) during some set-piece scenes in the James Bond film Octopussy.  With gun battles, knife fights, fisticuffs and a chase over the roof of the coaches before a car was crashed into the path of the oncoming train, the film convincingly portrayed a typical Saturday night in Peterborough.

Meanwhile Class 40 D306 (carrying the Irish Mail headboard), and Standard 5 73050, now cleaned up and reunited with its City of Peterborough nameplates after various special events, operated the normal service throughout the weekend.  With the exception of the Thomas event, which was all pre-booked, the line was not especially busy – it was a hot day, so people decided to go and sit in even hotter cars in traffic jams on the road to Hunstanton as I mentioned earlier.  This meant that I could pop out and take some photos, which made a nice break.  To accommodate the Thomas timetable, a different working pattern was established at Wansford, the upshot of which meant that in between trains the spare loco was stabled at the signalbox on platform 3 road – the perfect location for pictures.  It also meant that a great shot could be obtained as the incoming train passed the stabled loco, with the green 40 nicely complementing 73050 and the crimson and cream coach rake.

Later on I took a walk to see the latest visitor to arrive at the Nene Valley; however this is worth a post of its own in the near future.  When Thomas returned to Wansford, I have to say how pleasant it was to be greeted by the 350 passengers with big smiles, and we received very many thank-you’s from happy parents and excited children.  It’s always nice when people leave the line with happy memories, and the organisers of the Thomas event really do put an enormous amount of work in to ensure that it all goes off smoothly.  I’m glad that I wasn’t the one who had to handball all the catering supplies off the train, across two platforms and into the café afterwards, all in humid temperatures of 80ºC.  On top of all the actual work, I should point out that very few of the Continental coaches have opening windows, and the temperatures soared during the day.  It must have been almost as hot on the train as it would have been stuck in a Fiat Punto on the way to Hunstanton ….. Oh well, there’s always next weekend.