Rejoicing in Ripon: Full steam ahead at HALLS of Ripon

The awe-inspiring age of steam has made a return journey to Ripon in time for the half term school holidays.

It’s 59 years since the last scheduled passenger train pulled out of Ripon station on 4 March 1967, but railway enthusiasts of all ages can take a walk down memory lane at HALLS of Ripon, where they can see the magnificent Mallard — albeit in miniature format — go by in a blue flash 💙.

The LNER 4468 Class A locomotive holds the world speed record of 126 mph, set in July 1938 on a section of the East Coast mainline at Stoke Bank, south of Grantham station 🏁.

Now, courtesy of Simon Richardson, who has his Timeless Treasure business at HALLS, where he sells pre-historic and historic artefacts, people can see the streamlined miniature Mallard in its garter blue livery doing circuits of the track and layout that he painstakingly put together 🛤️.

Nine-year-old Ripon schoolboy Rafi, who has seen the legendary locomotive on visits with his family to the National Railway Museum in York, was among the first to see the model railway fully operational with its station, bridges, sidings, tunnels and other lesser-known locomotives 👦🚉.

Simon (pictured left with Rafi and HALLS of Ripon director Mike Cooper) is one of the UK’s leading battlefield detectorists and he told Tim Flanagan of the Rejoicing in Ripon blog:
“I normally spend my time searching for buried treasure, which can be millions of years old, but for a bit of a change, I decided to focus on something that is within living memory.” ⚒️✨

He added:
“I assembled the model at my home three years ago and then, with the current revamp at HALLS nearing completion, I decided to donate it to the store, so that others can enjoy it.” 🎁

Mike said:
“It was very generous of Simon to effectively give this delightful gift to the people of Ripon and visitors who come to our store from far and wide.
“His model is a marvellous attention-grabber and as the response to it has been so positive, we have decided to keep it on permanent display.” 🌟