East Lancashire Railway - A Trip Aboard a Steam Train

I never intended this to be a parenting blog but to keep the focus on crafting.  But as I try to figure out who I am without my former craft retailer title I'm finding my focus quite rightly pulled towards my new title of full time mummy.  The days do seem to run into one another amidst piles of washing, cooking and cleaning.  I find the need to keep some sort of record of the nice things in between, the things that at the end of the day are the things that really matter.  Perhaps these ideas might be of interest to some people or maybe just to me.  Either way here goes . . . 

A toddler friendly day out amid what was supposed to be a period of severe weather.  I came up with the idea of taking a trip on a steam train.

My little one is becoming fascinated with anything with wheels and trains seem to be emerging as a particular favourite.  I'm keen to relive my "deprived" childhood and get the Hornby set I always converted so I'm very happy to encourage this emerging trend.

I was pretty sure she'd enjoy a nice day out somewhere new with new experiences and all that jazz.  To be honest I half expected the train journey itself to be a bit of an anti-climax.

But no, she spent the whole journey, both ways, gleefully staring out of the window pointing and giggling away.  I think it was the freedom of not being confined to a car seat and being able to sit right next to the window.

She was even excited to see the actual train itself after we alighted.

There were several other families with young children and the same idea.  They all seemed to really enjoy it.  The conductors, drivers and ticket collectors were all really engaged with the children.  Even the tickets were old fashioned thick cardboard punched with an old fashioned ticket punch.  

This wasn't the cheapest day out but it's one we'll definitely be treating ourselves to again.  And given my daughter's clear interest I'm sure we'll be going along to one of the Thomas the Tank Engine event days.  

On the off chance that anyone want's it here's the link to the details of the trains we took -http://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/.  It set us back £23 ish for two adult return tickets, Little Miss travels free until she's 5.