1940s Wartime Weekend on the Great Central Railway

Whenever I have got it into my head to visit the Great Central Railway I have caught the train to Loughborough. Until today, that is, because this time I wanted to see more of Leicester North station.

A Leicester Mercury story from last month explains why:

A £10 million grant has been approved for ambitious plans to open a major railway heritage museum in Leicester.

The project has received the vital backing of the Heritage Lottery Fund bosses after narrowly missing out a year ago.

The Great Central Railway (GCR), the National Railway Museum and Leicester City Council are behind the scheme to create a "world-class" attraction.

It will be built by the GCR's Leicester North station near Birstall but within the city limits.

The museum will be called Main Line: Bridging the Nation and, if all goes according to plan, will open in 2019.

It will house a priceless collection of vintage locomotives and other rare railway exhibits.

But when I arrived there today I found it under German occupation.

You see, this weekend the Great Central Railway is holding a 1940s Wartime Weekend, and Leicester North had turned French for the day.

Like every station along the line, it was thronged with people in period costume. Go to Quorn and Woodhouse and you could enjoy an ENSA concert in the beer tent.

And there do seem to be an alarming number of people for whom an enjoyable Saturday involves wearing Nazi uniform.

Middle England is a much stranger place than you think.