The National railway museum and two very sopping wet bods

 Blooming weather!!! It was good when we set off for York and both of us stupidly thought just a pac-a-mac rain jacket would suffice, deciding not to take the brolly.

From Piccadilly, (drop of point in city centre by the Park and Ride bus) to walk to the National Railway Museum was roughly 1/2 mile. We crossed the River Ouse watching a very large barge full of building material make its way noisily down to a bankside development.

 

I'm not really into trains other than steam locomotives, but this place was very impressive with a vast amount of old and modern engines. Both of us got very excited at one point when we spied this.

You may well ask what it is and what was so good about it. Well, way back in my working life and when I owned Incline Boarding Kennels in Swannington, one of my daily doggy exercise walks was along the Incline Plane. There is a couple of photos that shows the Incline as I remember it. Look for the picture of Potato bridge on The Swannington Heritage Trust website, about the fifth paragraph down. (Where it talks about restoration work)  and this exert from the Heritage Trust;-  It is a coal powered steam driven engine operating a cable drum that could raise three trucks of coal (18 tons) or lower six empty trucks.
 

Incline Kennels which I sold in 2004.This photo is of the entrance to the property with the garage in the background.

Of course, I took loads of photos and have put the more interesting ones here.

The Gladstone was decorated for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897.

Top left, Mallard, Top right, Rail cars nicknamed Flying Bananas were inspired by vehicles introduced in France. Bottom left, Rocket. Bottom right, The bullet train

Underneath the locomotive

A locomotive sliced in half to show the inner workings

And now back to my opening sentence. 

Being inside we were totally oblivious as to what the weather was up to outside. 'Crikey' we thought as we left the building! Torrential rain...and I do mean torrential rain, and we had a good 1/2 mile to walk back to catch the bus. OMG nearly every inch of us got wet. Passing a Wetherspoons we dived in pretty quick, sat down, removed our pac-a-macs, draped them over the back of a chair where they dripped and left a mini moat around both our chairs. Meal and drinks ordered, I used the napkins to try and soak up the moisture from my trousers. Gosh, we were soooo cold and every time the door opened from outside a rush of cold air chilled us even more. Oh, and I pity the next person that had to use our seats on the bus! What a relief to get back to MB and regardless of who could see us from the front (we lifted the blinds on the sides but there was no covering across the windscreen) stripped off every item of clothing. Soooo nice to be dry once more.

Goodness knows what we will do tomorrow. Rain and high winds are forecast all day, maybe a day of driving around the area although that in itself doesent really appeal.

No wildlife today...obviously.