Ruddington’s heritage railway has confirmed it will continue with the rest of its planned autumn and winter events as scheduled. This follows the sudden cancellation of the second half of the much publicised “Superhero Weekend” at its Mere Way site yesterday (Sun 29th October).
This Saturday 4th November sees the annual Great Central Railway Nottingham (GCRN) “Firework Spectacular” starting at 7.30pm – with gates open at 5.30pm for hot food, a funfair and miniature train rides. There’ll also be a licensed bar, chocolate fountain and live music from “Firestone“. Cheaper tickets can be bought from GCRN in advance from their Booking Office, Bric-A-Brac or Gift Shop – or it’ll be £5 for adults and £3 for children on the gate. Tickets to include return heritage train travel from East Leake are also available from Neil Thorley via neil.thorley@nokia.com or 07973 294081.
Bookings are also going full steam ahead for the popular Santa Special Services – operating every Saturday and Sunday from Sunday 26th November through to Sunday 24th December 2017. Because steam loco Stanier 8F-8274 had to be taken out of service over summer, when multiple cracks were found in its firebox, substitute LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0 – 46521 on loan from GCR PLC and the Loughborough Standard Locomotive Group will be hauling Father Christmas and his helpers this year instead.
Meantime questions are now being asked about what went wrong at the weekend?
After Saturday’s events (28th October) went ahead as planned – including a “Halloween Prosecco Party” with live music in the evening – promoters pulled the plug early on Sunday morning. GCRN posted this message on social media: “We have just been informed by the organisers of the Superhero Event that they have cancelled today. We will be open and running as normal with standard ticket prices applying. If you have prebooked tickets for the event you should contact Zinc Promotions or whoever you bought the tickets from for a full refund as we are unable to honour them”.
GCRN still ran the planned trains – although without the promised superheroes and other expected attractions onsite. Later on in the day Director, Phil Stanway, sent out another update: “Thank you to everyone who visited today expecting the Superhero Event to be in full swing for being so understanding. We know there were a lot of disappointed people, both adults & children but unfortunately, the whole event was completely outside our control and we can only apologise for this. We urge everyone who prepaid for tickets to seek refunds/chargebacks at your earliest possible opportunity from wherever you booked the tickets and are truly sorry for any issues caused.”
The organisers’ contact email is superherodaysout@gmail.com, or mobile number 07564 628040 whilst their Event Facebook page is here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1419412891461657
A post to this page at 8.08am yesterday (Sunday) morning from promoter Roxi Walters simply reads: “Trains will be running as normal today but due to unforeseen circumstances there will be no superhero characters.” Subsequently RUDDINGTON.info has contacted the organisers for a further explanation. They sent us this short reply: “There was no bookings for Sunday hence it being not ran. We are processing any refunds.”
GCRN has declined to comment further on the situation at the moment, pending ongoing financial discussions with the promoters.
But we’ll keep you posted!
