Amberley Museum at Christmas

A Christmas card view of the railway at the approach to the 'North Pole' station; But there's lots of work to be done before any trains will run. The tracks are covered in snow and ice - the roads likewise. Volunteers struggle to get to the museum to get ready for the Christmas visitors.

Already volunteers are hard at work scraping ice from the tracks.

It's cold work but the industrial railway is on a steep gradient and trains cannot run until the tracks are clear.

Elsewhere on the site, the heavy machinery is called into service.

A light diesel joins in the snow clearing effort as the first visitors arrive. Will the railway be ready?

The ticket office ensures a warm welcome to visitors..

With a warm fire to hand, the broom maker with the fire is more popular than usual today!

A cold Christmas scene awaits the first visitors.

The first train of the day confirms it's a real steam train!

A wise decision to use the loco without a cab. No reason for too much luxury for the rail crew.

The printing works is in the background. The cosy lights in the building to the left are powered from the engine room..

The old telephone exchange looks wonderful in the snow.

A train waits to depart from 'North Pole' station.

The line to the engine sheds looks bright in the sunshine.

The bus is busy all day bringing the visitors back from Santa's grotto.

Santa welcomes his visitors with open arms!

A magical path leads to the grotto. The theme for 2002 in this picture was 'rooftops'.

There is a warm welcome and a sack of presents.

Late afternoon and visitors have a mince pie and fruit punch while awaiting their return train.

In fact, there's almost no end of ways to travel round the site.

The bric-a-brak shop and cosy Café.

The final train steams back to Amberley as twilight approaches in the late afternoon .