Well the forecast today was rain, but I am pleased they got it wrong. Dull start but it turned into a really nice afternoon and we had customers!!

Nice to take a bit of money in the shop for a change compared to recently.

Had Jason with me today and he was fine, but blimey he does like talking about trains!! But he will be a good member of staff at the station and most importantly he enjoyed himself and want to put himself down for more dates. Lot’s of people often forget the enjoyment aspect of volunteering, but in my opinion it’s very important.

City of Peterborough ran today and here is a picture of it coming from city centre on it’s first run of the day.

As it was a mixed traction day the other locomotive was the class 40 diesel.

Few days rest now and not open on Wednesday but raring to go next weekend when we have the Thomas big adventure on Sunday.

Funny old day when the only thing of note are mobile muffins.

It all started when I sent a carrier bag of muffins to PNV, shame they ended up with a carrier bag containing the guards lunch!! Finally after another round trip they arrived at PNV and the guard was reunited with his lunch.

Other than that a none descript day really, still a cool wind and out of the sunshine cold, as Orton Mere faces away from the sun it is not the warmest place on earth. Still summer is round the corner and at least then the rain will be warmer.

We will see what Sunday brings in the way of excitement but I am not holding my breath. But on the positive side I have Jason with me tomorrow, I have not worked with him before so looking forward to that as he seems a keen chap, watch this space as they say

Ran Ferry Meadows today with the help of Stephen, and a most enjoyable day it was too.

Polish tank was running and almost kept to time, but considering it was a school party day they did very well. It was nice to see it back on the line.

A different type of customer to those at my normal station as these were 99% off the caravan site and on holiday, had some really nice chats.

All in all a good day if not as busy as I would have liked.

Back to the excitement of Orton Mere on Saturday.

Now I must admit I did debate whether or not to do a blog posting for today as it can be described as a non-event day, but what the hell here goes…..

Had Stephen with me today and he is still learning the ropes as regards working at the station, but he did very well despite it being a quiet day.

Harry came along as sorted the garden and allotment and it’s looking really nice, he does put in some hard work and his efforts are regularly commented on by visitors, shame the rabbits like what he does as well!!!

No real outstanding customers today though we did have a chap who decided not to have a cup of tea as we had no toilet, Stephen and I decided that personally we preferred to use a mug or cup rather than a toilet for coffee, but perhaps he wanted a giant sized drink!!

The train ran on time all services which is something that really deserves a round of applause, and a couple of times it arrived slightly early although of course it left right time.

It was nice to see a sprinkling of regulars braving the cold and popping in, always nice to see them, we have two senior citizen ladies who pop in most weeks and have an ice cream and it was especially nice to see them today as they are part of a small select bunch of regulars who, if they don’t visit you do wonder if they are OK. We have some verbal banter with them but you could not meet two nicer people.

Well that’s it the end of an unremarkable weekend, let’s hope next weekend is better, although before that we have the excitement of a Wednesday service running on the new brown timetable, I am all a quiver with excitement!!

Well the heavens opened today, which was handy really as two of our small amount of passengers were a minister and his wife, and very nice people they were to.

Also a couple of walkers who called in helped pass a good 30 minutes.

Other than that it was wet cold and dismal and as I say in the title could almost have been a bank holiday.

Paddy was with me and he was still cheerful even after nipping home to check on the dog and getting soaked in the process.

Let’s hope that Sunday makes up for today, only time will tell.

Photo charter out today with the 4F & City of Peterborough in Pines Express mode.

Only one picture taken as it was not photography weather.

If they had been arriving first thing we would have had some nice sunshine. But looking on the bright side at least it was a warm wind.

For once the delivery was early so got home at a reasonable time after a short detour.

More excitement on Saturday.

Well today was just a typical bank holiday Monday.

We had heavy rain showers, low temperatures and a cold wind.

Here is a picture of the sky to the west just before one really heavy shower that arrived and went again just as quickly.

Just the weather to bring in the customers!!

Locomotives today were the J94 steam locomotive and a class 14 diesel. As always with a mixed traction service the class14 runs were quieter passenger numbers wise. Though amazingly today we kept almost to time on every service.

Here is the J94 arriving with the first service of the day from Wansford. It is a really nice looking locomotive.

Quiet in the shop again as the weather kept almost all my locals at home and they provide most of my shop business.

The two, for want of a better word, highlights of the day happened towards the end.

