Back for 2019! Santa Special: 'Santa's Quiet Hour'. Running during the late afternoon, this experience will be tailored to our passengers on the autism spectrum and to those with other sensory needs. Steam trains can be very appealing to those with ASD- from timetables to categories and mechanical features, different features stand out to each individual.

We’ve noticed an increase in visitors on the autism spectrum, whether it’s watching the 1/3 scale trains arrive and depart from the various platforms, or spending hours in our Model Exhibition seeing the array of models (some steam, diesel and electric replicas) whiz through tunnels and over bridges.

We get to know our regular customers and in the quieter moments we get time to reflect with them on what makes for a good railway experience allowing us to continuously improve our attraction for everyone who visits.

Our standard Santa Special experiences are full of music, train whistles and flashing lights – a real sensory minefield. With some of our volunteers, family members and plenty of passengers able to give us advice on what would help to improve their experience, we were certainly willing to listen and thus ‘Santa’s Quiet Hour’ was born.

We’ll be supporting our passengers with Autism and other special needs during this afternoon by making a few changes:

• Our Christmas light won’t be flashy! They’ll still be on for those who want to feel the magic but they’ll be on constantly with no flashes, sparkles or fades.

• We’ll turn our music down! Christmas carols will be played below our normal volume.

• We won’t shout about Santa! Our tannoy announcements will be switched off during this period.

• There’ll be less whistling while we work! We’ll keep train whistling to a minimum and only whistle where it’s necessary.

• We’ll take our time! Whilst this Santa Special benefits from one hour at New Romney we will welcome fewer children meaning less rushing for those nervous visitors.

• Skip the queue! Santa’s Grotto is where you’ll queue to see the full array of our decorations but if this isn’t fun for you we’re happy to give a return time to bypass the Grotto.

What Santa wants you to know:

• There will still be a couple of whistles on the journey from Hythe to New Romney and return.

• Our level crossing systems make a 2 tone bleeping sound (for safety) when the trains cross them. This will happen a couple of times on your journey.