Transport

An attraction associated with or dedicated to transport, such as a heritage railway, or a motor museum.

Ravenglass to Eskdale and return

La'al Ratty

A meeting of the Ways and Means Committee decided that a visit to Ravenglass and its steam railway was required. Dissent would not be brooked.  Reports of riding the Ravenglass and Eskdale railway were examined.  Indeed, a stationary lurking locomotive had even been spotted a couple of times, at Ravenglass and Eskdale (respectively).  But the […]

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The chuffing romance of Haverthwaite

Heritage railways, Britain

Imagine a simpler, hate-free, monochrome world, where you know your doctor, civil servants are both civil and servile, politicians benign and dogs only ever bark happily.  You are secure in the womb of grim, factory-stained, buildings.  There’s a footbridge over a railway and a train is coming.  You gaily dash to cross just as the

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From Ribblehead to Jericho

View of Whernside and Ribblehead Viaduct

Ribblehead Viaduct is one of the wonders of Victorian construction.  It also provided the inspiration for a UK TV drama Jericho, which premiered in January 2016. It’s not hard to be impressed by Ribblehead.  Not just because it’s quite big – it is a quarter of a mile long – but also because it seems

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The train will arrive in a heartbeat

North York Moors Railway locomotive at Goathland

I was on a boys’ weekend in Whitby. You know, don’t you, that ‘boys’ in this context actually means ‘grown men’. In fact, it would be more accurate to say ‘mature men who should know better’. But we’ll settle with ‘boys’; it’s a comforting euphemism. It’s just occurred to me that ‘euphemism’ can be a

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Razzle Dazzle Ferry Cross the Mersey

Razzle dazzle, Snowdrop, visit Liverpool

Surely, every adult in Britain, and possibly some from other lands, has heard of the ferry across the Mersey?  Many, not least those of a certain age, will also know the song, Ferry Cross the Mersey by Gerry and the Pacemakers, written by band leader Gerry Marsden and released in 1964.  It made No 8

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Gleaming bodies at the Lakeland Motor Museum

1954 MG sports car, Lakeland Motor Museum

Here’s one for the petrol-heads.  Though, to be fair, you don’t need to know anything about brake horsepower in order to admire this splendid, eclectic, collection of wheeled vehicles and associated bits and bobs.  Plus, given that the English Lake District is prone to dampness (well, it would be, wouldn’t it?), the Lakeland Motor Museum

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Tyne Bridge

A business trip to Newcastle upon Tyne reminded me what an imposing, and quite beautiful, structure the Tyne Bridge is.  Designed by Mott, Hay and Anderson and partly modelled on the Sydney Harbour Bridge (aka ‘the coat hanger’), it is instantly recognisable all over the world.  Construction began in 1925 and the bridge was opened

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Have a brief encounter at a railway station

The Brief Encounter experience

You can have a cup of tea (“the sugar’s in the spoon”), or more, sitting in the very spot where Laura and Alec fell in love.  Carnforth Railway Station was ‘Milford Junction’, location for much of the action in the classic 1945 film, Brief Encounter.  The war was still on, but the small Lancashire town

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