Another Couple of Nights Away

A Short Break at Studland Bay by Train and Bus

As I mentioned in A Couple of Nights Away, we received a really good offer for a two-night stay at the Knoll House Hotel on Studland Bay in Dorset, quickly snapped up along with reduced-price rail tickets during the "Rail Sale". Last time we stayed there it was more of an adventure than we bargained-for when the heathland between the ferry and the hotel caught fire and our return from a day out took a lot longer than planned owing to a road closure to avoid the fire. This time we just had the adventure we had planned, and weather which was better than we had dared to hope.

The weather did not start well, with light drizzle as we packed our cases, and steady rain by the time we left for Stamford rail station. Umbrellas raised we arrived at the station and caught our 09:56 Cross Country train, a few minutes late this time, to Peterborough where we popped round to Waitrose to buy a packed lunch before catching the connecting LNER train to London at 10:50. We were travelling with First Class tickets to London and complimentary coffee and brunch were served on the way. From Kings Cross we took the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus and the Bakerloo Line thence to Waterloo - all using our through train tickets booked from Peterborough to Bournemouth: nothing extra to pay for the Underground. At Waterloo we browsed Foyles bookshop while awaiting our train - not a cheap option as we bought three books between us that we had known we needed until we happened to see them in the bookshop!

The train from Waterloo to Bournemouth was comfortable, smooth and quite fast but there is no longer any catering on board South Western Railway trains, which is why we had brought a packed lunch with us. By the time we had boarded the train at Waterloo it was lunchtime and so we set our table and enjoyed a lunch of prepared salad, fruit salad and chilled peach tea. Super, and probably much like we'd have bought on the train had there been a trolley or a buffet. First Class on Southwestern Railway is not like First Class on LNER, but it was comfortable and it got us to Bournemouth in time to get our bus onward to the hotel.

The bus ride to Studland on the number 50 "Purbeck Breezer" is what makes this journey an adventure: it is normally operated with open-top buses and although in summer these sometimes have just a windscreen at the front of the top deck, in winter they tend to use the versions with the first few rows of seats under cover, and we arrived at Bournemouth in nice time to stroll over and board one of these, taking our seats just a few rows back to get the best views while remaining remaining sheltered from the wind. By now the sun was beginning to break through and the rain had completely stopped. The bus wound its way through Bournemouth town centre and the western districts of the town and the leafy pine woods of Canford Cliffs then along the southern edge of Poole Harbour and the most expensive residential land in the UK at Sandbanks before waiting for the ferry across to Studland. We had to wait for a ship to leave the harbour before our ferry could arrive from the other side but were entertained by a Royal Navy Chinook helicopter practising with the Special Boat Service off The Foreland while we waited and the sun gradually showed more of itself through the thinning cloud cover. From the urban townscapes and arcadia of Bournemouth and Poole we were now into the carefully maintained (by the National Trust) semi-wilderness of Studland Heath and very soon we were stopping the bus outside the Knoll House Hotel.

The stunning view from our room, through the hotel grounds to Studland Bay

After checking in we unpacked the smarter clothes we had brought for evenings at the hotel so that the creases would drop out by dinner time, donned our walking boots and set off for a walk down to the beach and along it. The walk down through the hotel grounds and through the woods onto the beach was something we had many times - in summer! It was different this time and our progress was halted by water too deep to wade through in just walking gear, so we had to make a bit of a detour but got there just a few moments later. By now it was past tea time and the National Trust café and shop at Knoll Beach had just closed for the night and Trust staff were busy with their conservation work. We just walked along the beach in glorious sunshine and back again in drizzle! Shower, change and dinner. Dinner was included in our package but we did avail ourselves of the cocktail bar in preparation for dinner, and this was definitely not included. We found ourselves chatting to a local couple who were there simply having an after-work drink - what a lovely place for that! They recommended a whisky bar in Bath which we shall have to try next time we are there.

