Boys' day out

Boys day out today. I asked Tom what he would like to do and, perhaps unsurprisingly, he said he would like to have a train ride to Leeds. That suited me just fine, but this time we decided to get the train from Wennington rather than Ribblehead as the times worked out better that way.

At Wennington

After procuring an enormous baguette from Seasons Bakery, we parked at the station (a pretty Hornby-like affair) and prayed that the train would turn up. It did, bang on time, and to make things better it wasn't a "rubbish train" (Pacer), and even featured 21st century technology, such as heating and toilets.
It's an extremely pleasant ride along this line towards Skipton, and we saw two herds of Highland cattle and the field of Herdwick sheep, both among our favourite animals. The train really filled up beyond Skipton, but we arrived at Leeds exactly on time, under a cloudless blue sky. We'd already eaten our lunch on the train, so it was time to watch a few trains at Leeds station - one of the busiest in the country.

On the platform next to ours was a High Speed Train bound for London. Tom raced up the platform to have a look at the cab, and luckily for us, an exceptionally friendly driver arrived within a couple of minutes and invited us into the cab. I don't think Tom could quite believe he was allowed to do this, but in we went, where he was allowed to turn the key to start the engines, switch the headlights on, have a look in the (extremely noisy) engine compartment and even log the driver in on his iPad for the journey to London.

In the cab!

I strongly suspect that in this health and safety-obsessed age, train drivers aren't allowed to let five-year-old boys loose on the controls of a 125 mph, but these few minutes absolutely made Tom's day, and we were both extremely grateful to him. Absolutely smashing bloke.
After this, we (I) needed to get a bit of shopping done, so I had to drag Tom around a fairly busy shopping centre running a few errands, but he didn't complain once, and I did intersperse the boring shops with short interludes in The Entertainer, The Lego Store etc., which seemed to meet with his approval.

We had Japanese style tea and a bun to rest our weary feet, after which we headed back to the station to watch a few more trains before heading back to the Dales. It got very cold very quickly once the sun had gone down, but Tom, being the worrier that he is, insisted that we wait by the Morecambe train a good 30 minutes before it was due to leave. This meant that we (a) couldn't see the variety of other interesting trains coming and going through the station and (b) got very cold, but he wouldn't be persuaded to go up to the end of the platform.

Driver Tom

Sadly, the train home was a "rubbish train", which was already packed to bursting point before it left Leeds. However, most of these got off at the larger towns en route (Shipley, Keighley, Skipton etc.), and by the time we left the main line near Settle, they were probably only about a dozen people left on the train. Needless to say, no one else got off at Wennington, where I asked the driver if that stretch of line was always so bumpy that it felt as if you are on a kangaroo rather than a train. Apparently so.

Tom with William Wilberforce

Tom was an absolute star again today - I can't remember a cross word between us. As Nik mentioned in an earlier post, he's an absolute delight when he's on good form like this. A really lovely day out.

Oh yes, tea tonight was three Japanese bentos that we bought at Wasabi in Leeds and managed to get all the way home without succumbing to temptation. I think Mummy was quite pleased.