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Things must be bad….Santa has a second job ! Riding the Rails…..

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Here it comes…. Santa’s Special…

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And look there is Santa

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Welcome Aboard

A treat for Ewan our youngest Grandson…as well as for his mum and dad, his grandma’s and me.  A trip on Great Central Railways Steam Santa Special.

With entertainers, mince pies, music, and of course Santa himself with a sack load of presents and Mrs Christmas to keep Santa on the right tracks and it was a fun day. There were of course times when young Ewan was a trifle mesmerised but he and the carriages full of little kids all had a great well behaved time.

All the kids had fun but for the adults it was also a nostalgic look back to times gone bye.

Then all too soon it was goodbye to Oliver Cromwell the Steam Engine that pulled our train along and Goodbye to Santa who was heading back to the North Pole for a rest before the BIG day

 

Grand Central Railways is a Steam Heritage Railway base at Loughborough, Leicestershire

19th December

(C) David Oakes 2016

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10 thoughts on “Things must be bad….Santa has a second job ! Riding the Rails…..”

  2. Beautiful! Talking about happy things. This was one day full of happiness. To see Ewan beaming is a wonderful present. That’s the true Christmas Spirit. 🙂

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    1. Actually Mary it isn’t that old…..built 1951. I know that is old but compared to many of the Heritage Steam trains it is relatively young! In fact this engine was the last Steam engine in service on the railway network. 🙂

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    1. Missed (as one does) a magic winter shot of the Bolton abbey Train. I was on the main road from Harrogate where the line runs along side. Late low afternoon sun and there was the train on my left in full steam and the backlight was superb…..of course no place to stop and traffic heavy. Mind you I had just spent a day on the canal, that was rapidly freezing, at Ripon. Me just managed to complete a boat shoot for Canal Boat Magazine and was frozen to the core even with the car heater going full blast. The only upside was that the canal was frozen solid for 5 weeks so got the job done just in time. But all the way home it was that missed train shot that I was thinking about….and still do today – all that steam, thick frost, low sun and an ideal scenic spot. Never get that again.

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      1. It is often the case – you see a shot and there is no place to stop…has happened to me numerous times. It is just something we have to put up with. I was up Striding Edge on the way to Hevellyn about 4 or 5 years ago. The day was amazing, with stunning views over the fells. I couldn’t have asked for a better day for photos and I took about 200. I couldn’t wait to get them on the pc – only to discover that they were all out of focus. The focussing mechanism on the Pentax K10D I was using had give up the ghost and I hadn’t noticed it on the back viewer. 200 shots wasted 😦 I now carry 2 bodies with me whenever I am going on an ‘epic’ shoot and always take at one least one or two with the second body…can’t beat a bit of insurance, I know it adds to the weight but a camera body isn’t too heavy and it provides a bit of bakup

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