Be it your 50th (NRM), your 200th (S&D) or your 300th (Tanfield Railway), let’s celebrate! The ‘curtain up’ for the 2025 celebrations was a mass ‘Whistle Up’ at 12 noon on 1st January of more than 200 locomotives, representing over 70 Heritage Railways in this country and also many in Europe. Your editor watched the ‘Whistle Up’ at Grosmont on the NYMR. Imagine the scene, three large locos were at the platforms in the station and little Lucie, the diminutive Cockerill vertical boiler 0-4-0, stood by itself at the other side of the crossing gates facing the ‘biggies’. The ‘Whistle Up’ began right on cue at noon, with all four locos sounding off together, but, strange as it may seem, the loudest and most shrill whistle was that of little Lucie, which shrieked out above all the others (see page 9). Your editor saw that shrill whistle as not only a whistle of celebration but also, in a more abstract way, as a whistle of defiance. The contribution of the small being as important as the contribution of the big. He very much recalls his days (actually forty-one years) as a member of an international symphony orchestra and the ‘stunt’ made at schools’ concerts being held in large concert halls, when the conductor would ask the audience to name the most powerful instrument in that 100 piece orchestra; not what you’d think! To illustrate it, he would get the whole orchestra to produce the loudest cacophony possible and then cue the little piccolo to join in; that searing sound cut through the whole orchestra with ease. Surprise all round! Senior Management teams of Heritage Railways, both large and small, and of Museums, both large and small, all over the country are having to find ways to steer round newly-exposed rocks of new financial obstructions and dangers – working to square circles for their organisations at every turn. Your editor saw little Lucie as the perfect representation of what might be termed the smallest cog in an organisation, yet assuredly a vital cog in its structure, the ‘foot soldiers’ as it were. It is vital that these ‘foot soldiers’ play their part in their chosen organisation by perhaps making an extra visit (or two) to a museum or to a Heritage Railway near them, or better still, get friends to make first-time visits. We can’t all be on senior management teams, but just like little Lucie, the smallest can indeed make the whole difference to any organisation. Keep an eye open for the activities in your area during this year of celebrations, there is much to look forward to. Keep up to date with the NRM website to ensure not to miss anything at our York or Locomotion sites. As an aside, a visit to the Great Central Railway on a gala day will usually include a tour of the shed and an opportunity to view progress on three national collection locomotives 63601, 30777 Sir Lamiel and 70013 Oliver Cromwell. Possibly the highlight for your editor here at York will be the much-anticipated reopening of Station Hall – very much a jewel in the NRM crown. (see p53) So, what actually are we celebrating in 2025? Why S&D 200? Your editor’s eye was recently caught by the words of a well-respected author in a well-respected railway magazine where he opined that the Stockton and Darlington Railway was in many respects what could be interpreted as the last of the old rather than the first of the new: arguably the last of the waggonways, primarily built for goods and linking two modest-sized towns by a single track and using (mostly) horses. Perhaps the most balanced interpretation though can be found in this issue’s ‘Rolling Stock/Shildon Report (page 8), put forward by the NRM’s Senior Curator Anthony Coulls when he suggests that [the opening of the S&D] “was a key milestone along the way of the development of the railway as a means of moving goods and increasing communication”. What are your views? Letters to the editor please. But whatever those views are, let us all take every opportunity to enjoy this year’s amazing festivities, let’s really support our Museums and Heritage Railways to the full and remember that vital contribution of ‘foot soldiers’ everywhere. Let’s hear it from the little Lucies of the country!