Bluebell Railway General Discussion

A few clips of 73082 and 6989 at the line today, featuring the Hall in its red livery and Camelot on the ghost train at Freshfield Bank:

 

Someone I know went to the BR's ghost train event yesterday evening. Part of the event saw an enactment of the line's supposed ghosts played out on the track at Horsted Keynes, between two platforms. I wonder if that is a good message to be sending to the numerous children attending? I really don't know - part of me thinks that they may not copy the actors, but another part wonders.

 

I'd have thought the part about them being dead might serve as some sort of warning

 

Although based on the vitriol on other forums from railway staff about some guy running for a train at Marylebone in what was an amusing )I think a Vodafone ad a few years back) I am sure there will be those that would agree with @Deepgreen with some venom.

 

I really hope that reenactment wasn't a play on the tragedy of Ronald and Winifred Knapp, killed in Noble's Farm cutting in summer 1943. I'd hate to think that sport was being made of this.

It was a particularly awful incident, in that the pair were just a few hours married, and returning from seeing their in-laws off on the bus, after the reception. They were walking up the line in torrential rain, back to Noble's farm where the reception had taken place, the farm track being completely impassable. They were struck down from behind by a northbound train in the gloom of a rainswept July evening, probably without knowing anything, as they most likely had mackintoshes pulled up over their heads.
Today, they are buried together at St Giles in Horsted Keynes.
"Underneath are the everlasting arms" reads their epitaph.

 

I assumed it was a play on the ending of supernatural horror book The Woman in Black, the movie version of which was filmed at the Bluebell and the ending at Horsted Keynes (and from the pictures of the Ghost Train experience, takes place where that filming took place on Platforms 4/5, featuring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame).

I haven't experienced it myself, but I do agree that it hopefully isn't being disrespectful to real historical events.

 

If they're working off fiction, all well and good.
I remember going to see the stage version at the Fortune in about 2005. It scared the bejesus out of us!

 

You're assuming children apply logic. Bad assumption.

Noel

 

Adults Ditto

 

My position is somewhat ambiguous - I imagine most/many children would be warned about the tracks, and it may be that the BR staff issued copious warnings before/after the theatre, but I just wonder if this gives some the impression that people on the track is OK. Just a prompt for discussion.

 

I think it’s a bit of a fuss over nothing - everybody knows it’s a performance and not a demonstration of what is and isn’t allowed… It’s like worrying that Die Hard 2 encourages people to play on airport runways, or saying Speed will start people joyriding with buses…


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Crikey, folk had better not watch the Railway Children.