Start planning for 2023’s wartime weekends now

REGARDING the debate about wartime weekends and 1940s events, I have participated in seven events so far – all of which were a different composition and only one being a railway and therefore a 1940s event. This was the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway as per the photograph in issue 295, page 94.

I drove all the way from Swindon to attend as I felt it deserved support from as many people as possible, and the large turnout proved the line right.

Events varied from full-scale battles to the “Village of Southwick” (a wartime headquarters) that was completely 1940s.

No modern cars/vans or other items to spoil the presentation and vast numbers of people turned up, proving that people do appreciate 1940s events as it is a massive part of our history and something that steam railways fit into nicely by setting the scene; just by a steam locomotive arriving at a station, you have turned the clock back. I also think we older people have a duty to provide this education for younger people while we can.

Although it would appear that the Heritage Railway Association did not send out an actual banning notice for wartime weekends, its guidance notes did not point out that 1940s weekends were perfectly possible and I am amazed that the loss of what must be hundreds of thousands of pounds can be dismissed so easily.

I am not at all sure why railway experts into the picture as this was not a railway technical problem but more a question of financial survival.

So, I feel that if it wants to help, the HRA should encourage people to have1940s events next year and start planning them now – everyone wins that way.

A final note of proof of public interest was that the Overlord show at Denmead (probably boosted by no Mid-Hants show) had a queue on the first day over two fields – an estimated 1200 people – which took well over an hour to shift.

Clive Thompson, Swindon