Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 18:14 — 16.7MB)
Episode 28 – Life on the Watercress Line – Watercress People (4)
Welcome to Watercress People (4), where I interview three of the many people who make the Watercress Line the great experience that it is.
Sandra Johnson
Sandra tells me that she and her husband were at a loose end, saw an advertisement and, liking steam trains, volunteered 31 years ago.
She has been manager of the very popular Watercress Belle for the last 20 years.
The chefs cook all the food is cooked from scratch in the Kitchen Car. Diners receive a four course with Silver Service. The Kitchen Car (no. 1668) is very important as they are a very hard to get hold of these days. This gives the Watercress Belle an edge over many other organisations who cannot cook food from scratch on the train.
To find out more about Watercress Belle dining please click this link.
David Mead – Regional Groups
David tells me that his role is to coordinate the regional groups. He does this by arranging meetings and getting volunteers to publicise the Watercress Line.
To find out more about the Regional Groups please click here.
Steve Crowther – Stationmaster at Alresford
Our conversation starts by talking about training days. I learn about the importance of people understanding each others roles. We continue by talking about people requiring the skills to deal with passengers with special needs.
Many of the volunteers bring specialised skills from their work and these are of great use – although Steve tells me that they’ve not had an opportunity to use their dentist.
Steve enjoys being in the Signal Box when there is an evening service. She also loves the Santa Specials because of the large numbers of smiling faces.
We finished by talking about her thoughts for the future.
To find out more about Alresford station click here.
Please note: there are no photographs to accompany this Podcast.
Find out more about the Watercress Line:
To visit the Watercress Line website please follow this link Watercress Line.
About ‘Life on the Watercress Line’
This podcast is available on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Deezer, Spotify and Stitcher.
AKM Music has licensed Steam Railway for use as the theme and incidental music.
© The MrT Podcast Studio 2020
