18 August 2010

Finally, we got to take a trip to the East Lancs Railway to see what it is that so fires Graham's enthusiasm. I was glad that he would at last be able to show Emily his railway. When we got to Bury, we waited expectantly on the platform as Jimmy the Jinty puffed in.
With his elevated status as a volunteer there, Graham was able to take Emily right onto the footplate to have a look at the fire inside.

Along with a good number of other passengers, we took seats in one of the old carriages. The ride to Rawtenstall took about quarter of an hour each way and passed through some attractive scenery, with plenty of livestock to look at and a pretty river that wove along near the track. We passed Peel Tower, perched on a ridge above.

We were entertained by the faux grumpiness of the ticket collector, who, as Graham later disclosed, was a retired senior policeman. At Rawtenstall we got off and watched closely as the engine was unhooked and turned around to couple up at the other end for the return trip. It also took on water from the tower at the end of the platform.


Feeling in need of sustenance we set off into Bury to see what we could find. Pam and Kate had to get off promptly for a doctor's appointment, so I suggested a reasonable looking pub next to the church. Lunch in pub. It was therefore my fault that we ended up waiting well over half an hour before our food arrived; my vegetarian meal was very poor to boot, being a vegetable crumble with all of one teaspoon of crumble topping scattered overcooked veg swimming in thin cheese sauce. Pam and Kate left in search of something quicker and after a while Graham had to pop out in pouring rain to top up our car park ticket as we had waited so long.



It was still quite early, so we decided to stop off at the Manchester Airport observation area on the way home. Emily slept in the car and for a while in the car park, before waking to see a plane take off on the runway right in front of us, which staved off any tears. We spent a happy two hours there and saw at least 50 planes take off or land. We ate icecreams, attended by a posse of wasps yet again, and had a look around a parked RJX test plane.






In the evenng I went out for a run with Nick and Graham, taking the same route up to the disused railway track and found it every bit as tough as the first time. Nick was doing his best to keep his pace down but it was still far too quick for me. As always, though I did not enjoy the run I felt a sense of achievement afterwards, and the lovely scenery was a consolation.