By Madeleine Colpits
As usual the Taunton Flower Show was held at Vivary Park. However, with a view to try and attract more families to the event, this year, it was held on Friday and Saturday rather than just on the weekdays. Considering how wet it has been this summer, it was also with much delight that both days turned out to be truly lovely sunny days.
The usual stalwarts of Vivary Park happily arrived early each day with their respective steam or diesel engines to provide rides for the many anticipated children at the show. Unfortunately, our site was partially hidden from view from the main arena and the children’s activity area was at the opposite end of the park. As a result attendance was very slow to begin with. Several announcements over the loudspeaker helped to draw attention to the railway track and during the main part of the day there was quite a steady flow of families eager for rides. As always, the children that did find us were not satisfied with just one ride and took great delight in ‘persuading’ their parents to let them have repeated rides. As an extra treat, Gerry handed over the special box with ‘the button’ they could press to make that delightful diesel sound. For some reason it also seemed to be the weekend for the trains to begin ‘behaving badly’ Phil’s Britannia was only able to attend on the Friday, but did not survive the day because the wheel quartering began to slip and had to be referred back to the workshop for some attention. Gordon’s Sweet Pea decided to eat fire bars and fire box and although it just about made it through both days was eventually removed ‘in disgust’. A considerable amount of time has been spent ever since discussing with fellow Sweet Pea owners trying to find a suitable fire grate that will survive. Chris with his Maid of Kent also experienced difficulties and even Gerry had to ‘tweek’ the mysterious workings of his diesel at one stage. The best behaving train was Ian's 9F, but that was probably because it never left the steaming bay with business being so slow!
Of course we must not forget the ‘behind the scenes’ personnel. John as station master and ticket collector kept control of ‘the crowds’ and David operated the ticket booth, and of course the all important refreshments were provided for by Viki .