penny whistle
So it was inevitable! Digging for the 'pennies' that form the foundation of who I am was always going to lead something railway related. As hinted at in a previous post, my earliest days were spent just a few feet from the East Coast Mainline. The steam and diesel fumes literally the air that I breathed. Just as we arrived in Scarborough I spotted an advert asking for volunteers to work on the historic Scarborough North Bay Railway. The bit of me that had resolved not to take on new things for a little while as I adjusted to a new way of life started fighting with the part of me which knew this was an opportunity made for me. So a few weeks ago I started my training as a guard on what is dubbed 'Britain's biggest miniature railway'. Opened in 1931 the line runs for a little under a mile from the former Northstead Manor Gardens (now the site of Scarborough Open Air Theatre), along North Bay to Scalby Mills. The 20 inch gauge line operates with the original locomotive