Forget the Long Thin Drag, heres the Long Thin Santa.
Christmas Eve 1985 sees the Last Noel, this want a railtour but Alan paying homage to the last Christmas for the Hastings units.
Santa turned out to be Alan himself posing on the front of 1032, that day Alan tried to get his headboard on as many of the units as possible.
I want to thank Alan and Mike for making those headboards all those years ago and doing their part to mark the passing of these units
Another Headboard made by Alan was this one which was used on a number of tours, this one is of the Long Thin Drag at Carlisle
The Hastings Diesel Swansong headboard along with another couple of Mikes are displayed in the office at St Leonards.
Three years later on the 13th May 1990 203001 ran its last day in passenger service having arrived at Hastings with 11.15 from Ashford this headboard wasnt one of Mikes or Alans but made by Gary Steele.
Image thanks to Colin Price
A few years earlier 203001 carried another of Mikes headboards to celebrate 141 years of St Leonards Depot with members of the Hastings Diesels Group gathered round the unit
Hastings Headboards
During the final couple of years of the Hastings units many railtours were run which carried celebration headboards.
Recently I found out that two of the people who made these headboards are now members of our facebook group.
I thought that this skill and resourcefulness had to be celebrated, so I decided to set up this page to showcase their work.
very last Hastings Railtour in May 1986, this had a couple of headboards made by Alan Towner who also took the photo
A close up of Alans headboard, note the authentic Restriction 0 plates on the headboard.
Both Images again thanks to Alan Towner and for more on the tour click here
The other person who done a lot of headboards was Mike Pannell, this one of the Southern Diesel Swansong in August 1987
Image by Southern Reg