Back to the UK after 50 years

drron · Wednesday at 8:17 PM

What a lucky thing to arrive at a steam festival I have always been a steam engine fan. Always took a ride on 4801?when she came to the Maitland Steam Festival.
How I would like to ride behind the Sir Nickolas Greeley.
Our secretary ‘s husband owned South Maitland Railway which included the Nambour Sugar Mill track. Was fascinating moving from Maitland to the Sunshine Coast.

OZDUCK · Wednesday at 8:51 PM

Yes it was very fortunate. Our driver kept hinting all day that there was the chance of something special. In the end we were a bit lucky as the trains were running 40 - 50 minutes behind schedule - keeping in line with tradition I guess.

RB001 · Wednesday at 9:49 PM

OZDUCK said:
Pendennis Castle on the right

Looking at the line-up for the day, more likely was the Black 5 No. 44806, based on a few visual clues, notwithstanding that the Pendennis Castle is more of a green colour.
Still a sight to behold!

OZDUCK · Wednesday at 10:36 PM

RB001 said:
Looking at the line-up for the day, more likely was the Black 5 No. 44806, based on a few visual clues, notwithstanding that the Pendennis Castle is more of a green colour.
Still a sight to behold!

I think you may be right. I will have to surrender my anorak

VPS · 2026-11-12T10:42:36+1100

How serendipitous I am also a steam train fan

OZDUCK said:
View attachment 531687

View attachment 531688

View attachment 531681

The first two trains moved off before we could get a really good look at them but something much more exciting to me was about to happen.

The departure of the Pendennis Castle

The volunteer Stationmaster appears to be not much younger than some of the trains

The arrival of the "Sir Nigel Gresley"

"No. 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley, courtesy of the Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Trust Ltd. is a renowned member of the LNER A4 Pacific class, designed by the celebrated railway engineer, Sir Nigel Gresley. No. 60007’s visit is part of the celebrations of innovation, speed, and elegance marking the 150th anniversary of the railway legend, Sir Nigel Gresley. Built at Doncaster works, No. 4498 ‘Sir Nigel Gresley’ entered service in 1937 following a naming ceremony at Marylebone station on 26th November. It was the 100th Gresley Pacific built by the London and North Eastern Railway. The locomotive was mainly based at London King's Cross, with a spell at Grantham during World War II, and was briefly re-numbered as No. 7 before becoming No. 60007 when the LNER was merged into British Railways."

This a sister to The Mallard which I had drooled over at the National Railway Museum in York. It was a complete, and very happy, surprise to me when it turned up here.

View attachment 531675

View attachment 531670

View attachment 531676

View attachment 531677

Such beautiful flowing lines

View attachment 531678

View attachment 531690

She was very much the star of the show

The departure

OZDUCK · 2026-11-12T12:05:37+1100

VPS said:
How serendipitous I am also a steam train fan

It really was. This wasn't the tour I wanted to take but the other one was booked out. Plus I didn't want to do the Saturday tour. In the end it worked out really well.

OZDUCK · 2026-11-13T17:24:48+1100

Some more around York.

A few Hot Air balloons wafting around

You will have noticed that we did not go inside the Minster. This was as a result of a few factors. Timing was always a problem with services, we have both got a bit of 'not another church' syndrome after some many trips to Europe in the last few years and the entrance fee was £20 each. We could have got in for free by attending something like Evensong but I think that is a little bit 'impolite'. As someone who has not even been baptised I would feel somewhat uneasy and a bit of a hypocrite using a religious service as a chance to avoid a fee.

We had an evening meal here one night - it was not a lot bigger than a hole either

My wife had a pie but she had to send it back. It was obviously a frozen one as the crust was warm but the insides were stone cold. She did get a free drink out of it and the pie was replaced with a new one at the proper temperature not just warmed up.

My steak was ok

The street it was in

Looking up the street towards the pub

The last night we were there I decided that I should have a 'traditional' pub roast dinner. We tried three pubs without success. The first one had signs inside and out advertising roast meals being served all day but when we tried to order we were told that they didn't serve roasts. The second one didn't do food at all and the third one had run out of two of the four roast meats and also had no roast potatoes left.

So we cut our losses and had what we thought would be a nice Indian meal. The only problem was that after the first couple of plates which had ingredients we were not used to seeing in Indian foods my wife asked them basically if they were really serving traditional Indian foods. They admitted that they trying something 'different".

To cheer her up more she ordered a coke and got a glass of warm flat cola from a 99p supermarket bottle of generic cola.

I had to look this beer up. It is a beer brewed in the UK designed to taste like 'Indian' beer. It was actually ok.

The food was again ok but nothing special. We would much rather had 'real' Indian food.

OZDUCK · 2026-11-13T18:04:34+1100

This sign is apparently from around 1940 and has been restored several times.

"Although the manufacturer claimed that the formula for Bile Beans was based on a rare vegetable known only to Aboriginal Australians, the actual active ingredients, which included cascara, rhubarb, liquorice and menthol, were commonly used by doctors of the period. A court case initiated in Scotland in 1905 found that the Bile Bean Manufacturing Company's business was based on a fraud and conducted fraudulently, but Bile Beans nevertheless continued to be sold until the 1980s."