IT has been a memorable year at Didcot Railway Centre with a lot of exciting events.

In April we celebrated our 50th year in Didcot with events over Easter and the May Bank Holiday.

Children enjoyed a 1967 themed Easter Egg Treasure Trail and we arranged a barbecue for our own volunteers and members old and new.

The celebrations were also a great chance to run our own and some visiting engines.

Our flagship steam engine, King Edward II was running together with workhorse GWR Prairie 4144 and the Steam Rail Motor.

We were delighted to welcome 813, a saddle tank built for the Port Talbot Railway and Andrew Barclay saddle tank No 11.

We tried something a bit different in August with our Rails on the Western Front event.

The event, which was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, commemorated the 100th anniversary of steam engine 5322, which was built in 1917 and went straight to the front in France for war service. Our temporary exhibition told the story of three nurses who were awarded the Military Medal for their work when an ambulance train was targeted during a long hostile bombing raid in the vicinity of Amiens.

The Great War Society recreated an ambulance train and a military camp display in the picnic area.

August was rather busy as the weekend after Rails on the Western Front was August Bank Holiday and we had a huge number of visitors coming to see and ride behind Flying Scotsman.

That was quite an event and we had to have bag searches on the gate and queuing systems to ensure that everyone got their ride.

We were really pleased to welcome LNER Pacific Union of South Africa, a sister engine to ‘Mallard’, the fastest ever steam engine, to join Flying Scotsman for the last two days of the weekend.

Our London & North Eastern Railway theme continued in October with anther visit of Peppercorn ‘A1’ steam locomotive No. 60163 ‘Tornado’, the Top Gear engine. She was very popular and kept our visitors entertained during the October Half Term.

And of course we have had our regular events – Days Out With Thomas in March and October, the Transport Rally and the Star Tugs in June and the Teddy Bears’ Picnic in July. We finished the year in December with our Festive Day Out With Thomas events.

On behalf of Didcot Railway Centre I would like to wish everyone a happy new year and we look forward to seeing you at the centre in 2018.