As stitching weekends go...

... this one was a disaster. But, as Railway Weekends go, this one was BRILLIANT!

First, little about the stitching I have done. Last week was the turn of White Nights. This was it four weeks ago.

And this is what it looked like at the end of stitching on Thursday (without the use of flash).

And that has been it. I did do some more of the pin cube SAL on the way to 'The Railway' but stitching on the local train which stops every two minutes was not that successful!

Even if you have no interest in steam locomotives and railways watch the video at the end, or the one on YouTube and you will see why the weekend was brilliant.

As mentioned previously this weekend saw the final two days of the nine day 'Steel, Steam and Stars II' Gala. Here are some of the better photos.

Before we start, this is the lounge inside the Thompson Buffet. The carriage appeared in the British Transport film 'The Elizabethan Express'. Filmed in 1954 it tells the story the non stop passenger service which ran daily between London and Edinburgh. The Other Half and a few others, me included, restored this carriage to it's former glory (it was an empty shell) for the last 'Steel, Steam on Stars Gala' two years ago. With a fully stocked, twenty two foot long, bar it was the most popular carriage of the event. Unfortunately, last year this carriage ran away during a shunting move and smashed in to a stationary locomotive, no one was hurt but the carriage suffered over £25.000 worth of damage! So this gala saw it out on a train for the fist time since it was repaired, again with a fully stocked bar!

This is a still from the original film. The lounge being through the archway.

Some other photos. One of the stars of the show.

Ex GWR 'Dukedog' 4-4-0 No 9017

At Berwyn Station

The Gala ended last night with a ten locomotive cavalcade. This is our video it was taken inside the Signal Box the loud bangs you can here are the levers being moved to operate the signals.Turn up the volume, as the noise is fantastic. There are better quality videos on YouTube. One of them is HERE


Just prior to the Cavalcade it had been raining but just as the first loco came into sight the sun came out and there was a perfect rainbow forming an arch over the whole event. This topped off a brilliant weekend.