Our demonstrator "Stafford" was up at the National Railway Museum over half term, running on their miniature railway. It's a fairly short line, they top and tail trains to avoid having to run round - on the way out you get to pull three heavy steel coaches with an industrial-sized diesel coupled on the back, the return trip is easy, you sit there and enjoy the ride while you're towed back home. Given the incline out of the station and rather greasy rails, getting away took a steady hand on the regulator, but you were rewarded once underway with a super bark from the exhaust.

I've been meaning to visit the NRM for some months to see the streamlined Duchess, so Mrs P and I went up along with No.2 son for the weekend. Spent Saturday playing at tourists in York, then to the museum Sunday morning in tidy togs. She wasn't that surprised that within ten minutes of arriving I'd managed to end up on the footplate - and I guess I wasn't that surprised when twenty minutes later Geoff arrived, just come up for the day to keep an eye on "his" engine! Jack got some video of the occasion, showing a variety of people at the regulator.

The Duchess was even better than I'd imagined. Absolutely breathtaking, I can't wait for the day they decide to put it back in steam