That well known face opened the gates and whilst we progressed up the Springwell branch he proceeded to clip points. Progress along the branch was halted by a jogger; once he had gathered his two four-legged friends his apology for getting in the way (he was clearly surprised to see a train running) was accepted. Having reached the end of the branch, the train reversed and proceeded into the roundhouse via the Coal Road. All 11 planned roads were clear, except for No.4 where two volunteers were removing years of grime; a request, (or was it an order?), and they vacated the pit. Then the fun began…. a reversal from the turntable onto Road 1 and the train ran to the buffers; hang on a minute there are no buffers - but we were safely supervised from ground level. Cleverly the brakevan was at the end of line (the loco at the turntable end) and it was chosen as one with a verandah right up to its extremity.

A further reversal obviously saw us return to the turntable. One down, 10 to go! 23 reversals later saw all remaining roads fully covered. Yes, I know the maths do not add up, and I will buy a pint for whoever can tell me why (participants on the visit excluded). A 180º turn on the turntable saw us exit the roundhouse via the ash pit road and another reversal returned the group to P2.

And so ended the visit - no, don't be silly there is always a bonus and the metal gates were opened and we reached the buffers on the loading pad line in the car park. One more reversal back to P2 and that was the end of the tour. Many thanks to our driver on the day and the two volunteers who vacated Road 4 so as to not spoil our fun. A special thanks to the well known face without whose effort all of this would not have been possible - that well known face was the one and only……Martyn Brailsford!