After a good night's sleep we awoke to a gorgeous sunny day and after breakfast set off for a day out, beginning with a bus to Swanage, too early for our senior citizens' concessionary passes so we had to pay our fares. We had a little stroll around Swanage for old times' sake and then boarded a bus to Wareham which we had only briefly visited, by car, in the past. There we explored, had coffee in a place once apparently frequented by Lawrence of Arabia, and discovered a really ancient St Martin's Church, the same dedication as our church at home in Stamford but very, very different. 

It remained sunny all day with very little wind, and temperatures were good for February (up to around 10 degrees C), and in the sun it was quite warm when walking and we removed our coats and gloves very early on. When we caught the bus back to Swanage I also removed my jumper, for the top deck was like a greenhouse! From Swanage we travelled as far as Studland village and then went down to the beach there and walked along to Knoll Beach for a snack lunch at the National Trust café. Sitting there in the sun it was just like the summer (except for the number of people in coats) - indeed it was better weather than we had in the summer of 2020 when we came here with all our family.

We strolled along the beach in the direction of Poole Harbour - with no intention of going that far, of course - and along part of the naturist beach where, not surprisingly in February, I suppose, everyone seemed to be wearing clothes. A few horses, a few dogs (they're allowed here from 1st October to 1st March, and then forbidden for the sake of the wildlife for the rest of the year).

It was time to walk back now, time to rest and recover from what had been quite an energetic day for us. Bath and change (and a brief unintentional sleep!) and ready for dinner again. No cocktail this time but we did have Prosecco with our meal, and pudding. We were hungry after such a day, and we slept even better than the night before.

Our last day was a Friday and we packed and paid our bill and checked out straight after breakfast, leaving our luggage at the hotel to set of, suitably booted, to walk to the Old Harry Rocks. These rocks (see heading photograph), vertical chalk stacks at the end of a headland, are a constant sight and landmark along this section of the coast and have been a distant companion on many of our holidays and especially of our walks along the beaches but we have never before visited them and seen them at close quarters. It was a walk of about a mile and a half from Studland village and rather than walk along the road we took a route out of the back of the hotel grounds and over the heath - which took us through more mud than we really wanted to encounter - the last time we went this way was in summer and there had been some mud but not so much. We returned along the road from the village! The walk between the village and the rocks was all good off-road walking and all very easy. On the way back we had coffee at a beach café at Studland Middle Beach before returning to the hotel, recovering our luggage and taking the Breezer bus one last time back to Bournemouth. This time it was a closed-top bus, which is fine in winter, but we always travel on the top deck here for the views of Studland Heath, of the ferry crossing, of the trees of Canford Cliffs. In Bournemouth we had lunch at a town centre café  and then walked down to the seafront to "say goodbye" to the sea before taking the next bus to the railway station and await our train home. 

It had been a short break but I think we had made the most of every moment.

We boarded our train at Bournemouth and had a smooth and pleasant ride to London Waterloo, then easy interchange to Kings Cross via the Underground. At Kings Cross it all began to fall apart. Our train, on which we had reservations in Coach L, turned out only to have five coaches owing to trains being out of place following earlier disruption due to a fire somewhere else. It was jam-packed in Standard Class and overfull in First. We did not have seats until someone took pity on a couple of pensioners and gave us a seat; refreshments could not be brought through on the usual trolley but we could visit the galley and pick up our sandwiches and drinks. Then it unravelled even further when the train stopped at Stevenage owing to problems further along the line. It eventually transpired that it would be held for some time and our kind train manager suggested that those heading to Peterborough might like to get off and take the next train to Cambridge, which would soon stop at the adjacent platform, where we could get a connection to Peterborough. For us, of course, that would provide us with a connection home, albeit two hours late but we were already missing the planned connection and were by no means sure that we might make the next at Peterborough. So we baled out of the overcrowded train, beer cans in hand along with our luggage, and caught a Thameslink train to Cambridge. Once there we made our way across to the platform where a Cross Country unit was waiting to form the next departure for Birmingham which would take us home. To my surprise it was a newly-painted refurbished class 170 Turbostar. I think they only had one, possibly two, in the fleet at that time, so it was a bit of a silver lining to have the chance to travel on one. New seats with slightly more legroom and bigger seat-back table which comfortably took my large MacBook Pro (on which I am writing this article now).

