Sunday's motive power prepares for the day ahead.
The end of the season is approaching down at the NVR, and for the first time this year it felt like it during my TTI turn on Sunday. There was a definite autumnal chill in the air and the trains were quite quiet. Despite this, it was a good day and quite varied. On the first train out I was tour guide to party of 50 silver riders who were on a coach tour of the area. They were good fun and easy going so we had a relaxed round trip of the line. There was a complete change on the second train as I had another party; this was a group of special needs children with parents and carers on a birthday outing. They were a delightful bunch of kids, and I chatted to all of them on the journey. I let each of them help clip a hole in their special tickets for their scrapbook, and it made it all a very interactive occasion. They were a happy bunch, and nice to see so many smiles from both the children and adults at the end of the trip.
That was my tour guide duty done, and I was now free. We had three more trains to operate, and as the TTI on duty couldn’t stay all day I offered to take the remaining services as its always enjoyable working the trains. I missed one service out, however, and used the time to visit places at Wansford I rarely get to visit and have a coffee and natter with volunteers in the gift shop and bookshop.
Recalling the days of my mis-spent youth - window hanging out of Mk1
coaches with a rasping class 31 up front. Happy days!
We were running a two loco service during the day, with the trusty 4F – now nearing the end of its sojourn on the NVR – and resident ‘Goyle’ 31108 on alternate services. Preparations were also in hand for next week’s big event – the 1940’s Weekend with a spectacular line up of entertainment planned. I’m due to be spending 3 days down at the railway covering this event, but not in my usual NVR capacity as I have something completely different planned!
This is a rather brief post as I'm rather busy this week with so many projects in hand that I don't know where to start!
Great Post. The NVR is lucky to have you and people like you. It seems to be an extremely well-managed outfit. I have been involved with some preseved lines where the management and the volunteers are always at odds, and the volunteers are the last to know things...so it's very refreshing to hear of an organisation that values it's supporters.As usual, I loved the header photo, top class work. Good to hear that you are busy, too...looking forward to hearing about your 1940's themed project!
ReplyDeleteAs with any organisation staffed by a diverse array of people there are some cock ups from time to time, but people generally work well together and out of chaos comes a train service! We've actually had a number of volunteers join from other railways that just don't have the atmosphere and good relationships that we seem to have. I certainly feel lucky to have joined the NVR rather than any of the surrounding lines that are closer to home.
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