Colin Churcher 2020

The York Tap has an excellent selection of Timothy Taylors' brews. It is directly accessible from the road or platform 3 of the station Boltmaker is an excellent bitter beer While waiting for the museum to open at 1000 we took a walk through this very attractive town. Before we ventured out, however, we had to stock up on back bacon, sausage, baked beans and potatoes (and scrambled eggs.) The skullers were out in force on the river The Shambles The Shambles Merchant Venturers' Hall Mderchant Venturers' Hall We walked through the station to get to the Museum. This class 37 seems to be permanently parked at the station. Possibly as a rescue locomotive. The decorative metalwork in the station needs a good cleaning. With the large number of diesel trains idling in the station it will only get worse. I will just show a selection of the pictures I took at the Museum Mallard Duchess Ffestiniog Railway Double Fairlie "Livingstone Thompson" GWR Railcar SECR Class D 4-4-0 w

The catch of the day was Timothy Taylor's Havercake Ale We left the hotel quite early in time to catch the 08.35 train from York to Newcastle. It was surprising is that Crosscountry trains run a train ahead of us by 3 minutes all the way to Edinburgh. Our train came out of the mist at York As we expected it turned out to be an Azuma It was cold and misty leaving York and the mist did rise at one point when the sun came through to reveal sheep wallowing in sodden fields. We could barely make out the cathedral the mist had returned as we approached Newcastle. We purchased an all day ticket on the Tyne and Wear Metro at the Central station and took the Metro train out to Whitley Bay. It was misty over the North Sea but at least we could see the waves crashing on the rocks. This is an interesting line which was originally British Rail but it is now a local line using overhead DC power. Many of the original stations have been retained, that at Whitley Bay being particularly interesting.

We are now in Timothy Taylor's Land It was very foggy in Birmingham this morning. However, our train to Birmingham New Street appeared out of the fog right on time. I think Birmingham looks better in the fog. We changed at Birmingham New Street to a train for York. We had first class reserved seats but the four car train was woefully inadequate to handle the large numbers of economy passengers. There was extensive standing and the conductor was apologizing at each station stop. This seems to be a feature of the UK rail system. We have realized that to get a seat one must travel first class.   The journey seemed to take a long time as speeds were not very high. Tamworth, Derby, Chesterfield, Sheffield and Leeds. Dwell times were long at stations, partly because it took so long to get people out and in. We arrived on time at York and quickly checked into our hotel. Back at the station I found a pub with an extensive selection of Timothy Taylor's Beers. I need to go back to test s

  This morning there were some Canada Geese cropping the grass close to the lake. It was good to see them. Our Ottawa geese will have now flown south now that there is a coating of snow over the grass. Before going to the model railway show we took a short trip to Birmingham International Airport using the people mover. The trip is about two minutes. We entered the Warley Model Railway Show on time and took a look at some of the venders and models that we had enjoyed yesterday. I had a short chat with David Maidment who I had worked with on British Railways in the late 1960s. He came to Canada to do a short project for me in the early 1990s and he well remembered the trip we took in the locomotive between Ottawa and Montreal. In retirement David founded the Charity Railway Children. I am setting out below a few additional pictures taken at Warley. Lunchtime Lots of GWR locomotives Ffestiniog Railway Locomotives A war scene Vintage Trains were operating a series of holiday Polar Express