The Manchester area M.V.T.
Pickering 2008
When our “tame” web-master heard I was attending the Pickering 40’s weekend He asked me to write a review. Despite my pleadings that I had never written a letter to the local paper let alone a review for a website I was convinced when it was explained that A review not “War & Peace” was he looking for.
Rosemary and myself have attended the show for a number of years and thoroughly enjoy the weekend and its atmosphere
Yours Tony
Sixteen years down the line.
This years annual wartime weekend on the North York’s Moors Railway, (its sixteenth year) and it goes from strength to strength. Local newspapers claim that the public numbered 10,000 that I would say is maybe on the conservative side. It’s claimed from a study earlier this year that the railway attracted £18 million a year to the local economy. Using the same formula, general manager Philip Benham estimates the wartime weekend has attracted business to Pickering and surrounding area to the tune of £400,000 as he said that the railway earned £100,000 from ticket sales and its food and gift shops over the weekend.
It’s amazing what a bit of TV coverage can do. About ten years ago Yorkshire TV local evening news showed a short glimpse of what would be happening the following weekend and so a small event grew into some say a monster but most say a weekend of friendly people having good time.
But back to what its about remembering the wartime years on and off the railway. Steam trains always create nostalgia but put this with some of the best preserved WWII military transport you begin to build a picture add reenactors who go to the trouble to get their appearance correct it almost becomes a period setting, put all that into a parade and you would find it hard to shoehorn another person onto the street to watch it.
Displays up and down the moors railway and around the stations, Levasham station becomes occupied France, music and entertainment both day and night, pubs and bars cafes and restaurants all encourage the 40s dress code.
Rosemary & Tony
