A Yorkshire holiday with the family was suggested. With
three under threes in tow, it sounded a bit more like a working holiday to me, or,
more precisely, a baby sick on my T-shirt, type holiday. A house of suitable
proportions was located in Gargrave.
Settle and Carlisle, I thought, so potentially rather a good
choice. From the top windows of the delightfully refurbished mill buildings, we
could just glimpse the main line.
A quick perusal of UK Steam Info’ and Real Time Trains
websites [how very useful they are] and this idea had become an even better one,
with steam specials due on four of the eight days, once the short road trip up
the A65 to Hellifield was included.
These were not any old steam specials either. Flying
Scotsman and Scots Guardsman are old friends. Though I had hoped to impress the
toddlers with this introduction to the steam locomotive at its best, it turned
out that they were much more interested in splashing in the puddles on the
platform at Hellifield. We had tears at Gargrave station, as FS’s lively
attempt to make up lost time caused mayhem when my grand-daughter dropped her
sandwich.
I called in at Bradford local studies library for a spot of
family history research on my way home. As I pored over an old map of the city in
the company of the librarian, I was suddenly aware of a now familiar whiff of
regurgitated milk, courtesy of my most recent new friend, the beautiful
blue-eyed baby boy. I took an immediate step back.
As I drove home, I thought that I had at least provided some
good starters for the next generation in the forms of FS and SG - both near
centenarians now, built in 1923 and 1927, respectively. However, next time out
we will go on a dry day and have our lunch beforehand, so we can concentrate on
the headline acts.
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