Preservation’s first Santa wins major Transport Trust award
A FOUNDER member of the Bluebell Railway Preservation Society who became the first Santa in preservation – and who is still cleaning carriages for the line 62 years on – has been presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The National Transport Trust accolade was presented to Chris Cooper, 80, who in 1959 became the society’s member No. 32, by the Princess Royal at a ceremony at Fawley Hill on October 20, hosted by trust president Lady Judy McAlpine. The event covered both the 2020 and 2021 awards.
Chris grew up in the Croydon area, a transport‘hotbed’ with Southern Railway electric traction, freight yards, and the private sidings of the power stations and factories.
Carriage cleaner
He opted for a career in retail and in the days before Sunday trading