The lovely day then unravelled further still when a very disruptive passenger boarded and racially abused a couple of other passengers, threatening one of them and generally causing mayhem. We could all have done without that and some of us texted British Transport Police as we are always being urged to "say it" when we "see it" so that it can be "sorted". He was leaving the train at Peterborough anyway and was taken care of by the BTP, but as time went on it became clear that he was ill rather than criminal and I think he was well known by the police as someone in need of support.

And so into Stamford and the usual walk home across the meadows and through the town, two hours later than planned but I understand from LNER that the train we had abandoned at Stevenage did not reach Peterborough until very much later. We await our Delay Repay compensation, but I have to say that none of this disruption really affected our enjoyment of a really great couple of days away. We had packed in so much and so many new things, and we were still home before our usual bedtime. The train staff coped brilliantly and the thinking-on-their-feet action of the LNER train manager who suggested the detour via Cambridge certainly saved the day for us - and for those left on the stranded train there were now more seats available, vacated by those like us who had taken the alternative.

Arrival at Stamford on the newly-refurbished Cross Country Turbostar, with brighter paintwork and much smarter interior. We love arriving at Stamford station on our way home and being welcomed by all the church towers as we cross The Meadows.

 

Five Meet in Dorset

An old-fashioned family adventure by train, bus and ferry

If you want an adventure holiday and enjoyed Enid Blyton’s stories when you were young, The ideal place to stay is a hotel in a time warp in Dorset, a turn-of-the-century house which has been a hotel since the mid-twentieth century, where Enid Blyton used to stay during the period when she was writing many of her children’s books and when she conceived the Noddy stories. The Knoll House Hotel is in unique landscape on the Purbeck peninsula in Dorset, southern England, less than five minutes walk from Knoll Beach which, like much of the coastal landscape of the area, is owned and managed by the National Trust. It makes a great base for exploring on foot, by bicycle, bus or, if you must, by car.

We took our family there as part of the celebration of a significant wedding anniversary; we were eight adults and five young children, in three family suites and our own sea-view double room, coming from several different directions. We went, of course, by train and bus and on this occasion took one of the grandchildren with us on our adventure, the other four going with their respective parents by car. We’d had the hotel rooms booked well in advance but booking the travel and activities was greatly disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. For a long time it appeared that we may well have had to drive and there would be little to do other than visit the beach and go for walks. Just in time the restrictions began to be eased and I was able to book train travel and then even book an exciting family outing for one of the days.

We left Stamford, with our four year-old granddaughter, on a Friday morning, the first dull day after several long, hot, sunny days ... such is the way things work out! We were travelling First Class on a CrossCountry train for Birmingham New Street. There were no bargain tickets to be had but at least we had our Senior Railcards and the little girl went free-of-charge; I wanted First Class to make sure of enough space around a table, and electric sockets, especially since I was following pandemic advice and using electronic tickets on my smartphone which needed to keep its charge for a long time while sharing our location with the rest of the family. It all went very well and we had the First Class section to ourselves.

Owing to the reduced timetable we had over an hour to spare at Birmingham New Street so we went into the Grand Central shopping centre to find a cup of coffee between trains, and I have to say I was shocked to see how deserted it was. The John Lewis store there is among those the company has decided not to reopen and some other shops were also not yet open; about half the cafés and restaurants were closed and yet the one we used, Giraffe, had only a handful of other customers. So little activity in the very heart of the Second City was a sobering reminder of the dreadful economic impact of the pandemic. We went back to the station and had our picnic lunch that we had brought with us and then made our way to the platform and boarded our train to Bournemouth. Travelwise this was the most exciting part of the trip for me, for I had long wanted to go this way, through the south midlands from Birmingham, through the New Forest and along the south coast to Bournemouth where we were to take a bus for the final stage of the journey. 

