After a very successful visit to the Tanfield Railway, 'Agecroft No. 1' handled the Christmas services at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester. This has allowed the 'Planet' replica to be 'shopped' for repairs. I didn't do any of the 'Santa' trains, but I was driver on the 29th December 2011. Laurence was Fireman and Dave was Operating Officer. The weather was pretty foul all day - high winds and heavy rain much of the time - (hence no new photographs). The Guard, Duncan, elected to have the 20-ton piped brake van attached at the rear as offering somewhere to shelter from the worst of the weather. I was surprised at just how many passengers we carried in the day - the semi-open replica 1830 coaches are not ideal in inclement weather. At one stage, there was a torrential hailstorm with the hail coming virtually horizontally. I got quite wet and our passengers can have fared little better. Despite these problems, everybody retained their sense of humour and 'Agecroft No. 1' performed admirably, as expected.
