Harry & Edna have attended a number of the wartime weekends ran on persevered steam railways. Preserved railways are particularly enjoyable to Harry because his Grandfather was one of the 600,000 wartime railway workers.

They attend wartime railway events in costume and mingle with the visitors to help create a 1930's / 1940's atmostphere. 

At these events often the public are encourage to dress up and take part. Although the historical accuracy of these events can be questionable, they are a huge amount of fun and a gentle introduction to the retro 1940s scene.

It is important to remenber that the wartime railways carried the heaviest tonnage of the war. It was also the railway which took the brunt of the great migrations from the cities in September 1939, most of the troops who landed from Dunkirk and faced heavy punishment from the blitz.

The huge war effort of the railways was made without the help of new rolling stock. Indeed by the end of 1941 engines & wagons where sent to Russia making the situation at home worse.

The wartime passenger would gain a small inkling of what was happening when he noticed the stacks of parcels piling up at the parcels office, the rows of bicycles getting in everyone's way since the petrol cuts and the amount of coal traffic on the railways.

Before the war much of the coal used to come down from the north east by sea, but during the war coal came by rail. In the 1st winter of war (The worst winter for 40 years) 1,500 miles of track was blocked by snow and the points frozen immovably by ice. The householder was down to a sack of dust a week and the long distance passenger train service had to be cut in Northumberland and Durham in order to get the "coal specials" through.

For the train drivers the black out meant the landmarks had gone, for the driver did not drive only by signals. He had to know what stations he has passed; he would confirm his position by the light of a town or the lights of an outlying factory.

He was shut in his cab by a tarpaulin which smothered the glare of the fire.

Harry and Edna vintage railway passion also extends to participating at The Great War Railway events.

If you are interested in finding our more about the current UK 1940s scene visit our  Twitter, MySpace, Facebook or HFF Yahoo social network websites. These sites can act as a gentle introduction to the UK vintage movement.

Source "Transport goes to war" HMSO 1942.