Railway Research Trip- The Railway Children at Oxenhope

OK so this is only slightly related to a model project, but this was such a fantastic show, I had to share about it.

My local railway, the KWVR, spent the summer staging "The Railway Children" live show, as part of the Bradford City of Culture year. Now, I love this film, so I will admit to being both interested, but also a little wary of it- would the show live up to the film? I'd heard great reviews of it though.

By special train from Keighley...

...to Oxenhope.

OK so this is technically model-making I suppose- some very creative set design and staging, including this lovely footbridge. Bear in mind, all this is inside the display shed in the station yard.

Look at how imaginatively this has been done!

Yep, the train arriving was very much the money shot. They helpfully left it in the platform at the end of the show, so no naughty photographing during the show for this Benjy...

We rode the special back down to Keighley in the dark, then hung around. Amy's Father-in-Law was on stewarding duty, so we offered to wait around and help lock-up the train.

Mindyou, you only realise at that point how many doors a Suburban coach has when you have to close every window and slam every door.

And off it went. This is where the modelling angle comes in- I needed some shots of stations in the dark as reference for an upcoming project. It was very, very odd having such a big station to ourselves, just four of us here.

And then, off we went, up the ramp to home.

The show was absolutely superb- funny, emotional, sad, and wonderfully staged. I'm no theatre critic, but I'd say it was a great time and the acting was great. And to cap it off, some opportunity for some nice pictures at the end of the night too.