Traaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnnsss

Me and Chalkie had waited about 5 years to go to the National Railway Museum.. ran out of time last time we were in York when JJ was a baby. I remember very little from the time we came as kids. I am, however, rapidly becoming obsessed with steam trains.

The first thing I learned was that the boilers are not just a massive cylinder full of steam, but there loads of pipes in there that efficiently transfer the heat from the fire box to the water.

The turntable was cool.. and yes, it is always the big kids you have to watch out for..

Replica of Stephenson's Rocket

The ultimate trainspotter's trophies..

Some trains have a hard life!

The fastest steam train in the world.. and the coolest uncle in the world..

And then slow little me..

I would have said that this was my favourite train (apart from the Hogwarts Express), but as it's taken me a couple of weeks to write this blog and I have since seen a certain Flying Scotsman...

Crap selfies time..

Then a kind bloke helped us out..

Will have to watch the film again to see if this is the real one..

This hall is the one I sort of remember from when we came years ago.. I think I remember the Royal Carriages.

Someone's off to Joyland..

Now that, Dad, is how to wrap a bike..

Two soups?!

Rule 2 reminded me of Chalkie and Jim at their saturday job..

The gift shop here was almost torture.. so. many. things. Especially difficult to not fall for was the Hornby starter set of the Flying Scotsman. I think had it been there for us to see some accident may have befallen the credit card! Lets hope I see it at the car boot one day for 20p like I did the Terry Pratchett Train book. 

The FS story bit was good. Wish I could remember more. It was more a famous service than a famous loco. There has certainly been more than one loco. And that has been rescued several times. 

After hours and hours Mum had seen enough trains (I think she'd seen enough after 30 mins but.. ) so we went shopping in York. Chalkie did a sneaky tour of the Minster while we lost him...distracted by crap selfies.. 

Looking for the Shambles...

Mum almost bought this for us..

Cache hunting led to finding this hilariously named street, and an awesome shop thereon..

Birthday list..

Yup, there is a cache here..

And this was a Ghost cache. We had already walked past it earlier and completely missed it.

Long and excellent day in York. Topped off by an excellent meal (pizza) in the Dormouse, which remembered from the last time we were in York. Hurrah for smartphones, located and booked by the time we got back to the car :-)