Just remembered this gem from Sunday.

How much are the £1.70 Magnum ice creams?

I weep for humanity sometimes!!!

Old Arkwright

Well that was an exciting day!

Closed on the second train as nobody about, but at least the delivery was early and the train was the earliest it’s been late on a Wednesday for a long time.

Next excitement will be three days at the weekend for the bank holiday.

What a super day, the sun shone, Thomas ran and all was well with the world.

Single manned today but Harry was there doing the garden and kept an eye on the station whilst I sorted the trains.

To say I am shattered is an understatement!

People turned out to see Thomas come through and actually came in and spent money I am pleased to say.

Here are a couple of pictures of Thomas, one tender first on it’s way to Peterborough and one chimney first as he returned to Wansford.

Nice to see lots of happy passengers on the train. The staff at PNVR did exceptionally well and worked hard, even selling ice cream from the platform.

Now a couple of days away from the railway and out to play trains again on Wednesday.

You just knew it was going to be one of those days when a local barmy individual asks if we sell curry!

To top off his performance he sang about railways as the train arrived, definitely a blog entry! Thankfully he did not disturb us further. Certainly he was not playing with a full deck of cards.

Not as busy as we would have hoped but Ice Cream flew out of the door at a steady rate, if it continues tomorrow I may well sell out, but time will tell.

Trains on time which is always nice though I think many people will have taken one look at the weather and headed for the coast.

Stephen was with me today, I must make a note to see if we can get him surgically removed from his phone, they seemed to be as one.

Stock flowed between the stations and gave the guard a little extra to do, but Russ kept smiling, most likely in the hope of getting a drink, he failed!!!

The staff at PNVR are getting excited ready for the visit of Thomas tomorrow on his annual trip up the line, let’s hope the sun is again shining.

Old Arkwright has joined twitter!!! just look for OldArkwright

There is so much excitement I can’t contain myself!!!

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.