No Steam at Trago...

Hi there everyone. Today on the way home I decided to try and pop to Trago Mills. Trago is a large shopping outlet over at Newton Abbott and has a 10.25" gauge line in the grounds of its adjacent family fun park. The Bickington Steam Railway runs for 2 miles around the grounds of the site, through some nicely wooded areas. The line has a couple of impressive steamers in its care and I had emailed ahead in the week to check that one would be out. Unfortunately, like all the best laid plans, the steam engine did not appear. The weather wasn't the best I will admit but the place did look busy regardless. When I arrived at the car park station area, I was very disappointed to see the blue liveried diesel loco. Faced with a final chance of maybe seeing a loco outside the shed, I walked up to the other station...

Unfortunately, having walked around in the rain for a bit whilst Maisie looked on in bewilderment from the dry, cosy setting of the car, I couldn't find anything else but the diesel: "bugger". Oh well, better luck next time I guess - can't win them all. With that it was time to jump back into the car and endure a mind numbing and completely hideous 7-hour journey back home, with the joy of stop-start traffic on the M5 caused by holiday makers returning home after the school break. Cheers all, Sam...