Dovecote Light Railway: The Grand Opening - July 5th 2008
Words by Mark Thatcher
Pictures & Video by Martin & Jean Page
It is Saturday and I awoke early to see once again, it was raining. It must be something about Saturdays with this project! So, in the rain, we inflated the bouncy castles, courtesy of Little Tikes, one of our clients who we recently made a film for, and we were allowed to keep the samples – we love them as much as the kids do, they make great inflatable lidos. It was still raining at 11.30, when we lit the barbeque in readiness for the early-doors midday arrival of some of our guests, and indeed, some folk did arrive then, in the rain. Then Dawn, our local Vicar who lives next door in The New Vicarage and her husband Bruce arrived, and as they did, the sun finally broke through the leaden skies, to give us a hot and sunny afternoon and evening – divine intervention perhaps, thanks Dawn!
"Flo also wielded one of our broadcast cameras"
My best buddy, Howie, together with one of our favourite clients, Richard Barker from PermaClear, kindly kept the barbeque going and turned out a plentiful supply of food, all day long. This allowed us to mingle a bit more. Flo also wielded one of our broadcast video cameras, leaving me to play trains – hurrah!
"At one stage we had three live steamers"
Ably assisted by Daniel, Martin & Ron from the club, we managed several steamings of The Vale of Rheidol, Silver Lady, Calthrop & Stanley – the tram loco. At one stage we had three live steamers on the line all running together. Daniel was shunting between Eastway Yard and Awdry Moor, whilst Martin and I ran Stanley and The Vale around the Tramways loop.
"no locos, rolling stock or small children fell into the pond"
We had a couple of minor derailments, the worst being the Vale which inexplicably derailed on the loop next to Tramways station – but no locos, rolling stock or small children fell into the pond, although we did have one very adventurous young person who seemed desperate to crawl across the line into the pond, and indeed nearly made it on one attempt.
"great for the kids"
Ron, also from the club, brought his superb Thomas the Tank Engine modelled loosely in gauge 1. The idea was this little battery-powered radio-controlled loco would be great for the kids to play with. He had spent a good deal of time the day before putting a new motor in, but sadly on the day, a radio control glitching problem didn’t allow it to run as smoothly as he would have liked, but it was still immense fun seeing this loco trundle up and down on our line.
"we ran the last "Sunset Service"
The idea of the open house was that people could drift in and out as they pleased at times to suit themselves, and this worked well. In fact around 9ish, when the embers in the barbeque finally started to die down, we ran the last “Sunset Service” of the day, which looked very atmospheric in the fading light, particularly as I had positioned a number of portable solar-powered “rock lights” (lights disguised as rocks) around the line. As the light faded a sensor in each of these turned them on automatically, which was very reminiscent of lighting up time, when you are driving down a motorway and the lights gradually turn on, one by one.
Around 10ish, just to finish off, we lit a Chinese lantern and set it off, over Wisbech, in a Northerly direction, with the prevailing wind, towards The Wash. These lanterns are best described as large condom-shaped tubes of tissue paper with a flammable ring of stuff which you light from underneath. As the heat builds, they rise like a hot air balloon. Apparently in Thailand they light thousands of these at a time. We were just very pleased to see ours lift off and clear the apple orchard next door (the last one didn’t and we had neighbours come running down the street to tell us a helicopter had crashed in their field)! Anyhow these things travel for miles before the fuel finally burns out and the lantern gradually and harmlessly floats back down to earth. There have been sightings of UFOs reported in the local paper recently. Hopefully this will go some way to fuel this story further!
Click the above video to view the Chinese Lantern Launch.
Click Here to see all the Video clips from The Grand Opening Day.
"Sterling Work"
So, a great day was had by all. Particular thanks must go to Daniel, Martin & Ron, who helped so much to keep our trains running on the day. Sterling work from Howie & Richard also for keeping the guests supplied with loads of great grub. Great salads too, prepared on the day from Sue LeLean & Flo. Thanks also to Jean & Martin Page who supplied the photos and video clips of the great day.
"many thanks to all who made the effort to come"
Most of all, many thanks to all who made the effort to come, some from as far as East London (they think anywhere North of the M25 is NORTH). Everybody who turned up contributed to a great day plus helping to advance the cirrhosis of my liver, so many, many thanks to all!