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Created on Thursday, 01 March 2012 18:03

Magnettes & Steam 2012

Text & pictures by Stephen Tickell

This is the 25th consecutive year that the Register has organized an event based at a steam railway, which is an impressive record. Our historian Peter Martin confirmed that the first 'Magnettes & Steam' was held at Bishops Lydeard on the West Somerset Railway. That was in 1988, a long time before I acquired my ZBV, and was organized by Warren Marsh. He later handed over to Alan Slack who has continued tirelessly to seek out suitable preserved railways all over the country. It's a simple but attractive formula - a social gathering in a novel location, with no booking required, and interesting things to see and do during the day.

The Welshpool and LLanfair railway is just across the border from Shrewsbury, and was built to give Welsh farmers access to a market town for their produce. It had to be narrow gauge because of the sharp bends on the route. After it was closed down commercially, enthusiasts took over most of the line and reopened it progressively from 1963. We parked at the Llanfair terminus, with plenty of reserved space for the 13 Magnettes that made it, along with several other MGs. Varitones were in the majority, and in fact there were four mineral-blue/steel-blue cars including mine, an unusual sight.

Apart from a brief downpour in the morning the weather was relatively dry and mild, in contrast to the previous week's unseasonal snow. Most people took the train to Welshpool and back, enjoying the scenic views as it follows the course of the river. The engines and rolling-stock were interesting, being a mix of original units together with carriages and engines from Austria and other countries. We were also given a tour of the workshop to see how the volunteers carry out maintenance and restoration, and enjoyed refreshments in the station tea-room.

Attendance was admittedly a bit lower than average this year, which is a pity given the unique setting that Alan once again arranged for us. Possibly with the ever-rising cost of petrol, the distance involved in attending Register events is becoming more of an issue for some. There doesn't seem to be any easy solution to this given how thinly spread around Magnettes are, although sensible folk will no doubt continue to combine events such as M+S with a longer stay in the area (whereas I found myself with commitments elsewhere on Friday and Sunday). We can console ourselves in the UK that we still don't have to travel as far as Magnette enthusiasts in Europe, USA or Australia in order to meet a reasonable number of others.