Ladies Room 3rd class

Some great photos appeared at the Association branch meeting in the station buffet on Wednesday evening, courtesy of the speaker Barrie Geens. One-time Assistant Station Master of Highley, Barrie's pre-preservation shots included track lifting at the north end of Bridgnorth, and the shot below.

A northbound train on platform 1, which was only signalled for southbound 'up' trains, and a sign on a door marked 'Ladies Room 3rd Class'. Wherever was the 1st class ladies room then?

We enjoyed a most entertaining talk by Barrie, which of course heavily featured Arley, Highley and Kidderminster. Other photos covered the wide range of work undertaken by incredibly large groups of volunteers. Collections we recalled included
- paviours from Priestfield and Nottingham
- copings from Handsworth and Stourport
- lamp posts from Aberystwyth
- signal box from Adderbury

We have a lot to thank our early volunteers for. The modern mainline railway now has so little left of the old, so all credit to those who obtained what they could.

One picture showed a group of staff at Arley  breaking up expanded polystyrene blocks to form 'snow' for the first-ever grotto. Not only did it bcome a nuisance by getting in the drains, but the next photo showed loco 193 approaching Arley with the Santa train the following week - in six inches of real snow!

Happy days...