Category: Personal

On May 1 May I woke about 0500, listened to the dawn chorus, and thought “I’ve retired!” Time to pack, but also to find some trains. The Severn Valley Railway on Saturday 6 May was a good way of avoiding the Coronation, and the Middleton line took the Bank Holiday Monday. While we were in Lincoln, back in the last Millennium, we visited the trolley bus museum at Sandtoft. I remember the highlight being fish and chips for lunch on a bus. I had always been meaning to go back, and we managed it on Sunday 14 May (now...

As I come to take early retirement and move from Derbyshire back to Northumberland, there are railway lines in the Midlands that need doing. We start with Steeple Grange. The most magnificent tree in the Vicarage garden is a gorgeous Magnolia. Then a trip to Liverpool. One service at Easter, and Julie preached. Then a few days in North Wales to do some of the narrow gauge lines. There was a lot of hospital at the end of April, but also an opportunity to photo this roadsign in Stoke-on-Trent. My final service was on Sunday 30 April. I had...

Let’s start a new year with a couple of rides on the Great Central Railway. Then a few days in Cambridge. It was a pleasure to revisit both the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Scott Polar Reasearch Institute – places I often went to as a child. Captain Oates’ sleeping bag brought back lots of memories, and I like the notice in the lift. Then a couple of local tram/train trips, and another visit to the Great Central. They do a superb breakfast! Northern Rail had a flash ticket sale – it would have been rude to have ignored it!...