"Beav" wrote in message
...
Are you kidding? I was an absessive train spotter when I was a kid. I
lived
close by a MASSIVE siding, complete with all the maintenance sheds. (This
was in the steam days too) A day at the sheds was better than a day at
Disneyland for a train lover. All the building were destroyed when I was a
kid though, along with most of the local stations so it was a very short
obsession. Things don't get much better than riding on the footplate of
"The
Royal Scotsman" when you're a steam driven kid.

I spent most of my childhood being dragged around from Portsmouth to
Doncaster, Newcastle to Crewe, all over the place by my dad in search of
elusive engine numbers. I enjoyed it, as it was a day out with my dad,
which looking back seemed quite rare. I loved the adventure of the travel,
going somewhere I'd never been for a day with binoculars and a camera. My
dad grew up in the steam age, and worked in his teens on the footplate of
steam trains coaling the furnaces, before he joined the RAF. So I guess I
can excuse his anorakism!

Si