Spring diesel gala this weekend, all excitement amongst the diesel fans.

Good selection of locomotives running and the visitors all seemed happy, not that many of them smiled, they just did not frown as much as they could.

Not a good day for photography, so before we get to the exciting part of the days events here are a few pictures I managed to find time to take.

See I told you can’t you just feel the excitement!!!

Now I always expect a few shall we say unusual requests and I was not disappointed today. Take the first barmpot of the day he bought a return ticket to Peterborough, then enquired if he could use the Peterborough to Orton part before the Orton to Peterborough part, I mean  why not just buy the ticket at the station you planned to travel from first once you had decided.

Other highlight was a chap pouring out the water from the dog bowl and putting some of his tea in it for his dog, now he did ask first but it seemed a bizarre thing to do. Unless of course the dog is his official taster and he assumed the tea was poisoned.

Other than that I will admit the day was quite tame, Nigel and Nathan with me today and it just flowed.

Not as busy as I would have liked, but with no passing service there was no real reason to get off at my station.

Now we will see what Sunday brings.

Weekdays are rarely exciting at the station, in fact you could be mistaken for thinking they are downright boring, in truth you would not be far off.

But I was expecting a delivery of ice cream, so I was there promptly at 9am, shame it arrived just before 5pm, but there you are these things happen. Especially if the company concerned fails to contact me about rescheduled deliveries.

Let us say we exchanged views on the subject and they sent out a special delivery to me, that was appreciated even if the totals were wrong.

But enough of the excitement, let’s get back to the boring stuff. I had a lovely couple in for the first train, they were staying up at the local hotel and planned a couple of trips on the railway before starting off for home. We chatted for about 30 minutes whilst waiting for the first service and they were really nice people. Brightened up my morning they did.

But all back to normal in the afternoon. It was sunny but with a cold wind, which come to think of it is a good description for many mother in-laws!!!!

As always for a week day we had the dog walkers, the men on their own wandering about plus a number of cyclists dicing with death from the speed they were going. Mind you out of choice I would not hang about in the area too long either.

So all in all an average Wednesday. See never let it be said it’s not exciting working at a station!!!

The above question was in an email I received this morning.

It set me thinking, and that’s never wise on a Monday morning. What could I write about things I know about?

First of course you need a subject, not only that but a subject that could be of interest to others.

I mean say I chose writing about the rear end of fly as seen 10 feet away, I mean how boring would that be especially as I know nothing on the subject. If anybody reading this is an expert on the subject then I will be only too pleased to let you do a guest posting. I do not expect a rush!!

I suppose I could give my thoughts on the subject of women, after all I know lots of them and I am married to one. Then again perhaps not, despite 25 years of marriage women are a black art to me and long ago I gave up trying to understand them. I decided that trying to understand women was like trying to kick into a ball into a constantly moving net! They are a rare breed in as much as they can go from tears to laughter in 2 seconds flat. They can spend an hour deciding what to wear, trying on various things until they settle on something they tried right at the start.

I suppose I could write about computers, I have been playing with them for longer than I care to remember, but they bore the backside off me so I am sure what I have to say about them would not be of much interest. They are not exactly exciting are they? How somebody can get excited over a screen, keyboard and boring looking metal box is beyond me. The same goes for tablets and laptops, they do nothing for me. This is being typed on a lap top but it’s just a tool and nothing more. I not really bothered what colour it is (Black before you ask) nor am I bothered about drive size, speed etc. As long as it does the job I want it to then I am happy. I have seen people go over the moon about a graphics card for example then they hide it in the computer, I mean if it floats you boat that much why not just mount the bloody thing on a wooden base and display it on the side somewhere. I mean why get excited about something that you may only see twice, once when you install it and the second when you take it out and scrap it for something better. I friend once said to me that his computer was “The Muts Nuts” I am sorry but however I looked at his computer it looked nothing like dogs testicles.

Anyway I digress and have started to wander down a tangent so we will scamper back to the main path and go back to deciding what I can write about that I have knowledge of.

Actually I think I will go and get a coffee and give it more thought before I make a blog post from it.

TTFN

Today it was nice to see signs of life around the Mere with people out and about, Quiet to start with but ended up a steady day shop wise.

People came past the station and many came in which was nice to see, including a few old regulars I have not seen for many months.

It ended off what became a nice weekend and so different from last week.

Next week sees the Spring Diesel Gala, so hopefully the weather will be decent and we will have lots of visitors.

Open this Wednesday as well as we finally need a delivery of ice cream, so the excitement builds.

If the dry weather continues on Monday hope to get out and tackle the lawns before I need a guide to get me to the garden shed through the undergrowth.

The picture above is included because it was the only one I took today and also because I like it, nice to have images again with a decent sky in them.

What a difference a week makes!

We had sunshine today and what a difference it made here are a couple of shots of the station first thing.

Wall to wall sunshine first thing though it did cloud over later. Main service was pulled by the 4F, here are a couple of shots of it during the day, the first one was taken first service.

You can see the clouds forming in the second picture on the third service of the day.

The railway also had a visitor today, a DMU from Hastings with a charter group of visitors, and what a nice bunch they were without exception. It’s always nice to have visiting groups to the railway and this group were a pleasure to speak to.

