RXD participant driving Charwelton

A day of highs and lows. The highs consisted of assisting with an RXD (Railway Experience Day) on the Kent and East Sussex Railway. This is where people spend a great deal of money to take it in turns to drive and fire a steam locomotive along the line between Rolvenden and Bodiam and back also taking turns to act as guard. We were using the engine Charwelton today with a single carriage, it looked a picture when stopped at the stations.

I've volunteered to be an RXD coordinator so today was a training day with an experienced co-ordinator to learn the ropes. We have 6 people in the morning and 6 in the afternoon, both groups getting bacon sandwiches and tea beforehand and a pudding afterwards. (This also applies to the coordinators, train crew and signalman).

My day was unexpectedly enhanced when one of the participants was not able to turn up so I was asked if I'd like to take his place. So I got to fire the loco between Northiam and Bodiam (where John, in this shot, was the driver). I was guard back from Bodiam to Northiam then driver from Northiam to Wittersham Road which was a fantastic experience, some 3 miles through the Sussex countryside ending with a descent down Hexden Bank into the station where I'm a signalman.

The lows came in the evening when we were called by Susan's mother who said she'd got a water leak and it was all running down the walls in the living room and saturating carpets in that room and the hall.

She's got home emergency cover so someone came out to identify and isolate the problem which turned out to be a failed plastic valve in the cold water supply to the shower. But as the electrics were affected she had to come and stay with us overnight prior to starting the recovery operation tomorrow. What a good job someone was in and that we were around and not away or even out of the country else the leak could have been much worse and much more damaging.