Monday 15 September - Mary's Birthday

The view at The Star in the City overlooking the river Ouse and the museum gardens in York.

 

The Veuve Cliquot champagne.

Aaack, they ran out of New Zealand Sauvignon blanc! Nil desperandum, they had a lovely bottle of Sancerre.

Bread was served in a flat hat.

Seared sea scallops with Yorkshire pork cheek with cauliflower purée & Picallilli vinaigrette.

 

The mains. Risotto of local estate shot red legged partridge, braised chestnuts, wilted curly kale, Wensleydale cheese & truffle oil.

Duck with chip shop chips & wilted spinach.

 

A surprise birthday platter of mignardises.

Honeycomb ice cream & lemon thyme & honey ice cream. (Oops, started eating it before remembered to take picture).

Cheeseboard of local cheeses. (One piece already eaten).

Topped off with a decaf cappuccino.
Then we literally staggered home from this awesome meal

 

Monday 15 September - Shildon

Keep looking up.  Decoration on the Starbucks coffee shop in the Lendal

Today's forecast was for rain and, even though it is Mary's birthday, we agreed that I would go to the National Railway Musem at Shildon leaving her free to go shopping etc., at York.
I caught a train to Darlington where I changed to a two car pacer to Shildon. After Darlington we were on the route of the first public railway with steam haulage, the Stockton and Darlington of 1825. In spite of the long industrial heritage of the area we were soon in fields of sheep with coveys of partridges.
The museum is a little walk from the station with the collection building at one end of a short running line and some historic buildings at the other.
The collection building is purpose built and pleasant to walk through. However, it suffers from the problem of several long lines of locomotives and it is difficult to get back far enough to see them properly. Just after I walked in there was a public announcement to evacuate the building. None of the staff took any notice and it seems it was merely a test of the system  

This GWR pannier tank was in the workshop area.   I remember standing on the flat top of one of these taking water at Reading Low Level, holding down the chain to take water and getting completely soaked in the process

A fireless locomotive.

A Stockton and Darlington Railway passenger coach, patterned after a stagecoach.

Several historic locomotives were on display, the most interesting to me being the GWR 2-8-0 and a GWR 0-6-0 pannier tank, both of which types I have worked on. The exhibits are not all identified, many locomotives being identified merely by a large luggage label. I personally would not have included a few coal wagons or BR  rolling stock but that is a matter of preference.
The really interesting part of the display was at the other end of the line which has coal staithes, stables used by the horses on the original railway, an early goods shed, the first industrial building in Shildon, Timothy Hackworth's house and the Sans Pareil, Hackworth's entry for the Liverpool and Manchester Rainhill locomotive trials.

The Goods Shed

The Sans Pareil.

Early chauldron waggons

First industrial building in Shildon

Timothy Hackworth's house.

It is a peaceful area now. Waiting for the train to Darlington I could hear a parliament of rooks, a murder of crows, a magpie and some robins.

The rain was light at times

The tranquility of Shildon was shattered by the crashing and banging of a Pacer, the train everyone loves to hate, as it crashed and banged its way over the poor track to and from Darlington.

Click here to see my pictures from Shildon

Sunday 14 September - Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Gardens

It feels just like Sunday morning at home - as we made our way through the vomit and dried blood on the sidewalk. People come into York on Saturday evening to get drunk.  Some of the women look more formidable than the men.
Half of York was shut down today for some bike riding. Good day to get out of town. There is a once a week bus to Fountains Abbey on route 812. It was reasonably full by the time we arrived, mostly local people going further towards Grassington to hike in the Dales.
The National Trust visitor centre had everything we needed including a good restaurant.
We set out to walk down to the ruins of the abbey and were immediately struck by the large numbers (coveys) of pheasants. They were everywhere and did not seem bothered by us at all. There were a large number of rooks, (a parliament), flying around the tower.
The Studley Royal Water Gardens were very peaceful in the still, morning air. A few swans added a graceful feel to the place.

