A creepy mannequin of a child has been discovered on a train carriage clutching a can of cider. The dummy, a World War II evacuee named Annie, disappeared from her usual spot beside her mother at Blue Anchor station during a railway gala in Somerset. She was later located in a carriage at Minehead station, holding a Thatchers Haze cider.
Blue Anchor’s station master, Robin Whichard, commented: ‘She seems absolutely unfazed by her condition and mum doesn’t seem to have noticed, so no harm done.’
The mannequins were previously exhibited at the STEAM museum in Swindon, Wiltshire, but were ‘evacuated’ to the station last year. The museum suspects Annie was taken by a ‘group of lads’ on a stag do, who managed to sneak her out unnoticed during the railway’s ‘very busy’ Diesel Gala.
Despite being a beloved fixture at the station, staff had not realized Annie was missing until she turned up, can in hand, five miles away. ‘We didn’t know anything about it until we got a call from staff at Minehead station asking if we’d mislaid Annie,’ said Whichard. ‘Because she’d turned up in a carriage with a can of cider in her hand.’
He added that seeing Annie in that state gave staff a shock. ‘Given her inebriated state, they put her in a wheelchair and delivered her back on the next train.’
‘We’re glad to have her back even if we didn’t realise she had gone,’ Whichard added.
The Diesel Gala sees the station run a busy schedule featuring numerous steam locomotives every summer, and this year ran from June 4 to 7. The trains cover a 20-mile route, taking in museums and model railway displays along the way.
