The North East Again - Getting There

My last holiday of the year is back to North East England, firstly just outside Bishop Auckland then on to my birthplace of Seaburn. Due to family commitments I’d planned to visit late September but as the bank holiday is as late as it can be I decided to come up earlier which is allowing me to tick off some bucket list items (more on these over the next few days). 

On the way up I revisited the Wensleydale Railway, catching the first train meant an early start from home but I was awake anyway. It’s several years since I last rode the line, my last visit was to a model railway show while I was camping nearby and it was too busy to bother with a journey. Unfortunately they’ve now abandoned steam altogether due to finances which is a shame, I had hoped we’d at least get the Heritage DMU (a designation that encompasses the 1st generation diesel mechanical railcars) but instead it was the Pacer. ☹️ These units were built as a stopgap using bus body and interior parts on a railway chassis, as they were all withdrawn a few years ago I guess they are “heritage” in their own way but they are one of the worst vehicles ever to grace Britain’s railways and are definitely not ideal for back pain sufferers. This one came from the West Wales network - I know ‘cause they haven’t changed the prerecorded announcements. 😀

The Wensleydale Railway has long been one of my favourites, partly because they’re always so friendly. Having arrived a bit early I was given a personal tour of the Station Master’s House, which is attached to the business part of Leeming Bar station, nothing much I haven’t seen before but interesting that it was definitely high status, it even had an attached washroom complete with copper (but still an outside toilet!) Whilst sitting at Leyburn one of the railway staff wandered through offering his services to take pictures of people sitting on the train - no interest to me but a few people handed him their phones.  

More trains followed as I stopped off at Locomotion in Shildon on my way to the hotel. Again I’ve been before but the Flying Scotsman was on show and they were doing rides behind the replica Rocket, although I didn’t bother with either it presented photo opportunities. After a coffee and ginger cake, ostensibly made to Mrs Stevenson’s own recipe, it was time to head to the hotel and check in. The rooms are around a courtyard, shades of the recent trip to Warners, but are well appointed. 

I didn’t take a lot of photos as they’re places I’ve been before but here’s a few:

The Flying Scotsman

The Pacer, the most uncomfortable train to run in Britain…

…since these went out of fashion in the 1800s!

Gunton Hall

The trip was the annual celebration for the TOGs of Sir Terry Wogan’s birthday, TBW, which is really an excuse to get together and enjoy ourselves; for the last few years these have been at various Warner’s hotels around the country. Gunton Hall is near Lowestoft and not all that far from home so a stop on the way seemed a good idea. Although I’ve been to all these events it was the first time for friends Steve and Mandy. 

Sunday - Trains

As it’s quite a few years since I was last at Bressingham Steam and Gardens I was interested to see if much had changed - it hadn’t! There were advantages being there on a summer weekend though with various visiting groups including the local model engineering society and the British Organ Grinders Association putting on displays. 

Organ Grinders at work!

We had a couple of train rides, the narrow gauge lines were diesel hauled due to the recent very hot weather combined with the rising cost of coal, we also wandered round the exhibitions and the engine sheds and had a delicious sausage sandwich for lunch, the sausages were from the estate’s own Gloucester Old Spot and Large Black pigs. 

Small, but sufficient for the train

I have a soft spot for Beyer Garratts

I would like to note the kindness of strangers, after Steve and Mandy had chained up her scooter ready for a ride on the Garden Railway they were sat on the bench by the entrance when the queue suddenly grew. A kind gentleman offered to let them in at the appropriate time, and I joined having locked my scooter up. In the end the half dozen or so people at the front of the queue all kindly held back while we hobbled our way to the first coach (standing for long periods is difficult so queuing can be a problem). 

From Bressingham it was an easy run to the hotel arriving at a good time to get checked in and head to the bar. The only minor irritation was that all the disabled parking was full which meant a longer walk than ideal but I did manage to move the car later. The after dinner entertainment wasn’t too bad, a band and the ents staff who were all competent and doing decent music. 

Monday - Boats

After breakfast I retrieved the new mobility scooter out of the car and trundled the couple of miles down to Lowestoft itself. My aim was to visit the Royal Naval Patrol Service and Maritime museums which are very close to each other. 

The maritime museum is mainly about fishing, in particular herring, at its peak 770 boats were based in the harbour but the last deep water fishing ended in 2002; it’s an interesting museum with plenty of models and other displays. 

Looking out past the Maritime Museum

The Patrol Service museum is located at their former headquarters, HMS Europa, in Sparrow’s Nest Gardens. The Service started mainly with requisitioned trawlers, often with their original skipper and crew who were enlisted into the Naval Reserve. Their main role was in minesweeping, as hauling the cables for that role is similar to the work needed for trawling, although there were also some armed trawlers used against U-Boats which didn’t waste torpedoes on smaller vessels but surfaced and could be taken with gunfire. 

The former HMS Europa, aka Sparrow's Nest

Overall two very interesting museums and well worth the visit. I was interested to see how the scooter ran on a longer trip, as you’d expect it was fine although one hill on the path in the park got a bit too steep and I had to walk. Checking the battery consumption I should have around 19-20 miles on a full charge which was what I expected. 

The rest of the day was spent drinking, talking and eating which is about the norm. 

Tuesday- Not Planes!

There are no planes at the East Anglia Transport Museum so we can't complete the song but there are trams, trolley buses and a railway.

Trams and a Trolley Bus

We’d arranged to meet up with one of Mandy’s friends and her family but having had a coffee at the hotel we just timed it wrong for parking; fortunately I got the last disabled space and Steve parked on the end of a row then by the time the friends arrived someone was just leaving. We caused a fair bit of chaos as we had two mobility scooters, two electric wheelchairs and three other people - even though we were all able to walk short distances the logistics of getting on and off trams and trains and queuing for the disabled loo all took time. It was a really good day out though and we then later found we’d won the weekend’s quiz as well.