We really lucked out with the weather today. Forecast said rain all day and what we ended up with was bright sun. Will not argue with that at all! We took the train to Southampton for Sieman’s train day to celebrate 10 years and to raise money for MND. It was a great turnout and a lot of fun to see how the modern trains work. I thought it was great they had some steam as well. The M7 was doing runs to raise money for the charity and the queue was long the entire time.
They had the depot open so we could walk round to see where they repaired and built the trains for the Southwest line.
The cool bit was they would walk you through under the train so we could see the workings underneath. Here you can see the sand nozzle to prevent slippage in cold weather as well as autumn with wet leaves on the track.
Once we’d been round and seen all the workings we headed back on the train and stopped at Corfe Castle for some cream tea. We usually go to the National Trust Tea Room as they have a lovely garden overlooking the castle. It’s such a lovely spot to sit and sip tea.
Another wonderful day puttering about. Tomorrow we embark on our cruise! We are very excited to say the least. 🙂
Lovely pictures, especially of the trains. Nothing beats a good english cream tea!
Especially with a view like that! 🙂
You should be excited. Everything sounds wonderful. Bon voyage!
Thanks!
Hope you have a wonderful time!!
We are! 😄
That National Trust cafe is indeed lovely. I had lunch there just before I first travelled on the Swanage branch. 30053 was 53 at that time, I was so happy my favourite class of loco (M7 of course) was hauling my train!
It’s a great loco. :). Thanks for the comment!