THE CHRISTMAS TRAINS WE THOUGHT WE WOULD NEVER SEE
This month, the public has been able once again to gaze in awe at the spectacle of illuminated Christmas trains lighting up the night skies above several of our heritage railways. Engineered by the Dartmouth Steam Railway two years ago, this time round the Mid-Hants Railway has taken the concept to a new high, its Steam Illuminations boasting a unique, world-first digital LED train consisting of thousands of fully controllable colour mixing lights and wristbands.
Modern technology is indeed LED light years away from what was believed to be the world’s first Christmas train – which, 71 years ago, comprised a Lister diesel with a moth-eaten stag’s head fitted to the grille and a bearskin rug draped over the engine cover to create a reindeer.
The then 15in gauge Fairbourne Railway ran private ‘Father Christmas Trains’ for pupils from the village school in Beach Road from 1949, starting three years after Birmingham industrialist John Wilkins (see News, pages 46-47) took over the line, and two years before the Talyllyn Railway – which he also helped save, ran its first heritage-era services.
Origins
Each year he erected a large illuminated Christmas tree at Fairbourne, while Lister diesel Gwril would be transformed into a reindeer using the stag’s head from the Fairbourne Hotel and a suitably-decorated flat truck providing a seat for Father Christmas.
The last such special on the line ran in 1967, just
