One of the cousins my wife mentioned on Facebook that her nephew, the youngest one of the family, had his first steam train ride recently. He is only a toddler. I commented: "I envy him,: it took me 37 years to have mine." Which is rather incongruous, as I always loved trains. I did it last summer, twice. The first time in the journey from Dartmouth to Paignton. The picture on this post is from that time. The engine is aptly named Hercules. I actually found this first experience rather underwhelming. It was on my second journey, on another line (see my post about it here), that I was truly taken away and absolutely smitten. Now for the young boy, of course he loved it. There is just something about trains in general and steam trains in particular. I still don't know what.
Sunday, 26 April 2015
Steam trains
One of the cousins my wife mentioned on Facebook that her nephew, the youngest one of the family, had his first steam train ride recently. He is only a toddler. I commented: "I envy him,: it took me 37 years to have mine." Which is rather incongruous, as I always loved trains. I did it last summer, twice. The first time in the journey from Dartmouth to Paignton. The picture on this post is from that time. The engine is aptly named Hercules. I actually found this first experience rather underwhelming. It was on my second journey, on another line (see my post about it here), that I was truly taken away and absolutely smitten. Now for the young boy, of course he loved it. There is just something about trains in general and steam trains in particular. I still don't know what.
I think modernisation / electrification and high speed have taken away the sense of adventure one had with a steam engine... It is nice to be able to have a (short) trip and go back in time - even though I would NOT want to go on a journey like this for days on end...
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