The unmistakable sound was a bit distracting. I’m no expert on steam trains… though I used to know a good deal about them, having listened to my younger brother for hours, but I remember them… and that rhythm of wheels on rails, the wail of the whistle and the smell of steam trains is pure nostalgia. So many memories… snippets of trips to Scarborough and Whitby on the coast, frequent trips to Ilkley, my grandparents pointing out the ancient sites and telling me stories from folklore and legend along the way… and clearing the shed, all I could hear beyond the birdsong was a distant echo of childhood. I ignored it as best I could… then grabbing the camera and the dog, set off down the lane.
It was late by the time we got there. Thomas the Tank Engine had already been put to bed, though his unmistakable blue would have been recognised by many small children. Probably few of their parents would recognise the distinctive shape of the sheds though; the Nissen huts were part of a network of WWII food storage facilities that were still in service until the end of the cold war. Carved into the base of one of them are the names of two POWs who had been held at the Quainton camp here… and I wonder how many of the younger locals and visitors even knew there had been a camp here. History is slipping out of memory every day.
Most of the other engines had also made their way to the sheds for the night and the last visitors were leaving the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre. With Ani, I couldn’t have gone inside anyway… though at some point, I must.
I have been into the Centre before, on a sales trip some years ago. The 19thC station has been lovingly renovated and restored and they hold regular steaming days. So we stood and watched for a while over the parapet of the railway bridge. Ani was more interested in chasing butterflies…she is too young for steam trains, though her nostrils flared at the unfamiliar scents and I struggled to take a few quick pictures with her tugging on the leash beside the road.
The scene looked idyllic, quintessentially British, with the liveried engines, distinctive station and the green of hedgerow-bounded fields, basking in the afternoon sun against a backdrop of threatening rain. It is hard to imagine that this was once a prison camp, and emergency store in times of war. Hard to imagine that such tranquility can be touched by violence, tragedy and the human cost of conflict, yet even the most distant battle touches home and hearth in the end. We walked home through fields peopled by ghosts and memory, wondering at how quickly we forget.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Your post has re-ignited my love of trains. I have been wanting to go somewhere on a train for ages now, and now I absolutely must!
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The modern ones aren’t quite the same though… I miss the old carriages with compartments myself 🙂
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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Thank you 🙂
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Fabulous photos Sue, we have visited there so the boys could visit Thomas and co. Many years back as the youngest is 33yrs now. I did not know that it had a darker past than I had realised! As ever your posts are very informative as well as beautiful and entertaining! ☺
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I live within a mile of the place and can hear the trains from the garden when they fire them up. My lads were always more into planes than trains, so we never went when they were younger (they are around the same age as yours now) . I think I’d like to visit on my own and relive a few memories. But I didn’t realise for a long time just how much still remains around here of that darker time. Being a ‘foreigner’…a northern lass down here in the south… I did a fair bit of research into the history of the area when we moved here.
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I not far from there just over an hour. I shall have to read up on this as I love to know the history of places. Ah! A Northern Lass, how do you find our Southern countryside, not quite as hill or majestic as the North .
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It is beautiful.. I’ve been here a very long time now… but I miss the moors and the stone.
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Yes I can tell that from your ‘ Going West ‘ post which are great too 🤗
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Thank you. Heather in the blood, you see 😉
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My Father being Irish I have Shamrock? 😉
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It still has the same pull, no doubt. 🙂
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Yes it does, though I have never lived there Dublin is my favourite city!
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I have yet to go there… I keep trying, but life keeps getting in the way.
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Well push that life aside! We only have so much time, we can’t waste it!!
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It hasn’t been wasted… just more important things that needed to be done. I’ll get there!
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🙂 glad to hear that!
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🙂
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Oh memories of standing on the bridge in Poole High Street waiting for the steam trains to pass underneath, breathing in the smell. As a child, I’d always wanted a train set, but it was never to be, and scalextric as the boys were growing up wasn’t the same. The Swanage railway is still going, and last we heard they were hoping to extend the line. Those were the days (sigh).
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I was very luky… my mother managed a toy shop when I was little. I had the train set…and the Scalextric. But you can’t beat the smell of a steam train 🙂
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I’ve only been on one for a very short trip at Elsecar Heritage Centre but love them and love those old train stations. Thanks, Sue!
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I remember them well, Olga, and there is something about them that still puts our modern, high-speed and streamlined transport in the shade.
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Lovely. Many people ride trains in India. You can hear the trains from where we live. That sound carries. It reminds me of childhood when I lived in a neighborhood the coal-burning trains traveled near. 🙂 — Suzanne
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I used to have a train line at the end of my garden. Could never sleep till the last train had gone past on time… I waited for it. The noise never bothered me… except if they were running late. Then I missed them.
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My husband and I both love trains. The haunting sound of a far away train whistle punctuates our days, morning and evening.
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There really is ‘something’ about that sound… gets me every time.
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One of my fondest childhood memories! The sound still brings me back to the hills of West Virginia. This sound is the root of the children’s book I will eventually finish writing. Love the post! -Jennie-
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Thanks, Jennie. There is something uniquely haunting about that sound. Pure nostalgia!
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You bet!
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And in forgetting, may we not be doomed to repeat the past.
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Amen to that.
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Pingback: Times past – WycMum
Nice to see that this lovely heritage railway invoked so many memories for you and hope you take the plunge and visit another railway soon!
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I need to visit this one properly first, Barrie. But I love the old trains.
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