All aboard! Choo choo!

Come with me on a pictorial journey back in time to the golden age of steam travel. Pack up your leather suitcases, write out your labels, find your gloves and hat, buy your tickets, bring some money for the buffet car and off we go!

We are taking a trip on the North Norfolk Railway built in 1887. The 10.5 mile round trip from Weybourne to Holt and Sherringham passes through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We will see woodland, farmland, poppies, windmills, villages and the sea!

Today's steam engine is the 76084  The Broadsman which was built in Horwich in 1957 for British Rail. It spent most of it's working life on journeys in the North West of England, around Darwin and Wigan. When it was no longer in use it was sent to a scrapyard before being rescued, via the rescuers back garden, until being restored and put back into use.

Shall we get to the station?

Better buy our tickets, including one for the dog.

The clerk issues us all with our tickets.

Have you got that luggage ready?

There are 20 minutes to wait until the train, I think we will be better off in the comfort of the waiting room don't you?

I wish the fire was lit. Never mind, I am going to admire the handmade tufted rug and look at all the pictures.

Or possibly I am just going to sink into this chair and wrap myself up in the lovely tartan travel blanket.

Quick, gather up all your belongings, the train has arrived. Let us go and choose our carriage.

Twist the handle and open the door.

Mind the gap when climbing aboard.

Number 27 can be our seat.

Get the luggage up on the racks before the train starts to move!

Looking around the carriage and corridor here are some things that I can see.

The light switch for the carriage.

The decorative radiator cover.

Well this is relaxing. Sitting back, listening to the clickety clack of the carriages on the rails, watching the puffs of steam drift past the windows, listening for the choo choo call of the siren which heralds the entrance and exit of a tunnel. The fields rush by, I pull down the window and feel the air moving past my face, smelling the coal burning and getting smuts in my hair. Good job my hat covers most of it! I can see the sea! We sit and chatter, admiring the view and enjoying our journey.

All too soon it comes to an end as we reach our destination. We never did get to the buffet car!

The steam engine needs to refill it's water tank from the pipe near the signal box.

As we walk past we can take a peek into the Station Master's room which has his range for making a cup of tea, his table to look at the timetable of the trains and his sink for a wash and brush up before greeting the passengers.

We walk past the advertising signs and wonder what is for tea. Travelling always makes one peckish.

It is not yet time to light the lamps.

I am very glad that there was no need to use these.

As we walk out of the station we stop to admire the little cottage made from old railway carriages and wonder what it would be like to live in one. We know it has a cosy living room with a fire, two bedrooms with patchwork quilts on the beds and a little kitchen with shelves stocked with jam.

We take a look at the neat vegetable garden and try to identify what they are growing.

Thank you for being my travelling companions and for enjoying the glories and glamour of steam travel with me.