Late last night while I was sitting at stage door there was a sudden cacophony of noise that is probably best described as a loud ‘shhhhhh’.
Earlier in the day our site manager Jason Nunn had told us that due to the large amount of rain there may be a leak in our office, so this was my first thought when I heard the noise, “Oh my goodness the roof has caved in!” Thankfully that wasn’t the case, with the office still intact I walked out into the concourse, walking a bit like I was in some cheesy spy movie fearful of what I was about to find, but the concourse was clear, the noise however was much louder.
On a mission now, I walked up the secret staircase that leads to the main station, and there, on platform 19 sat the source of the noise, a massive steam train!
Excitement overwhelmed me, I ran back down the stairs to grab my phone so I could take a photograph of the engine, when I got back to the platform, I joined the mass of public, including a health number of train spotters, all taking photographs and all completely exhilarated.
While fascinated by train-spotters I have never considered myself one of them, I am more of a train-spotter-spotter, but there is something about a real steam train that is just magical. It’s the sound they make, the mass of steam they produce, and because they are from another time, I think, that makes them so magnificent. I can’t imagine the Hogwarts train would have quite the same affect if it was electric, or Brief Encounters to be quite as romantic had it happened on a modern day platform.
It is something I love about our show, the excitement that was produced last night on platform 19 happens eight times a week in our theatre, even a friend of mine who saw the show recently noted, “Everyone claps the train when it comes on, they get so excited, it’s amazing!” While you might not consider yourself a train-spotter now I defy anyone to attend our show and not get a little swept away by the romanticism of a real steam train.
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