This train ride begins with the slow wander through the edge of Birmingham, Coventry and Leamington Spa in order to serve the airport and National Exhibition Centre at Birmingham International, and then heads down to Oxford and Reading where the train changes direction to take the line south through Basingstoke to Southampton and then Bournemouth. Although the train service is less frequent, the trains are longer and there is no difficulty keeping a decent distance from other passengers: Cross Country does not sell more tickets for a train that the train will be able to take safely. A limited amount of on-board catering has now been reintroduced and we were able to enjoy coffee and biscuits included in our ticket price. Further items were available for payment if we had wanted them, but currently only snacks. It all worked very well and both the trains to Birmingham and onward to Bournemouth were on time. We had a very pleasant journey.

Our little companion was excited to see the aircraft at Birmingham International Airport (plenty on the ground, none in the air at present), and I enjoyed the New Forest countryside, and the short run along the Great Western main line between Didcot and Reading. There is an enormous mix of landscape and cityscape, fast main lines and meandering single-track branches on this route, ending in the impressive station at Bournemouth. Many years ago, trainspotting at New Street in my student days, I used to hear the announcements for these trains which in those days went straight down to Leamington Spa without the detour via the then non-existent International station and went on beyond Bournemouth to Poole, and I always wanted to try this route for its variety and for the length of it. It was never fast but it was always a useful route, and I remember seeing whole carriages reserved for Saga Holidays, filled with people like I am now ...

The view from the open-top bus as we dock at Studland. A similar bus for
Bournemouth is waiting to board.

At Bournemouth we left the train and sought the adjacent bus station. First mistake was leaving via the wrong exit and not seeing the expected bus station head of us; second was crossing to the right exit via the stepped footbridge, not having noticed the ramped subway which would have been much easier with a child and wheeled luggage! Anyway, with only fifteen minutes to go until the departure of our bus (although there was another half and hour later, so it was not critical) we still had plenty of time to get to it, board and pay our fare. Fortunately the thunder and rain which had been forecast only a few days earlier had pushed back until much later and we were able to ride on the top deck of this open-top bus, the Purbeck Breezer, More Bus route 50. This route has a stop right outside the Knoll House Hotel and named after the hotel, so it was as good as a taxi: we boarded it and asked for the Knoll House Hotel and that is where it took us. It is a long ride and an interesting one, right past the popular Bournemouth beach, though the town centre and through the leafy and very expensive residential areas of Branksome and Canford Cliffs, descending right into Branksome Chine, then along the rim of Poole Harbour to Sandbanks (probably the most expensive residential land in the UK) where the bus boards the chain ferry for Studland, the last couple of miles of our journey being through the dunes and heather of Studland before reaching the Knoll House Hotel where the bus stops right opposite the entrance. We were delighted to be met by all the rest of our family who had arrived earlier (they all live nearer than we do) and had all come on this occasion by car (and for some, had endured quite a slog of a journey, although it was quite reasonable for those from London). We reckon we had had the best views of the sea, and especially the ferry crossing, though, from the top of our bus. And all were to enjoy an open-top bus ride the next day.

The three young families had family suites at the back of the hotel, with bedrooms for the adults and the children, with cots for the youngest; this hotel is very much set up for children's holidays and we think that in its early days the children and their nannies were sent here while parents went elsewhere! We had a double room at the front with a balcony overlooking the sea beyond the hotel's extensive grounds, and once we had checked in and unpacked all of us gathered for drinks and then dinner together. With four children under five and one only five there was not much time in any one meal when all thirteen of us were at the table at the same time, but nevertheless throughout the whole weekend of dinners and breakfasts we had a really great time together and I can thoroughly recommend this place for such a gathering: the hotel is used to doing it (there was one group of nineteen people) and the staff are brilliant at coping. After dinner the two over-sixties went for a stroll down to the beach and then retired to bed to be ready for the following day's adventure.

