Steam Trains & The Isle of Man

What does the title mean you think, well the obvious, last week it was time for another expedition, unfortunatly Andy the third musketeer could not come out to play, so it was down to Brian & I to go out & find these exciting photos of steam trains.

So off to the station we went prepared for all these opportunities to use our cameras, but there they were, the anoraks & geeks they had got there first, I felt quite intimidated with my small compact camera, when they had sophisticated SLR ones, which they were using.

The next shock was no steam engine, just some old diesel to pull the train, but undeterred we boarded the train, reminicing about previous adventures we had had in the past when on train journeys.

We talked about the carriages, the different types we had sat in in our youth, the windows with their leather straps, which sadly ours did not have, then off we set to our destination.

Some 30 minutes later we finally reached the end of the line & off we went to seek out more adventures, in the village of Rawtenstall, we had a full hour to explore before we had to reurn for the train back.

Guess what the place had closed up, nowhere was open apart from the local Tesco & Asda, I dont know where the people came from to keep them in business, we walked up the main street, then back down, that was it apart from the ducks on the river.

Back to the staion to find we had just missed the train so, in to Tesco for supplies & a drink, before returning to the station & guess what, our train had a steam engine, so into photo mode we went, at last we had rejoined the anoraks & geeks.

Onto the train still no straps on the windows, but Brian happily explained how much he used to enjoy smell of the smoke, I felt it was a little smelly & dirty. We noticed that all the staff had brew cans which took me back to the 1960s, we discussed whether these were new reproductions or old ones unearthed from the past, I went on to say I could not understand why they bothered when there were thermos flasks & mircowave cookers, but if it made them happy so what.

We travelled back to Bury then took more photos in case the others did not work, then spotted a fdriend of ours who was a volunteer, we asked him about the leather straps only to be told that they had no stock with them, also that these had never been in the north of England. Quickly we as old Toggs informed him that he was qite wrong that we as youngsters vividly remembered these on the carriages from our youth in the late 50s & 60s so there, so much for technical knowledge.

That sadly was the end of the trip, I will report back on any other adventures as and when they occur, have you noticed that familiar stalker on my photos again, where does he come from.

Just to say after this weekend that I will be in the Isle of Man for a week with my DIY friend visting other, they will be doing tasks on the house there whilst I will take on role of foreman for the week, plus I have been promised that they will show me the sights which I have been waiting to see since my brief trip of 2 hours back in th 1980s, so will tell you of these adventures on my return