Wartime Re-enactments, ex-Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends - Time to say "Goodbye"?

Indeed...............

I had driven a 'post war' version which was a delight and was rather looking forward to 'the real thing' but while it was a loveley machine to drive, there was none the less something rather disturbing about it.

 

But given the interchangeability of boilers, parts and number plates between the identical Ty42 and Ty2, how do you know your “post war” version was actually what it purported to be? And there’s the matter of forced labour post 1944 when Poland was under Soviet domination or doesn’t that count?

 

Yeah I do actually. Getting things right matters. If you don't care about the 'wider history' associated with thing being portrayed and just want to dress up and pretend. If you are more concerned about colours schemes than you are about people or about the bigger picture and context that is being portrayed then you have some weird priorities in life and that says more about you than it does about me.

I've said before and I will say it again, if you get a kick out of living out a fantasy then that is fine by me.

Being first world means that you have the ability to play out a fantasy in public in the first place.

 

I am very surprised you had such a demand for sausages. Anyone who remeber the period of WW2 knows that to supplement our sausage ration we had to import them, in cans -surrounded by lard - from the Unites States. Actually they were very nice and being canned kept fresh!
Maybe one of the facets of heritage railway re-enactments is that a good many who take part have no real memory of the era, just what they read in newspapers or internet. The glossy or gory parts being the most interesting.

 

Then we’d better cease all re-enactment whatever the era. None of it’s for real whether it be knights jousting, civil war skirmishes or a branch line weekend. In fact why bother with history at all as it’s nigh on impossible to accurately recreate the past.

 

Excellent idea because get this - dressing up and playing soldiers isn't history. Re-creating the past can be done well - Weald and Downland is an excellent example of it being done well. War on the line is no Weald and Downland.

If you don't care about accuracy or context then fine, but don't come bitching to me about authenticity on preserved railways.

Railways are a broad church, it is as much for the tantrummy 5 year olds who like Blue engines with faces and talking pigs as it is for the tantrummy 65 year olds who like dressing up and pretending, for the tantrummy rivet counter who will spit their dummy when the lining is the wrong width and all need each other even if they don't necessarily like what the others stand for.

 

I don’t think there is a “maybe” about it. You have to be over ninety now to have any possibility of having had first hand combat experience inWorld War II; in your mid to late eighties to have even any chance of reliable childhood memories of the war. It's patently obvious that the vast majority of visitors (or event organisers) on heritage railways aren't in their mid eighties or older.

Quite likely that a significant proportion of visitors are in the roughly 45 - 75 age group bought up on a diet of classic war films, plucky little Brit mythology and "Achtung Spitfeuer" Battle Picture Library comics. "Dads Army", with its us vs Europe, at our best when our backs were against the wall, triumph by bumbling through storylines still seems oddly popular in the current climate; I can't begin to guess why

Tom

 

The Weald and Downland does seem to be a great place for understanding and discovering our countries rich past. There are one or two other places that are well worth a visit, mainly because of the accuracy portrayed and achieved. The Black Country Museum is one and Crich Tramway is another. I have not been to Beamish but they, as far as I can see, are also on the same scale of credulity.
The difficulties for heritage/tourist lines is that their principal exhibits, i.e. locomotives and rolling stock, are subject to many legal restrictions and need constant repairs. Whilst line side features and buildings have many authentic features they do not, in a good many instances, sit comfortably with the moving parts. The need to earn money is the principal prime mover of course and that, as such, brings its limitations.
In my previous post I did not think it necessary to be a combatant to have a memory of the time: many, as I did, lived very close to large cities and witnessed much that happened to that place and its surroundings including the break up, for one reason or another, of families and the loss of relatives and friends. What is learned at a young age is usually remembered all your life. (It is when you get old that yesterdays events are cloudy).

 

My, my we are touchy.

 

I suspect malnourishment, TB, typhoid etc. aren’t on the menu for the Weald and Downland etc. I enjoyed Beamish immensely but nonetheless it’s not a true representation of Georgian/Victorian/Edwardian England.

 

May I also suggest that Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre in West Devon could be added to that list.

Stef.

 

I’m not the one who thinks that criticism of war on the line events equals wanting them banned. So who is overly sensitive here?

You are free to dress up and play out your fantasies and I’m free to say not my thing.

Agree entirely.

 

Excuse me but I do not participate in wartime events so please do not assume I do. I rarely attend them either - just three prior to this weekend - but I did do the one at Statfold Barn yesterday, primarily for the railway though as I can't make the Saturday enthusiast events. In fact I didn't go round the WW2 arena at all. Spoke to some "G.I.s" on the train and they seemed to be perfectly normal people just enjoying a weekend in uniform.

*as you tell us ad nauseam.

 

I hope the "G.I.'s" were suitably equipped with cigarettes, chewing gum and nylons.

 

I’m very sorry for casting aspersions on your character by suggesting that you enjoy dressing up in military uniforms for pleasure.

 

Well our own Statfold at War passed by this weekend and it seems to have been a big hit for punters and reenactors alike. Being as our line didn't exist ten years back I think we did alright. Some of our staff even witnessed a chap call up his mother and sister to get them to come visit during to how amazed they were by our setup and display.

I do recommend the Beamish museum but as noted, might not be for the historical purists here as there's no ability to catch cholera or gawp at someone with ricketts.

History has a LOT of nasty parts to it, some have been mentioned up thread but pretending that any history based hobby operates on anything other than nostalgia and demands ought but perfection needs to check themselves as it would make a very boring place to visit for a regular member of the public who do indeed go for nostalgia purposes.

 

As long as that gets remembered when people complain about mk1s, large locos on branchlines , Hogwarts Castle or the next industrial that gets painted blue and sprouts side tanks and a face.

No one is demanding historical perfectionism, but as the saying goes, you can’t have a perfectly aseptic environment but that doesn’t mean you conduct surgery in the sewer. The closer and more accurate your representation of the past can be, without killing anyone and still making a profit, the better. Some places do it better than others.

 

Hope you enjoyed it. I was the chap wandering about with the white SBR helmet on.

Feedback from the public through the year about the SBR has been great and we're already in the top 10 of things to do in Tamworth on trip advisor, beating Drayton Manor!

The War weekend is being declared a big success by managment so looks like it will be here to stay. The reenactment groups themselves loved the site and plan to talk far and wide about a great weekend.

 

I think we had a long chat on the platform.

 

No problem.