Full steam ahead for rail reunion (From Daily Echo)
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Full steam ahead for Riverside Park rail reunion
11:00am Monday 8th October 2012 in News
Susan Thackeray, Linda Webb and mum Elizabeth Reeves with driver Merlin Biddlecombe.
THREE women returned to Riverside Park in Southampton to recreate an iconic image from 1962 – after an appeal in the Daily Echo.
Half a century ago Elizabeth Reeves, accompanied by six-year-old Susan and five-year-old Linda, became the first passengers to ride on the city’s new miniature railway.
The Southampton Society of Model Engineers celebrated the line’s 50th anniversary by tracking them down through the Echo, which reproduced the old photograph.
Elizabeth is a retired catering manager who lives in Lordswood, Southampton.
Linda is now a 55-year-old bookkeeper from Romsey and Susan is a 56-year-old teaching assistant who also lives in the town.
The Mayor of Southampton, Councillor Derek Burke, acted as stationmaster by donning a railwayman’s cap and blowing a whistle.
