A fun few days

First, thank you very much to everybody for the birthday wishes. I had a lovely day, with steam trains and cake. :-)

It was just the culmination of a fun weekend, though.

( About Games Expo )

It's been a while since I've had a chance to go to any of the steam railways apart from the local one, and while I'm never going to stop supporting it, it's nice to have a chance to see other railways as well. The Severn Valley Railway is not that far away, and it's celebrating its fortieth anniversary this year, so it seemed a good excuse to pay them a visit.

It was a quiet day for them, with only a few trains running, but we still had plenty of time to see everything and it was quite nice not to be crowded on the trains.

( Pictures and details under here )

You can see some more of my photos on my Photobucket, here.

Forgotten in the excitement

We had a good day on the Severn Valley Railway, but I was a little disappointed that I hadn't managed to get to the GWSR's gala in celebration of 175 of the Great Western Railway.

So it was rather exciting on the way home down the motorway, when we realised that the trailer we were passing in the slow lane was carrying a steam engine. And not just any steam engine but the City of Truro originally built in 1903 and with a strong claim to be the first steam train to do over 100mph.

( Picture under the cut )

It was obviously leaving Toddington for another railway, to take part in their GWR 175 celebrations.

I'm looking forward to visiting the GWSR again, probably after they've had the chance to restore services to Cheltenham after a landslide on the line, but in the meantime they've put up a video to give a sample of the event.

( YouTube video here )