A trip along the wonderful North Yorkshire Moors Railway. The very same railway that featured in the recent Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible movies.
Built in 1944, this locomotive did a grand job pulling my large backside over the Moors. Trust me that’s some mighty effort required up those hills….
As a kid I had a treasured Hornby Train Set. It was one train that looked a bit like 44806, two carriages, one small platform and a few track pieces. Just enough track pieces to build one really small loop. That train went round and round and round and round and round, getting nowhere fast. Yet hour after hour, lost in my dreams, that little loop track became a train winging across countryside, through cities, over huge bridges, through cavernous tunnels under great mountains. Mile after mile, endless possibilities.
That was several decades ago. Where did that boundless childhood imagination go as I got older. I miss it…..
It’s funny how those long hidden memories suddenly decide to reawaken.
We were on our way to Switzerland by train, a day after an incident on a train from Amsterdam to Paris. Armed police were swarming everywhere. Usually a wonderful, restful trip from London to Paris, then Paris to Strasbourg, then Strasbourg across the border to Switzerland. This time it was distinctly edgy.
Just out of Paris, a young mother got really spooked by soldiers patrolling up and down the train with a machine guns. This upset her young son. Step forward a French passenger who was clearly a cartoonist. Out of his bag came sketch books and pens. For the next three hours he drew wonderful cartoons and drawings for the child. Whatever the child asked for, he drew amazingly. The young mum smiled, the young child laughed, so did everyone around them.
That proved to be our last trip to Switzerland as a family of 3 and amongst the emotions around that, I completely forgot this wonderful cartoonist. Now thankfully I can see it all clearly again.
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.
The kinda weather not for hanging off the side of a fast moving train….
We ventured off to the cinema to watch the latest Mission Impossible instalment. Here if you go to one of the early afternoon screenings it’s usually pretty quiet but by the end of the movie, the cinema is mobbed. It was this way today, when we arrived we had the food and drink counter to ourselves.
What could possibly go wrong….
“Can we have a medium sized sweet popcorn bucket….”
The chap on the till helpfully pointed out that for just extra 50p more we could get a LARGE tub.
‘No thanks, medium is good”
The chap looked puzzled, ‘but you can get twice as much for just 50p more’
‘No it’s ok, we won’t even finish the medium’
The chap was unrelenting, ‘but it’s better value for just 50p more’
‘We never finish the medium, it would just mean more food wasted’
The chap wasn’t letting go, definitely trying to be INEVITABLE. ‘Well if I was you I would get the larger one, makes sense, as it’s much better value’
‘No, it would be a waste’
‘But much better value…’
‘Well only if we eat it all’
After what seemed like an age the MEDIUM bucket arrived. Guess what. Asking for a medium Dr Pepper, then a medium Coffee brought about the same philosophical debate. I was exhausted before the movie. Well at least this made us miss the annoying pre movie adverts.
Medium sized snacks in hand we enjoyed the frantic Tom Cruise ‘Save the World’ madness. Enjoyed with the added spice of picking out the parts of the movie filmed just a few miles from our house. The Alps Train segment was partly filmed on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. I hope when Tom was hanging off the top of the train that he had his thermals on…
It’s getting a bit of a common theme as the latest Indiana Jones movie had Harrison Ford visiting our local train line.
Back nearly six decades and Hawklad’s Grandad helped reopen the Steam Railway after it had been closed by the Government. After the movie we mused over what he would have made of all this. Movie stars hanging from the side of his beloved Steam Trains, with explosions, gunfire and much carnage.
We agreed, his Grandad would probably have ‘tutted’, ‘sighed’ then made sure that Tom and Harrison had bought a ticket for the journey.
A Dad trying to cope with the loss of his Partner and becoming a single parent. 