The weather forecasters were correct, in the early hours of Saturday morning the temperature fell to -0.1°C outside and 2.3°C in the greenhouse. Our tomato plants look to have survived the cold night without too much of a set back. The clear skies from overnight remained for most of Saturday which turned out to be a lovely sunny day.
Last week we visited one of Yorkshire’s National Parks, The North Yorkshire Moors, to visit a heritage railway line. This Saturday we decided on a visit to another of Yorkshire’s National Parks, The Yorkshire Dales.
On our trips to the Settle to Carlisle Railway line,on the A59 near to Bolton Abbey, we've passed one of those brown signposts with Steam Railway on it. A little bit of Internet searching revealed this to be the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway. This holiday weekend they were having a Branchline Weekend so we had decided on paying the railway a visit.
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| Bolton Abbey Station |
Besides having restored steam engines, the railway also boasts some vintage railway carriages too. All of the vintage carriages are more than 100 years old and what’s more they're not just museum pieces you actually get to ride in some of them.
This is the inside of the carriage we chose to have a ride in. It was built by the Great Eastern Railway in 1889, for the use by their chief engineer and VIPs travelling on the Great Eastern Railway. The carriage has been put to a variety of uses since it was constructed before it was restored by Stephen Middleton. Its restoration was completed in 1998 more details of which can be found here.
The carriage has small sideways projecting windows and large panoramic windows to the rear affording excellent and unusual views of the railway and Yorkshire Dales scenery.
This is our carriage and steam locomotive at Embsay station. It was rather amazing that there were only two other passengers who took the opportunity to travel in this splendid carriage. Having been built for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1896, the steam locomotive was only slightly younger than the carriage.
We had a couple of trips up and down the railway, lunch outside at a picnic table and a few cups of coffee too. We took Tivvy with us too. The railway was extremely dog friendly boasting its own station dog Gyp seen in the photo below. Not only was Tivvy allowed in the refreshments room but she also got to travel in the VIP carriage.
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We used to visit Embsay at Christmas when the kids were little, they run Santa trains where you have a ride on the train whilst the man in red comes around the carriages with gifts for the kids. They also run Thomas the Tank Engine days. Very child friendly, it's nice to hear that it's dog friendly too. It's a while since we've visited.
ReplyDeleteThey're doing strawberries and ice cream teas in the summer using the vintages carriages. We enjoyed our visit.
DeleteWhat a wonderful day. The restored railway carriages are lovely. So nice to see people taking so much care of things. Glad you both (and the dog) had such a good time.
ReplyDeleteWe expected it to be really busy especially the travelling as the route leads to the Yorkshire Dales and is very close to Bolton Abbey itself. Not many visitors to the railway and we didn't have any traffic delays. Maybe everyone's planning a visit on Bank Holiday Monday!
DeleteHow lovely to see that Tivvy was just as welcome as the two-legged visitors :}
ReplyDeleteThe carriage interiors are wonderful, how long would something so nice last these days? Makes me feel that with all our 'progress' we have lost a great deal too. Perhaps I am just getting old.
We didn't need a ticket after presenting it for the first time. The ticket inspector's comment to Tivvy was "I've seen you before".
DeleteThe new HS2 is all about speed over style. With all the modern communication systems about these days is saving a few minutes getting from London to Leeds really worth all that expense.
I must be getting old too!!!