Bluebell Railway
J and I went to the Bluebell Railway at the weekend, which is probably one of the most complete steam railway preservation projects I’ve ever visited.
The stations are very nicely kitted out with period fittings, but I think I probably got most excited by the whole big-engineering-grease-and-precision side of things. *
J likes his trains, so he’s signed up as one of their volunteers. I can see that I’ll be spending one or two more weekends visiting the railway. Apparently they’ve got a couple of electromechanical phone exchanges, so perhaps I’ll sign up as well. Just to keep me occupied while J plays with the steam trains you understand.
Full album is available here.
* OK, second most excited, after I was outraged by their selection of bakelite phones with curly PVC handset cords.
My uncle spent most of his working life building railways in East Africa, and both him and my dad were huge steam train fans. One of the most exciting memories from my childhood is being left (along with my siblings and cousins) in a huge, rambling ‘museum’ of railways in Kenya, where they even had manual rail truck (with the big handles you push up and down) and a few hundred yards of track. I probably went to the Bluebell as well, but can’t remember – I do remember Didcot though, and watching two steam trains pulling a single mail coach, to demonstrate automatic mailbag collection, in clouds of steam and smoke.