Fancy a Day Out In Leighton Buzzard involving Railways and Superheroes?

By John Freeman on July 2, 2016

Image: Leighton Buzzard Railway

How many superheroes can you fit on a train? On 23rd – 24th July a group of comics fans are running this event in the new community rooms at the Pages Park Station of the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway in Bedfordshire.

Expect appearances on the day from costumed superheroes and villains, including Star Wars characters – and opportunities for photos with them.

(For some reason comics and railways just go together, don’t they? From Superman out racing them, ShangChi, the Master of Kung Fu battling villains on a British steam train in an old Marvel comic I read years ago – even though steam trains were long gone from UK railways – and Captain America in his recent big screen outing – not to mention appearances at other real-life events like this one on Loughborough’s Great Central Railway back in February).

The railway is popular in its own right: it’s a well known tourist attraction and fills up to eight trains a day when it runs (and of course it will be running this particular weekend). Each train carries over 200 people.

One of the team, Steve Bennett, tells me they are keen for traders and exhibitors at the event – and table prices are very reasonable.

• For more information on the event itself, check out the railway’s website, although at present that only has limited information on the event

• If you’re interested in having a stand, you can download an application form here (Word format), or email Steve via BennettsteATstarfleet.com (replace AT with @) – or message him is you’re on Facebook

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.