page_title: Groudle Glen Railway
section_title: Christmas
hierarchical_section_title: Groudle Glen Railway / Operations / Christmas
caption_attribution_description: English: The busy scene at Lime Kiln Halt on the Groudle Glen Railway on the occasion of the annual Mince Pie Specials, Boxing Day 2008.
context_page_description: The Groudle Glen Railway is a 2 ft narrow gauge railway near Onchan in the Isle of Man, on the boundary of Onchan and Lonan, which is owned and operated by a small group of enthusiastic volunteers and operates on summer Sundays; May to September and Wednesday evenings in July and August along with a number of annual special events.
context_section_description: The first services ever operated on the newly restored railway were the Santa Trains in 1983 which have since proved to be the highlight of the line's calendar; they began life as one day of operation the weekend before Christmas Day but today these extend to two weekends of trains, which are the railway's busiest period of year, culminating in the popular Mince Pie Trains which are a regular fixture each Boxing Day when many locals visit the line for a return journey and a seasonal drink and mince pie.  The station at Lhen Coan is transformed into a grotto area for these services and the volunteers spend many hours preparing the site for the festive services. Until the arrival of Annie, one of the railway's two diesel locomotives was renamed as "Blitzen" for the day, originally the traditional name of "Rudolph" was applied but this was changed in 1997 following requests. The services are now annually hauled by Sea Lion and Annie. Such is the continued success of these seasonal services that the railway introduced online pre-booking in 2010 for the first time, and now operate them over four days during the festive period.
caption: A "Mince Pie Special" at Lime Kiln Halt. Boxing Day 2008
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