Records have tumbled at a popular Lowestoft attraction.

A successful year at the East Anglia Transport Museum in Carlton Colville was topped off with a spectacular Santa Tram event.

The museum in Chapel Road reflected this week on what has been a 'very good year' in terms of visitor numbers.

And with the year culminating in the successful return of the Santa Tram over the three weekends before Christmas, organisers have hailed the 'popularity' of the event.

The transport museum's publicity officer Tony Grice said: 'We planned to run nine trams of visitors per day to the Santa`s Grotto in Hedley Wood and such was the popularity of this event, we opened up on Friday, December 18 to cater for those who missed out on a weekend booking and we managed to fill five trams.

'In total 652 children and 978 adults supported the Museum for this event and judging by the positive comments we received, a good time was had by all.

'It is gratifying to receive good feedback as a great deal of time and effort goes into planning and staging an event of this size and it is all undertaken by volunteers – there are no paid staff at the museum.'

Mr Grice said the successful Santa Tram event was the 'icing on the cake' on what has been a record breaking year for visitor numbers.

'During 2015, 18,888 visitors attended, making it our best year ever for attendances. The previous highest was in 2009 when 18,674 visitors attended. 'And we are really grateful to all those who patronised the museum, as without this income we would be unable to operate the site and also be unable to undertake the many restoration projects that are currently under way on vehicles of historical interest.'

The museum formed a new events committee last year, organising three events for the first time. These were the start of season Easter gala, a mid May 40s weekend and Halloween.

Mr Grice said: 'These together with the 50th Anniversary of the Museum Site and the ever popular End of Season Autumn Gala helped to bring in the visitors and ensure the season was a success.

'For the third year in succession we received Trip Advisor's Certificate of Excellence, which is a welcome boost and reflects positive comments made by visitors to the site.'

? Have you got a Lowestoft story? Email mark.boggis@archant.co.uk