Tuesday 18 July 2017

Top 5 'Getting off your arse onto a Steam Train Summer Steam Mix'


This will piss you right off. No other purpose for this list to do but to annoy you. We want to prod you with a big stick and ask what will get experts out of armchairs, professors from National Preservation, David Baileys from The Railway Photography Group and onto the steam railways of the UK this Summer.

Disagree, let us know. Comment and Email your anger to budge your favourite onto a list. Rise up. This is trains, this is important.

Our 2017 Summer Steam Mix

5. Bluebell Railway


The first person into the Next Sale will always get the best deals on underpants. This is simple odds. As the Bluebell was the first on the standard gauge preservation scene it had the pick of the goodies to take on. And they still have them. For £19 this is a day in a living museum where everything is just right. The relics actually work so enjoy and fill up on goodwill ready for that return trip to York. 

There is something quite nice about white neat ballast isn't there? Or is that just us.


4. Talyllyn Railway



Have you seen 'Railway with a Heart of Gold'? If so, then go.

The scenery is no Ffestiniog Railway, there is no Fairlie up front. This is the Railway with heart and soul that you get for your £19. Let's be honest, this is Wales. It will probably rain, but just imagine if it's sunshine on your day in Wales. The strut down those inclines if you strike gold with a sunny day will have Shaft quaking in his thigh high boots. 


3. North Yorkshire Moors Railway


The behemoth. You can take to the NYMR as the ultimate Summer challenge. You can either plan the hell out of your day to avoid the 'heritage diesels' at all cost or admit that a Sybilla on the front of the train is not such a bad thing. But it ain't no B1 is it?

There's reasons the NYMR is the beast of Steam Railways. Nick Berry. That motorbike had us weak at the knees every Sunday evening and its never looked back. Oh, and there is Grosmont bank. At £31 the challenge is on to get the most of your Rover, and the most chips and beer inhaled at Whitby before rejoining the queue to get a seat. The challenge is on.


2. Keighley & Worth Valley Railway


Bit small innit? Well we would tend to agree but size doesn't necessarily always matter. KWVR is 'the small but give it a chance' railway. Did you know it was in The Railway Children? Its place in history is confirmed. It fits into our Summer Mix because its the ultimate Day Rover railway. 

£16 and agree with your 'dragger along-er' that you are spending the day at your nice clean table with a couple of cold beers watching the engine run round a couple of times. Get misty eyed every time you pass through Oakworth, shit faced in Bronte Country. Everyone is a winner.


1. West Somerset Railway



Yes, we've heard the past experiences of two railway organisations declaring war on one another - and loved it. No, of course we didn't. It has been an interesting recent history on the West Somerset but we hear a truce has been called and the two fragments of the WSR are now working to playing trains together.

But, take the rowing away and you're left with the longest standard gauge heritage railway in the country and £18 to play on it all day long. It is summer, it is the seaside, it'll probably rain. Welcome to Britain by Steam Train.


2 comments:

  1. Wot no SVR or Romney Hythe and Dymchurch!!! Why not make it a top 20, or just list them all!

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  2. Technology is taking over the world and things are getting faster and better for the people and it's a blessing of a God that has bestowed upon us. But still these 80's trains giving me some serious nostalgia . Can't wait to see them on stations.

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