Couple Reenacts 65-Year-Old Wedding Photo, Greeting Passing Train

A couple has recreated their 65-year-old wedding photo, where they waved at a passing train—a tradition the bride started as a child.

On Sept. 5, George and Margaret Stone celebrated their anniversary and continued a long-standing tradition from their past.

As a child, Margaret and her sister Janet would wave at passing trains from their garden, with the drivers often responding with a toot. Margaret particularly enjoyed waving at the London to Penzance steam trains that thundered past her home in Wiltshire, South West England.

Even on her wedding day on Sept. 5, 1959, Margaret and George made sure to wave at the passing train from the family farm in Easterton, near Devizes. Margaret and her sister even baked a wedding cake, which was shared by 300 British Railways employees from the Western Region.

To celebrate their 65th anniversary, the couple recreated the same photo from their wedding day.

They were also gifted a special wedding cake from Great Western Railway (GWR) to reciprocate the kind gesture Margaret made in 1959, on the eve of her wedding.

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“It was just one of those lovely things my mum did,” shared the couple’s eldest daughter, Annette. She recalled how her mother would eagerly run to the garden to wave at passing trains as a child, with the drivers always reciprocating the gesture.

Margaret’s grandfather was the station master at Saltash train station, while his brother held the same position at Perranwell.

Annette commented, “She spent her childhood waving at the trains, and it’s heartwarming to see the bond she developed with the drivers and firemen. Celebrating 65 years of marriage is truly special.”

Following their wedding, the couple moved to Cornwall and engaged in various ventures like farming, running a bed-and-breakfast, developing the Cottage Hotel from Payne’s Picnic Garden in Carbis Bay, and eventually operating Beck’s Fish and Chips, a popular British fast-food joint since 1989.

GWR’s Head of External Communications, Dan Panes, expressed, “This story has truly touched our hearts as we delved deeper into it.

“Margaret’s passion for trains as a young girl and the connection she built with the drivers, who would sound their whistles as they passed, is reminiscent of something from ‘The Railway Children.’

“Her gesture of baking a wedding cake for railway colleagues was truly heartwarming, so we felt compelled to commemorate their 65th anniversary by returning the favor.”

The couple, now residing in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, have six children—Annette, Nicola, Richard, Robert, Sarah, and Rachel—and 18 grandchildren, with a great-grandchild expected next year.

Epoch Times staff contributed to this report.