First we had a dog vomit on the platform, shame the owners did a runner without telling me, all they needed to do was mention it, but no they left it for me to discover! Two buckets of water with disinfectant later and it was history.  At least the dog did it, unless the humans ate grass of course so it can’t have been anything in the tea or coffee.

Just before second to last service to Wansford I spotted two people, one young and one a bit older trackside just passed the foot crossing, so I went to investigate. When challenged the older person who I presumed was the grandfather proudly announced they were members and that the lad liked to get good pictures! (As though they though I was going to say, well that’s OK then sorry to disturb you)but that no they did not have track passes. So I asked them to make their way back to the crossing and the other side of the fence. You would think that as members they would know better especially as they had one high-viz between them and that was around the legs of the tripod!!!
Upon speaking to the fireman of the loco I found they had done the same thing earlier at the Yacht Club crossing as well.

With some younger members we seem to have a belief that they can do anything and go anywhere and do anything irrespective of either their age or ability just because they are members!! In some cases this I blame on what they have been told by other members.

So there you have it 3 posts covering a typical miserable cold bank holiday, roll on next weekend!!

Well it was a tad on cool side today, Nathan reckoned it was cold!! You wait until he has done a weekend in winter then he will know it’s cold.

Cold wind today kept the locals away from their normal cups of coffee and ice cream etc.

But it blew in the passengers and we had an excellent day ticket wise. Despite late running to start but time was made up in the end I am pleased to say so all was well that ended well.

Got to the station just after 9am and Nathan was already there waiting for me, I was amazed, rare anybody beats me to the station in the morning.

No outstanding things passenger wise but we just had some really nice people in and it made the day a pleasure.

Shame the tickets I ordered came via another station where they were sent by mistake, but you can’t win them all.

Had the carriage boards arrive today from the Pines Express, we are going to mount them on the wall and do a display of pictures of the event, Picture will be posted when it’s all done.

Sue my wife is with me tomorrow helping so will have to be on my best behaviour!!

Not an exactly an exciting day today, quiet as it was not the weather to walk by the river with heavy showers forecast through the day, which I have to say have yet to arrive!

What is it about old railway magazines that makes people think we want them? Speaking for my station I can’t shift them at all. In simple terms THERE IS NO INTEREST, and bringing in a couple of carrier bags with the remark “I have some rubbish for you” does not get you off to a good start either. Neither does the comment “people want them”, if they did then why are you giving them us?

I bet you could like a decent sized bonfire with the magazines that nobody wanted that are spread across the railway. In the days of the internet being used for spreading information few people want old often damp dusty smelling magazines. Stick them in the green recycle bin or burn them, but don’t expect to dump them with me as I will not take them.

Right I feel better with that off my chest, not exactly over run with passengers or cafe customers today, but there are two more days left so great things may happen who knows?

Paddy with me today and he bought with him the knack of getting lumbered with the people who want to spend an hour or so wittering on about all things railway, which was good as he kept them away from me!

Highlights of the day:-

Do you sell ice creams? from a woman as she was looking in the ice cream freezer.
Does this timetable have the train times in?
Black coffee please, then the chap put milk and sugar in it!

So there you have it a quiet unremarkable Saturday, roll on Sunday!!!

Well today was the pines express day on the railway, and we did not get off to a good start.

Firstly on arriving at Ferry Meadows we could not open the door, shame nobody had told us the lock had been replaced!  A good example of poor communications.It did not help either that it was raining!

But we got in eventually and opened for business, but things did not look good with the weather. But the gods were with us and it got better and drier as the day went on.

One of the locomotives in operation was the J94 which is a super little engine here is a picture of it double heading with the 4F which was one of the others in steam.

As you can see at that time it was not an ideal day for photography.

Highlight of the day was the non-stop pines express run from City centre to Yarwell. You can see a video of it passing through Ferry meadows by clicking this link Pines Express Video It was a choice between a picture or a video of the event and I opted for a video.

Takings were not bad but would have been better with a brighter start., Young Nathan who helped the wife and myself arrived a little on the damp side as you can see here.

But he was still cheerful despite the look on his face when the picture was taken! He enjoyed himself as well which is a bonus as special events can be a thankless task sometimes.

Being at a different station is always enjoyable as each station has a different type of passenger, Ferry meadows relies for most of it’s business on the local caravan club site, and generally they are on holiday and looking to enjoy themselves and it’s always a bonus when they get off the train smiling and say they enjoyed the journey, it is one of the reasons why I enjoy working at a station.

Back to my own station next Saturday when we have 3 days of services so looking forward to that.

All in all a really enjoyable but tiring day.