Wensleydale Railway

Steam Engine

Yesterday was Matt's birthday - I told him he had to take the day off, otherwise it is just another day.  Being the train fanatic he is, he decided on a day on a Heritage Railway.  After some research he decided on the Wensleydale Railway - which goes from Redmire to Leeming Bar (basically a quarry to just outside of North Allerton)  They are very close to linking it up to the East Coast Mainline and then hope to run scheduled services into the Dales.  Next on the agenda is to link it up to the Settle to Carlisle Railway at Garsdale, going through Hawes, a massive undertaking, but if they make it, it will be a splendid journey and put Hawes even more on the map.

Tom and Diesel

Anyway, we had a lovely day.  The weather was revolting when we drove over, but the sun soon came out and then stayed with us for the whole day.  Most of the day was spent riding on Diesels but we did manage a short ride on the steam train (before they retired it - as it had a coal problem).  We had lunch in the station cafe at Bedale and couldn't believe the value we had 3 lunches and drinks for £9.00 and it was good!  Not sure how they can do it, but it was great.  Tom started to get really fidgety and naughty so we read him the riot act and told him to go to sleep.  It took a while but he did and he slept for an hour (in fact we had to wake him up!)  Luckily we had a compartment to ourselves, so he had a really comfy bed.  (We were both a little jealous - he looked so peaceful).

Sleeper Train

We got back to the car at 5, and then headed home via a pub for dinner.  We got home, had birthday cake and then the heavens opened - we had lightening, thunder and a cloud burst - we got home exactly at the right time.