Saturday was a busy day at York railway station for those who like seeing steam locomotives at work, with three steam hauled special trains scheduled to arrive within 75 minutes.
This is the first arrival, running into platform 5 after its journey from Carlisle, with what remained of the morning sunshine glinting on the recently cleaned side of the locomotive, 'Scots Guardsman'.
The reason for all this steam activity? Well it was the ideal day for maintaining a happy marriage. A nice ride on a steam train, followed by an afternoon shopping on the first weekend of the York Christmas Market for 2023!
I didn't go into the Christmas Market. I had seen enough chaos on the roads, with a lot traffic congestion, as additional motorists tried to drive into the city centre, despite many shopping streets closed to traffic and only a limited amount of parking. I don't understand why people don't make more use of the Park and Ride bus routes, though they too were delayed in the traffic and many were running full. But fewer cars would help the Park and Ride run better and increase capacity because they would make more runs to and from the car parks around the city into the city centre.
If you want to learn a bit about this locomotive, search 'Scots Guardsman' on this site and you will find earlier photos that I have posted with history recorded in the notes accompanying the photos.
Beautifully classic. Ooh don't get me started on the idiocy of unnecessary car driving. You might have heard a lot of bad press about LTNs (low traffic neighbourhoods where infrastructure is put in like closing off roads making them access only) which the govt and certain sections of the press are railing against. One of the things hurled against them is that they make all the main roads gridlocked. But if all the people who didn't really need to be using their car got out and walked/used a bus it would leave them freer for those who have no choice but to drive and public transport.
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
Watching this locomotive at work is something I have done since the 1960s. For a short time before it was taken out of service it worked quite regularly between Sheffield and Leeds, passing close to where I then lived with my parents.
We see eye to eye on the question of traffic. There are several areas in York that are LTN's and there are campaigns to get them reopened, as well as the pedestrian zone in the city centre, where the council have recently ageed to give access to disabled motorists, after it was banned since the start of the pandemic. There is a real risk of going backwards!
Ian
November 21st, 2023
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Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated.
Watching this locomotive at work is something I have done since the 1960s. For a short time before it was taken out of service it worked quite regularly between Sheffield and Leeds, passing close to where I then lived with my parents.
Ian
We see eye to eye on the question of traffic. There are several areas in York that are LTN's and there are campaigns to get them reopened, as well as the pedestrian zone in the city centre, where the council have recently ageed to give access to disabled motorists, after it was banned since the start of the pandemic. There is a real risk of going backwards!
Ian