Despite the best efforts of General Manager, Neil Buxton, and the industry's very own 'Pictographer Royal' there was a shocking beard deficit amongst the evening's 270 attendees.
The assembled Community Rail champions, industry supporters, hacks and TOC directors apparently eschewed the traditional facial-fuzz and sandals in favour of smart suits and safety footwear...
EMT's Shoveller & Northern's Butcher hosted the evening and here present Mark Hopwood of FGW with a special award - allegedly for rescuing passengers from a long distance 'dog-box'.
Sadly, busy diaries prevented a Minister from seeing and saluting the 'Big Society' in action.
Sources charitably suggest that it takes some time to recover from the National Rail Awards.