text: No 6 Douglas’ 100th birthday celebrations continued with our 1940s themed ‘Leave on the Line’ weekend.
  The event began on Friday with speeches from Ian Drummond, TRPS Chairman, Stuart Williams, TR General Manager and Air Officer Wales, Air Commodore Adrian Williams. No 6 Douglas was blessed by the Bishop of Bangor, the Rt Rev Andrew John, and St Cadfan’s new vicar, Rev Dr. Ruth Hansford. This was followed by a short train ride behind Douglas for the visiting RAF and RAFA dignitaries plus other invited guests.
  One of the highlights of the weekend was the replica Spitfire on show at Wharf. It was very popular with visitors lining up to look inside the cockpit and take photos! The Spitfire was ‘parked’ next to the beer tent on the south side of the tracks, and it certainly made a change from the usual view across to Cae Rhianfa. On Saturday evening there was a photo shoot with Douglas and the Spitfire as the sun went down.
  We ran a couple of special trains over the weekend including a goods train and the ‘Calshot Express’. This was made up of our open carriages and Van 7 – replicating trains run at Calshot when Douglas was based there.
  Other attractions included a vintage clothes stall, 1940s themed meals at King’s Café, a wide selections of Real Ales, Ciders and Dyfi Distillery Gins at our 1940s Dancehall Tent and special visitor ‘Winston Churchill’, improving morale up and down the railway. ‘Dolgoch’ was running to Pendre and back as our ‘Driver for a Tenner’ engine.
  All in all, a fun weekend in the sun with plenty of people enjoying themselves. It was lovely to see many familiar faces visiting the railway over the weekend. Many thanks as always to the team who organised it.
  Photos by Mike Christensen, Barbara Fuller and Karen Willans.