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A Steam Train Ride from Yesteryear
This is a magic carpet ride that'll take you back to the days of its comforting melodies as its wheels went clickety clack over the track on which it sauntered and meandered over the hills and dales of the countryside. Adding to its charm was a unique sounding whistle and, to make sure YOU also got its mystical message, there were the white plumes of smoke that wafted skywards from its smokestack, thus proving to one and all there was nothing else like it – anywhere.
Another unique expression of the steam train era was what Brits called the "Engine Driver'" or the American terminology of "Engineer." If you're of a "certain age" do you recall YOUR childhood and going to a train station to see and, oh my goodness, perhaps even talk to the Engineer! But as a child all we could do was to gaze at this "Grown Up" who seemed to many youngsters to be a sort of King in his castle as he reigned supreme aboard his big and majestic behemoth called a steam engine. I was always transfixed by the size of the locomotive in which he worked, and never ceased to be amazed at how all those multitudes of moving parts made it go. I'd often wait at the far end of the platform up by the engine, so I could see and hear that magnificent sound of the steam and whistle and all it involved, as this gigantic "Thing" called a steam engine began to move. Slowly at first, then with increasing power and lots of puffing steam, it advanced inevitably away from the station. I watched in fantastic fascination as all these intricate parts worked in synchronized harmony (like some finely tuned, hand crafted Swiss timepiece) as it travelled still further away. And then it was just a speck on the distant horizon. Aaah, how often I dreamed and wished I was aboard. Like many kids all over the world when steam was King, I longed to be an Engine Driver and to be in command of such a giant mechanical marvel and have it respond to whatever one asked it to do.
Throughout the British Isles there are a multitude of charming and historic trips offered from the romantic and classic steam trains of the 1930s-1940s. Most are short journeys of 15 or so minutes, and many go through beautiful and unforgettable English countryside as seen in the hit TV series Downton Abbey. For a comprehensive listing go online and type in "Tourist steam trains in England" and a wonderful cavalcade of websites will appear. My two favorites are the Bluebell Railway and the Dartmouth Steam Railway and River Boat Company. Much of the charisma of the British steam years is depicted in this photo of one of the trains in the Bluebell Railway collection.(courtesy Bluebell Railway PR Dept.)
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rolling, riveting railway – yes, come along with me as we board
a magical means of transportation from yesteryear – with its giant
wheels that were often taller than the many small boys who stood and
stared at its galaxy of pistons, rods, levers and other tiny inter-connecting
"things," here was an enormous piece of finely crafted machinery
of steel and iron called a steam engine.
