All Aboard the Gilling Express

I've had a bit of a retro day today. We'd decided that we would have a ride out to visit Nunnington Hall in the Howardian Hills which are sort of North East of York.

I used to have many trips out on a Sunday afternoon with my Gran and Granddad when I was younger, and we would visit some open gardens, or little quaint villages, or country houses, and then we'd finish off with a visit to a farm tea room somewhere. One of our popular dining places for tea was a farm tea room run by Mrs Wentworth who made the most wonderful scones, and also her Mild Curried Chicken Sandwiches were also very tasty.

One of the places we would occasionally visit was a village called Gilling East, which is home to a garden railway and the Ryedale Society of Model Engineers. Our route today took us through Gilling East and as we were driving through the village we saw a sign for the railway, so we stopped and went to have a look. It brought back memories, but I was blown away by how big the railway had become, there were sidings everywhere, and the route had been significantly extended (well it's probably over 20 years since I was last here). We were just in time for the first couple of trains of day.

The skill of the people who build and run these garden engines is amazing, the loco's just look exactly like their big cousins, and work in the same way.

Here we have a shot of one of the trains with a load of people enjoying a trip around the track. Needless to say I did pay my 75p and had a trip myself....

I'll be heading home tomorrow (via work) so I'll catch up with journals then.