Santa Specials on track to return to The Middleton Railway

The team at The Middleton Railway in Hunslet are gearing up to welcome Santa back to their South Leeds attraction.

Transcript

00:00It's all aboard at the Middleton Railway in Hunslet as the team give us an insight into

00:12their annual Santa specials as they transform low low locomotives into ho ho ho commotives.

00:20My name's Janet Auckland, I've been at the railway for 15 years coordinating the Santa

00:26specials which is our largest fundraiser of the year. We run during December three weekends

00:33and then there's 23rd and 24th of December, 24th being Christmas Eve and we run eight trains a day.

00:40The Middleton Railway was built to carry coals from the Middleton plateau to the south of Leeds to

00:44the centre of Leeds. We received our act of parliament in 1758. In 1812 the rail became the

00:50first row in the world to successfully introduce steam power and they were locomotives designed

00:56by Matthew Murray and John Blenkinsop. Two of them were made in Leeds and sent up to Northumberland

01:01to the Kenton and Cox Lodge Railway where they were seen by one George Stevenson who made sneering

01:07remarks about them but copied them for his very first locomotive Blucher and all his locomotives

01:12till locomotion number one of the Stockton Darlington Railway were essentially Murray Blenkinsop

01:18designed locomotives so the significance of these locomotives is very important in the history of

01:24railways. I remember as a child watching this railway first opening with its trams and then the diesels

01:30and finally the steam engines up and down and to be able to share that with other people show them

01:37what Leeds as a city did what coal did for the city of Leeds. It doesn't look much but this stuff

01:45literally propelled the United Kingdom into a major world power. Here we are in the heart of

01:54Hunslet, the heart of Leeds. I'm a volunteer like everybody here. It's important to realise that it is

02:01a voluntary occupation that we all have. I look after the engine house and make sure that they shine a

02:09little bit. These are all workhorses in various industries. One which many Leeds liners will know

02:19about will be Henry De Lacy. That's my favourite to be honest. You see the engines decked out in the

02:26twinkling lights and stars on them. The engine working on the train carries the name board the Christmas

02:32cracker. You see the children come in and wow oh look at that and look at that and they really love to come in

02:38and see the twinkling lights and when are we seeing Santa and they go on to the train and Santa is sat

02:44on the train with them and he gives them all their presents. We'd like to wish everybody a very merry

02:52Christmas and a happy new year and a great a great 2026 and let's hope you can come down and see us

02:58and have a ride on our trains.