This year a very fine effort was made by Austin Harland to give publicity to the opportunities offered by the Society for parties of school children to visit Quainton in June and headmasters and headmistresses of schools over a wide catchment area were notified of the Steamings. As a result of this effort the Society's funds benefitted by a worthwhile sum and hundreds of children saw a steam locomotive in action for the first time in their lives! Indeed, there were youngsters who had never been on a train of any sort before!

This year we were open for school parties for five days for the first time; last year we opened for 2½ days. We are very grateful to those members who came along to help guide the visitors. Harry Tubbs came for the whole week, Austin for 3½ days and others for varying periods. Many thanks.

Our special visitor was Timothy Raison, MP for Aylesbury to whom we were pleased to show the work being done at Quainton by the JCS manpower. Mr Raison chatted with Dick Scott and Mike Gordon and his visit must have dispelled some rather misleading comments in a newspaper concerning the use being made of labour operating under the Manpower Services Commission scheme.

Notes:
The text in this Quainton Railway Society publication was written in 1978 and so does not reflect events in the 36+ years since publication. The text and photographs are repeated verbatim from the original publication, with only a few minor grammar changes but some clarifying notes are added if deemed necessary. The photos from the original publication are provided as scans in this internet version of this long out of print publication.

Reference:
Schools Steamings (and a special visitor) - Quainton News No. 36 - Autumn 1978