FOR 10 years Colin Fuller and his wife have been hiring trains on the Mid-Hants Railway for special celebrations – and this month they reached the end of the line.

But their last “official hire”, on November 14, was for a special occasion, their son Johnathan’s 40th birthday.

In fact another train came to Johnathan’s rescue as due to an airline strike he had to book a journey on Eurostar from his home in Germany. He formerly lived at Soldridge, near Alton.

While checking in at the desk at Brussels in Belgium, the manager heard of Johnathan’s travel problems in reaching his birthday party and gave him a free upgrade to first class. The family later said a grateful thank you to Eurostar.

On Johnathan’s arrival, 200 guests arrived at Alresford station to join the party.

Many of the travellers had a 1940s and 1950s re-enactment background and the outfits on display ranged from wartime utility and austerity to full skirted colourful 1950s dresses and snappy dressing for the gentlemen.

At Alresford station, professional musicians Janet Beale (saxophone and accordion) and Francis MacNamara (violin) entertained everyone with their selections of 1940s and classical melodies.

The music continued on the train with several renditions of “Happy Birthday” as two other guests were celebrating their birthdays on the day – Des Weller and Noel Howard.

Four volunteer waitresses, Helen Broadbent, Anna Robinson, Sarah Jane Cardy and Haley Pilcher, were kept busy helping serve food, birthday cake and copious quantities of tea and coffee.

Past experience showed that jelly babies were popular with travellers and six large boxes were consumed on the journey.

When the train reached Medstead and Four Marks station, the Medstead Brownies, all in vintage outfits, as were their leaders, were lined up along the platform and sang “Happy Birthday” as the train drew to a stop.

“There was a not a dry eye in the place,” Colin told The Herald.

At each station a different guest was allowed to travel to the next station on the locomotive’s footplate and they all said the experience had been incredible and like nothing they had experienced before.

“They all commented on the friendliness and patience of the footplate crew in explaining the basic workings of the locomotive, in this case the loco Wadebridge,” he said.

Due to the weather – torrential rain – and despite there being many dancers on the train, sadly there was only a minimum of dancing at Alresford and Alton.

“Our VIP guests were Winston Churchill (Stan Streather) and Clementine (Rowena Turner), with an RAF support team.

“The train made a double run from Alresford to Alton and then, sadly, the guests had to disperse after the truly grand finale of the final train hire,” said Colin.