Here are a few shots of their DMU and the headboard called it “The Nene Machine” What a super name.

The came to have a great day out and a super visit, and I hope they did so, it certainly seemed the case for four I spoke to on the Orton Mere Platform at the end of the day, they were a pleasure to have a quick natter with.

Jason was with me today and we also had visits from Paddy and his better half plus dog as well as Roger, his wife Heather and their dog as well. Peter made an appearance on his chariot as well, so all in all quite a gathering.

Quote of the day….

“Waht time is the first train?”

“10.40am”

“is there not one before that?”

“If there was then I would not have said that the 10.40 would be the first one”

The mind boggles, and I seem to have had that conversation before in the dim and distant past.

So there you have it, a really nice day all round, we had the S&T chaps down as well doing signalling work, I just wish I could educate them into bringing money!!!

Now to have a peaceful evening then more fun and games tomorrow.

Well today was really no better overall than the previous two. Rain, lack of business and a dismal day did nothing to inspire me. Even the few nice customers we had in did not lift me.

In simple easy to understand language…. I did not enjoy this bank holiday, not one little bit.

It was not in the slightest enjoyable it was simply a thankless slog.

Now it’s unusual for me to feel like this and I may well feel differently next week, who knows.

But at the moment I know I have spent the most un-enjoyable weekend on the railway in the eight years I have been there.

I will not be opening Wednesday I have my own business to attend to and that is always more important.

Next weekend is just a four each way service with a charter coming in off the main line around lunch time on the Saturday and leaving later in the day.

We will see what next weekend brings, but for the first time in eight years I am not especially looking forward to it.

Well that’s the second day of the May bank holiday out of the way and I must admit it was as uninspiring as the first.

It felt cold, it was dull and dismal, the only saving grace was we had no rain.

Did a few tickets but nothing like I would hope to do on a holiday weekend. The shop was steady but that was all coffee and tea’s so not high value items, though of course high profit so that was the only saving grace.

One thing the dull weather does tend to keep at bay and that’s the idiots, they seem to like it brighter and warmer.

Trains were quiet and the steam service almost ran to time. We closed on the last but one service simply because Sue and I had had enough and from the rate of business it was costing more to keep the fan heaters on and the urn than we were putting in the till.

Tomorrow looks no better to be honest with more of the same and on some forecasts intermittent heavy rain as well. Time to take the laptop and get some work done I think in between customers and trains.

I always try to be positive in most things I do, but today I can’t think of one positive point to the day except perhaps we came home.

Let us see what tomorrow brings, but I am not holding my breath that it will be anything better than the last two days.

Today was the first day of a three day bank holiday, and I am pleased to say it lived up to expectations, and those are that it will be cold, windy and sometimes wet.

Although it started off nice and sunny when I walked to the station it changed quite quickly early on to dull dismal and intermittently wet.

Just as we expect for a bank holiday weekend.

Running dual traction with both steam and diesel.

Here is the J94 arriving first service back to Mission Control a.k.a. Wansford, the sun shone as it arrived and went in again as it left.

The rest of the day was just too dismal to take pictures.

Not too busy I am sorry to say but we did a few passengers who were in a group and very pleasant. The shop was not bad either considering the weather and we did a good trade on hot drinks.

Paddy was with me today and was his normal happy self. Though a bit confused that he actually met me walking to the station. But I need exercise and going on four wheels to the railway is not doing me any good at all.

It was a funny sort of day and did not really flow, it just passed in fits and starts.

Still two more days of the bank holiday weekend to go and we will see what excitement they bring as we have rain forecast for both.

Currently sitting in the office writing this with the heating on in MAY!!!!! A strange year weather wise so far.

Onwards and forwards towards tomorrow.

With all this rain there have been instances of flooding around the UK.

I was pointed in the direction of the pictures below, they show flooding on the West Somerset Railway.

They have my sympathies and I hope they manage to get it all back to normal as soon as they can and with as little cost as they can.

Copyright is acknowledged on the photographs below taken from the unofficial WSR site.

Not a pretty picture and having visited the railway a couple of years ago and being impressed by the standard of the stations and rolling stock they, as I said above they have my sympathies

Yes I know this blogs a day late as I normally blog on the day rather than the day after. But I have trying to think of words to describe yesterday and none of the ones I can come up with are suitable for a blog on a public medium.

In plain terms weather wise yesterday was a total disaster we had driving rain with high cold winds for most of the day. We saw other than a booked party who I will come to shortly a total of five people and four of those were together and were Jason and his family.

But I am always one to learn from problems and setbacks and to make the best of what we have.

First train yesterday we had a booked party and even though it was a terrible morning and bucketing down with rain they were smiling, So we did the same, they were a lovely bunch and were smiling when they returned on the second service. They are the reason we open, they were determined to have a good time and despite all that was slung against them they seemed to be succeeding.

Paddy was with me yesterday so that was a little ray of sunshine as he as always was happy, in his flat cap he looked like a bookies runner!!

Now we look forward to the coming weekend and it’s May Bank Holiday. Lets hope the weather gods are on our side, because after the weekend we have just had we certainly need their help.