On Saturday 8th December we held our Annual Christmas Gala at Glossop station. In the week leading up to this FOGS' elves had been extremely busy decorating the station! Bunty Gibson and Chris Harris had created some splendid seasonal flower boxes. Jacqueline had joined Bunty to help create almost a 100 goody bags for Santa from materials generously supplied by Northern Rail. Neil had picked these up in a huge box from Theo's office at Guide Bridge the week before. Neil created the appearance of parcel post on his 323 journey home and he was very grateful for the help he received from Sonia Fisher! On Friday John K, Eric, Neil, Bunty and Jacqueline put up the remining garlands and got the tree in place - generously donated by Glossop Garden Centre - ready for the following day.
   We were lucky that Saturday turned out to be dry and cold. Final preparations took place between 8.00 and 11.00. Happy children started to arrive with Mums and Dads in tow ready for Festive fun! At the craft stall ably prepared by Andrea - Lesley and Sue Astles helped the children create some lovely decorations for the tree. Stencils for these kindly supplied by Simon. Always popular the Model Railway Club's working layout was manned by Martin and Mike. Providing happy festive music were Altrincham based trio SPINDRIFT back by popular demand! Spindrift very generously gave all their donations to FOGS! We thank them for this! It was nice to see Jacqueline out front serving up refreshments ably helped by Paul Kiddy. On the raffle with an array of prizes incuding a Ist prize of a Northern Travel voucher, were John LeG and Bunty later helped by Eric. John's excellent organisation of the raffle makes for later easy identification of winners! Eric as always was much in demand for various tasks and his magic zapper for switching on the lights was again a hit with Ian, our guest!
 Joining us from Northern were Senior personnel including Paul Spencer, proudly showing us his new son!, Mark Barker - his second visit in two days! and Theo with his family too. Ian Bevan, Northern Rail's Managing Director arrived before 11.00 to be greeted by Theo and Neil. He brought with him his wife, mother and daughter. We were delighted to welcome them! Ian then had a tour of the station in its festive mode with Neil. Ian kindly found time to have a word with everyone including our station ambassador, Keith Biddulph and Steve from Marple on duty in the ticket office. And to compliment Paul's excellent promotional poster! Neil formally welcomed Ian to the station at around 11.25 and Ian then gave a very generous speech acknowledging the progress that had been made at Glossop and his pride with the recent awards' successes. Photos were then taken around the tree.
 Then SANTA!! Arriving on the 11.49 train Santa made a dashing sight in his resplendent red costume. Over 80 children plus Mums and Dads followed him down the platform as he rang his bell of welcome. Santa then spent over an hour seeing each child giving them a goody bag and a tangerine! - contents kindly donated by Northern Rail. Ably helping Santa were Matthew and James stars of Partington's Theatre current Christmas production. On hand to record these happy monents with Santa was John K and camera. Photos will eventually appear on this website.
  At around 1.00 Santa bid his farewells as FOGS' elves worked on for another couple of hours to transform the station back to its normal routines. But the Christmas magic of the decorations lives on making it a festive place to visit/travel through!
  FOGS would like to thank fellow friends Babs - Hattersley, Joy - Hadfield, Kim, Tom and Alan - Reddish South for coming along to support us. Look out for articles reviewing the event in The Glossop Chronicle and Glossop Advertiser.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR FROM ALL AT FOGS!!

On Wednesday 5th December Neil attended The National Railway Heritage Awards at The Merchant Taylors' Hall in London. Glossop had been shortlisted in these awards for the first time. The work on submitting the station had been done by Mark Barker of Northern. Two judges had visited the station in the summer and made independent assessments. We were delighted to receive a shortlisting!! The venue is one of London's Guild Halls, a most appropriate setting for awards which recognise achievement in railway architecture and conservation. Glossop was placed in the Conservation award category with fellow nominees: Pivor Tap Ltd for its work in restoring tea rooms at York Station and Network Rail for its restoration of the station buldings at Frodsham. The winner was York. Glossop was awarded a Highly Commended. Considering that other awards went to the Forth Rail Bridge, St.Pancras Hotel. Paddington Station roof...... it was a real "win" for Glossop!! The judges were very complimentary about the work undertaken at Glossop - pictures showed the station at its very best. Neil felt very proud to be sitting amidst a professional railway audience of several hundred seeing Glossop spoken of so highly.

With Neil were Mike Rose of the High Peak and hope Valley Community Rail Partnership, Tony Favell also representing the partnership and the Peak Park and Dave Frost the Architect of the scheme to restore the waiting rooms/create the new booking office at Glossop from Northern Rail. We were all pleased with the outcome and it looks as if a plaque ceremony to mark this award and the Ist place in the ACoRP Swindon awards may take place in Glossop in the New Year. More details on this when known!! Neil would like to thank The Railway Heritage Trust for its hospitality and the insight he gained into the best of railway architecture. More details of our award and the other winners can be found on the RHT's very thorough press release of the event which can be accessed via their website.  http://www.railwayheritagetrust.co.uk/