The Bluebell Railway...

...was the subject of attention for today, and actually, I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves..this one here though was rather amusing (seemingly showing a huge plume of smoke curling away from the fire brigade's enclave (it wasn't really on fire, on the far side the bank slopes down quickly towards the tracks...of course! ;)) -

- The day began at Horsted Keynes station -

- we arrived rather early, so our train was already sat at the platform getting up steam while we had a little look around...which doesn't happen terribly often in this day and age! ;) -

- They have made a *real* effort to make everything look totally authentic, and it *really* works -


- The time came to board the train, with 3rd class tickets, but that wasn't too much of a problem! ;) -

- En route (blatantly ignoring the "Do NOT stick your head out of the window" signs ;) and in a completely strangerless carriage -

- we arrived in Sheffield Park for a really great time looking round and a really rather dreadful lunch (sorry everyone!) -

(I'm sure the guy on the train was posing for me)


- there is nothing quite like the smell of a steam engine in action, but this place just does so much more to take you back, you really start to feel (and funnily enough, it's actually more acute as it gets busier) that you can appreciate exactly what it was like to really travel by steam, which is really very cool...thank goodness for these enthusiasts!! :) Not sure I will be applauding the ones that are faithfully recreating the Thameslink in a few years time though... ;)