Steaming backwards for Christmas

...with thanks to Spike Milligan - posthumous ones - for his inspiration in penning this little ditty: 
"I'm walking backwards for Christmas
across the Irish Sea......."

The black smoke which can be seen is indeed smoke, its ghastly acrid fumes reminding me why in the good old days I preferred not to travel on steam locomotives.

If you were wondering whether Santa Claus had arrived: yes, he was on the platform chatting to the driver and fireman up in the cab.  If you look carefully at the photo you will see the white and red tip of his hat; his hip flask is not in evidence here, but a few seconds before he had almost emptied it.