The Train from Broadway













Right down the street from us in the neighboring village of Broadway there is an old steam and diesel train line. It was only recently extended to this village, so now it's the second longest heritage railway in the UK (I think?) Anyway, Justin obviously wanted to ride it (on a diesel railcar to be specific) so a few weeks back we went mid-week, when we knew it would be nice and quiet.

Everyone there was so nice to us, and they all thought it was very interesting we home educated. I feel like the community here is growing steadily, but it's still maybe more rare than in the United States. I don't actually know the numbers, but that's my guess. So we get a lot more questions here than we did in Boston when I'm out with the kids during the day. Most people initially think we're here on vacation (or "on holiday") but when they find out we live here they ask about school.

So one of the volunteers also does a radio show and he did a program on homeschoolers. He was so nice to Justin, and went out of his way to talk with him. When he found out just how much Justin knew about trains he introduced him to all the other volunteers and let the kids ride in the drivers' cab of the train on the way home. Needless to say, it was a highlight for Justin. Incidentally, this same guy was a volunteer the next time we rode the train, he remembered Justin, and mentioned both kids on the radio the following week. They were so excited!

They have a youth volunteer group for the railroad that allows young people to operate the engines and the tracks and signals, but you have to be twelve. If we're still here then, Justin is going to join the day after his birthday, I think :)

Comments

  1. Anonymous23 May 2018 at 11:21

    Hmm, post didn’t show up so am trying again...
    I like the photos , especially the one of the fire buckets, and am glad the kids got special attention, a ride in the driver’s cab, and a mention on the radio. Jim says (sadly) in the US now only official crew can ride in the driver’s cab.

    I have been meaning to say for a while that if you have a way to watch and th3 motivation to do so, Che k out the show (I think pbs, or bbc, also on netflix) called Father Brown, a series based on Chesterton’s mostly light hearted stories about a village priest with a better knack for solving crime than the detective in town. The show is mostly filmed (beautifully!) right in your neighborhood.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rachel25 May 2018 at 00:48

      I think here there are different rules for heritage railways, and that is why they could see the drivers' cab. It's an entirely separate line from the mainline service. I think only official crew can ride in the cab for the mainline trains here, too. I might be wrong, but I think that's what the guy at the heritage railway said. They have slower speed limits and things as well. I think my dad has mentioned that series to me, too. He likes it. We'll check it out (if we ever watch anything, that is...)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Day in Our Life

Image
I'm joining in the Homeschool Day in Our Life link up at Simple Homeschool today. Since we just moved to England from New England, got sick, got sick some more, and then had the Epic Family Flu Experience, we haven't had very many days that have come anywhere close to normal recently. In fact, this day I'm documenting is the first relatively normal day we've had in months, as luck would have it (with an emphasis on the "relatively"--we still have more boxes to unpack!) So, while this day has gone smoothly and has been blessedly filled with routine, had I written this post just a week ago, it would have involved me curled up feverish on the couch with the kids recovering and using their iPads pretty much all day, and Eric cooking bacon and eggs for dinner (again). Just for full disclosure. But now we're finally healthy, so here is our day: 7-7:45 am: We all wake up at about the same time. In my ideal world, I'd wake up before everyone to write ...
Read more

Laundry

Image
I know this is a topic you've all been waiting for with bated breath: dirty laundry!! When we moved here, our house had a washing machine but no dryer. This is very common for houses here--even in our very affluent village we frequently see wash hanging out to dry (and, to be fair, sometimes getting rained on.) I think moving here as a home-manager and mother has made me notice more the habits and norms. When we lived in Syria Eric and I didn't have kids and I didn't spend much time thinking about running our home (to be honest, mostly because we had cockroaches and there were worms in our shower--I just sort of survived our home that year....) Anyway, coming here as a homemaker has made me think about things like laundry. And that means you lucky readers get a whole post on it! Our washing machine that came with our cottage was on its last legs, and so we replaced it with a washer-dryer combination. But since we don't have a vent we had to get a condenser...
Read more

Our Neighbors the Romans

Image
One of my very favorite things about living in England is the old stuff. I liked that about New England when we moved there from California, too, because in comparison there are older and better preserved houses in New England (with the exception of some cool adobe ruins in a park I used to play in when I was growing up...) But England really beats both California and Massachusetts hands down in the cool-historical-places-and-buildings game!  Pretty much anywhere you drive, you see old things (and old people, too, come to think of it, but that's a post for a different day...) Our little village has lots of history, people having lived here in settlements for two thousand years. And since people have lived here for so long, there are layers of history almost everywhere. Rumor has it, for example, that somewhere around Naunton are the ruins of the last standing round house, that was modeled on the old tribal construction techniques that existed before th...
Read more