500 schoolchildren are evacuated from Loughborough

The Great Central Railway is helping more than 500 children experience what it was like to be a World War Two evacuee. School children from all over Leicestershire will arrive at the railway on Friday 10th of June and board steam trains for a return trip into history.

They'll also learn about rationing and enjoy 1940s dancing lessons as well as a host of other activities along the railway's line. It's part of the first day of the Great Central Railway's annual Wartime Weekend event.
Around four thousand people are expected to visit the award winning Leicestershire attraction during the three day event.

Christine Brown, the wartime weekend event organiser said "The weekend will give visitors the real chance to experience what life was like in wartime Britain. While children today thankfully don't have to experience the desperate uncertainty of being evacuated by train to stay with people they didn't know, this will give them something of a flavour of what it was like. They'll also be able to learn about other aspects of life in Britain as it entered the war."

Almost than 3,000,000 people, mostly young children were evacuated from towns and cities within days of the outbreak of war. This was Operation Pied Piper, which had been planned in advance, as the government expected the Germans to begin widespread bombing of built up areas.

The Wartime Weekend event will also feature period entertainment, displays of military vehicles and 'visiting dignitaries' including Winston Churchill at stations along the line. At Rothley station there will be a replica of a crashed Messerschmitt fighter plane.

As always, remembrance is at the heart of the event. On Sunday morning there will be a church service and on Saturday and Sunday afternoon a poppy drop from a vintage aircraft will involve the Royal British Legion.

On Saturday and Sunday Hundreds of re-enactors will bring the stations and trains to life wearing period clothes, giving twenty first century visitors the closest experience to time travel they can get. Period music and singers will be appearing throughout the weekend along with cameo scenes invoking the warring forties.

A busy timetable of steam hauled passenger trains will operate on both days. At Quorn and Woodhouse there will be a memorabilia market alongside a real ale tent. Also at Quorn, the railway's brand new tea room, Butler Henderson, a one hundred and forty thousand pound investment, will open for the first time.