And called it macaroni

 

 

Partridges were everywhere

If a number of rooks is a parliament these must be MPs.

We walked in a circle around the ruins and gardens to come back to the visitor centre for lunch. The roast pork and Yorkshire pudding was good and a good Black Sheep bitter helped it down.
This afternoon we walked off lunch by exploring the ruins and walking down to the bottom lake. We came back along side the Deer Park but didn't see any deer.

St. Marys Church

Click here to see all pictures taken at Fountains Abbey
The one bus of the week arrived on time and brought back the same people it had taken out this morning.
The Olde Starre Inne is a new favourite because it has two New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs by the glass. I tried a Theakstons Old Peculiar which is a dark mild, well named. The Black Sheep brewery Riggwelter was quite good. It is a strong dark mild which is full of flavor of chestnut.

  

 

Saturday 13 September - Statfold Barn Railway

Thanks to some help on industrial locomotives I had given Mark Hambly who volunteers at the Statfold Barn Narrow Gauge Railway I was given an invitation to attend an open day.
http://www.statfoldbarnrailway.co.uk/
There are only three open days a year and entry is strictly by invitation only. Statfold Barn is near Tamworth which is a two hour train ride from York. The guard was quite a comedian:

"The trolley has now been renamed a MRV which is short for Mobile Refreshment Vehicle. It will be a little late as the steward blew a fuse on the microwave and has spent the last half hour sitting on the cheeseburgers to heat them up. 

"We don't stop at Burnley any more. Last time we did the train lost four wheels.

"All tickets from Sheffield. Who will admit to having got on at Sheffield. 

"I lay awake at nights wondering what to tell you people."

 I took a taxi the three miles or so into the country. The approach was well sign posted and it was made clear that casual visitors were not tolerated. I found Mark who cleared away the formalities and left me free to look around.
It is difficult to set down my impressions. There were about 1500 guests by invitation. I lost count of the number of engines in steam, I think it was about 15. Most staggering was the amazing state of all the locomotives and rolling stock. Beautifully painted, beautifully cleaned and all in excellent mechanical condition. The facilities for repair and maintenance are excellent and a number of new steam locomotives have been built here in the last few years. Many of the locomotives are small and many of the trains had two locomotives. There is a main line which goes out into the fields for a mile or so and returns via a balloon track.  Free rides were given from the three terminal platforms. By stopping off part way back it was possible to visit the Grain Store which has a turntable and storage tracks which hold the amazing collection under cover. There is also a beautiful garden railway which has two foot tracks running around a lovely lake. Rides were being given around the lake.
If this were not enough there were a large number of steam rollers, traction engines and lorries that were running around, including a number of scale models. There were lots of antique cars and trucks including two from Charles Matthews of Toronto who recently provided a number of locomotives for the collection.

The Garden Railway

The Garden Railway

The Platform area

Complicated dual gauge track work

On the back of a demonstration freight train

On the front of the demonstration freight train

This was one of the locomotives recently repatriated from Canada

Another locomotive (from St. Marys Cement, Ontario) that came to Statfold via Canada

A Brookville that originally worked at Sulphide Ontario

Inside the Grain Store

This Plumouth came to Statfold via Canada (St. Marys Cement, Ontario).  It was at the end of the line to assist in case of problems.

Traffic was controlled through this signal box and with hand held radios.

At the locomotive servicing area

At the locomotive servicing area

At the locomotive servicing area

Statfold Barn is truly a narrow gauge paradise.

Click here to see all my pictures from the Statfold Barn Railway.

When I was ready to go back to Tamworth, Chris, the man on the gate called for a taxi for me. It was good that he did it because he spoke in the local dialect - when talking to the girl at the taxi office just about every other word was "duck".

The journey back to York was uneventful.
This evening we ate at the Olde Starre Inne which was notable for a Westerham Brewery pale ale. Westerham is close to Orpington.

The venison pie had a puff pastry crust