Whenever we travel back to the UK I always have a list of things to do and eat. Once we land and make our way to Swanage we pop down to the water and I get my fish n chips. Clears the cobwebs. Nothing like the sea air to give you a second wind, or third or fourth, depending on how hard it is to stay awake.
Of course I always ask my FIL if it’s possible to have a footplate ride. I make sure I pack clothes that can get dirty and trainers that are on their last legs. Today I was able to have a ride on the 31806 and it was fabulous! The weather was amazing, which is good as this one is an open cab. Must be miserable in the rain but I didn’t have to worry about that!
Loco Yard had done a post about this particular loco a few years ago. Originally it was a K class and rebuilt into a U class in 1928. It’s home is now at the Swanage Railway. I have to say I really enjoyed this loco. I love how the little kids get so excited when they see it coming. Well, and the big kids to. I felt I should have worked on my royal wave with all the waving going on!
Here are some pictures and videos to share with you.
Next weekend the diesel gala is happening which makes my husband happy. Fingers crossed the weather holds!
How wonderful!
Thanks, it was a fab experience!
Good for you 😀👍
Thanks for the reblog!
Reblogged this on sed30's Blog.
Many thanks for the mention and very happy to hear that you’ve enjoyed a footplate ride! I hope you and your husband enjoy the Diesel Gala too!
Thank you for the reblog! I love footplate rides and try to do one whenever we’re back. I’ll be doing a post about the gala. All the diesels arrived yesterday. We raced the convoy to Swanage from Corfe. 😊
Gosh, my Dad is crazy about trains – he’d love this! We spent most of our vaca in April doing train related activities! 🙂
That’s fab! Where did you go on holiday? I have one more train post coming up about the D832 Warship. I got to ride in the cab. So much fun!
We visited my brother in GA and they have a huge model train store there, then we ate in an old train depot, then we went to a train museum, then Dad & my brother went on an 8 hour historic train ride up in the mountains of South Carolina, I believe!
We divided our time between Atlanta and their house on Lake Hartwell so I got to do quite a bit of sailing and Gibson (my dog) did a lot of swimming. 🙂
That sounds wonderful. What a great trip.
I think the highlight for my Dad was being able to walk through a Zephyr – it was so 60’s and so kitchy inside!! He remembers the Zephyr being a huge thing when it was launched – they used to go to the tracks to watch it come by.
I love experiences like that.