A trip to the world’s biggest train museum.

When I was a kid many centuries ago I wanted to be one of FIVE things when I grew up.

Astronomer

Mountaineer

Professional Football Goalkeeper

Cricketer for Yorkshire

Train Driver

IT NEVER HAPPENED…

Actually never happened for clear reasons

– grew up in a town surrounded by heavy industry so never really saw a star in years…

– scared of heights with the balance of a three legged drunk giraffe…

– 5ft10 ain’t tall enough…

– basically crap at cricket…

– couldn’t ride a bike so assumed a big old train would be way beyond me…

No one ever asked me if I had any dreams , any hopes. Not once was I asked that at school. So my dreams faded. Never really had any more dreams to follow after that and looking back that makes me kinda sad. I was just expected to follow the path chosen for me and my fellow classmates.

Now Hawklad thinks I’m barking mad as I keep going on and on about him following his dreams. Him dreaming big.

And as the festive season approaches I might just buy myself a train set and do just a bit of that dreaming for myself.

55 thoughts on “Trains”

  4. My son would lose his mind to see those trains! Wow! He was completely obsessed with steam trains in particular and still loves them. I too have reminded my son that it’s important to follow his passion even if it’s not his day job. And it’s ok if passions evolve as we grow.

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      1. My son went through a phase of being obsessed with garden railways, watching videos of them – they were pretty amazing. The closest he got to having one was putting some of his Lego train tracks into a raised garden bed and planting a few flowers around it with a lighthouse at one end (lighthouses being another obsession).

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    1. I chap in my old team always wanted to be a champion boxer but he just couldn’t win a fight when he gave it a go. But years later he became a champion, he started winning bowls tournaments. He always said that if he had won a few fights he would never have probably found that one thing he was good at.

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  10. Two beautiful quotes came to mind:
    1) “Aim low, reach your goals, and avoid disappointment.”
    2) “When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

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      1. p.p.s. Someone once said to me that if I find something I like to do, then do that. So, just for a temp job while in an area for a few months, I became a dinner lady, serving up mash with a spring ice cream scoop and peas with a slotted spoon and beans and chips and it was fun for a while. Only I didn’t abide by the rules and gave what the students wanted either some or lots, not the 4gm of chips standard, because not everyone wants to have a plate full and be put off and some were more hungry. So, there’s that little 1995 memory shared.

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  13. I am glad that you still have that inner kid in your, Gary, and that you encourage that in Hawklad even if he thinks you’re stark raving mad (it’s our duty as dads to carry that tradition). Enjoy your train set!

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  15. That’s so sad!
    I was in 1st or 2nd grade when we did a class project of outlining our bodies on a huuuuge roll of paper, then coloring them to show what we wanted to be. I couldn’t think of anything. The teacher kept pressuring me and I told her, “I don’t know… I haven’t seen every job yet!” My career kinda played out just like that… trying all I could. For the class project, I went with car mechanic solely because I thought playing in oil sounded fun.

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      1. My temp career was really great because I changed jobs so frequently and negotiated pay increases with each change. I fell into a specialized career in my 40s.

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  16. I wanted to be a journalist but went to university to become an advertising copywriter. After my time in the US Army as a motion picture photographer stationed in Germany, I returned to the US and worked for 36 years in various quality analyst jobs in a hose factory making industrial and hydraulic hoses. it was fun, interesting work that required using math, something I swore “I’d never use it, so why am I required to take this class?” (Two algebra teachers rolled over in their graves the moment I realized I used algebra regularly in my job. LOL!) No regrets, though my life’s work had nothing to do with my plans as a kid. I enjoyed the varied quality work, math and all!

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  20. Getting a train set is a great idea but from what I’ve seen it can be a bit addictive, so bear in mind if you start you may end up losing a room in your house and any spare time you used to have. So far I have managed to resist the temptation as I’m busy enough doing forties events as it is but eventually when you become too old to go out as much as you did there may be a chance for a new indoor hobby.

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