The need to book everything in advance as the nation eases out of the pandemic "lockdown" meant that the weekend could not be spontaneous, and so although I was able to leave Sunday unplanned for the beach or a day out by bus, for example, the programme for Saturday's outing to Corfe Castle had to be tightly planned, often with virtual crossed fingers, in order for it to stand any chance of working. I booked timed entry to Corfe Castle, a National Trust site, for all of us and then attempted to book a Swanage Railway steam train ride from Swanage to Corfe Castle and back but their tickets could not be released until the Wednesday before the planned weekend ... it was a bit-nailbiting but we managed it and I booked two compartments so that the family could travel together. All seats were allocated to individual passengers to ensure social distancing and waiting and boarding were carefully managed both at Swanage and at Corfe Castle to keep people apart as much as possible.

So we all (well, one toddler was asleep so some had to catch us up later, but that is another, boring, story!) gathered at the bus stop on Saturday morning and awaited the open-top bus to Swanage. This section of the route is quite a ride: there are many overhanging trees and some bends and hills and it is an exhilarating trip! At Swanage there is a good, though short, view of the beach before the bus turns towards the town centre and terminates right outside the preserved railway station building. Although I had booked in advance I had to take the email with my booking reference to the ticket office to collect the actual tickets which authorised the party to go onto the platform. The children were all given souvenir tickets by the gate staff which was rather sweet. We watched the train come in hauled by a Battle of Britain class pacific, a huge locomotive for a line and a train like this, then we watched the locomotive uncouple to run round to the other end of the train before we found our reserved compartments and settled ourselves onto the train.

We steamed to Corfe Castle station arriving at a good time for lunch. It was not the warm, sunny day that I had dreamed of while planning the trip but it was dry and not cold, and we followed the advice posted on lamp-posts through the village to picnic in a park off one of the streets, which really worked quite well. We had been to this place a few times before and never discovered the picnic site, but during the pandemic the local council is keen to prevent too many people congregating in the main square outside the castle entrance. We had packed lunches provided by the hotel and then all made our way to the castle itself. As with all National Trust poverties at present this was booked in advance and we simply had to give our names to be admitted (well, my name, as I had booked and paid). We all learnt a lot (well, the younger adults did, but I had a very thorough visit here a few years ago and to me it was a revision session!) and the children enjoyed clambering over the ruins and hearing about the dungeons and the medieval way of life. As usual, from the castle we saw trains coming and going on the preserved railway line below. The weather remained murky throughout, but not cold and with very little rain.

Tea and coffee were consumed before we left the castle, and some of us visited the National Trust shop on the village square and then we made our way in good time to the station, taking the opportunity to visit the little museum there while awaiting the steam train back to Swanage. A slight hitch occurred here when both our reserved compartments turned up occupied by couples who had boarded at the train's starting point at Norden and had not read the reservation information on their tickets: the train's guard turfed them out into their proper places and we took ours - considering that the reservations are part of the Covid-secure regulations on the line, these people were clearly not obeying the government's advice to stay alert.

At Swanage there was time to watch the train, the last steam train of the day, reversing out of the station to its overnight servicing. Two trains were operating that day, the other hauled by a class 33 vintage diesel service, which we saw passing Corfe Castle a couple of times and which will have been making its last run 40 minutes after ours, by which time we were ensconced on the top deck of the next Purbeck Breezer bus back to Knoll House Hotel.

Knoll House's restaurant served yet another great meal. We all agreed that the food at this hotel was excellent, far better than we had expected from the description "family hotel", and the sort of meal you would expect for a special-occasion restaurant meal. Drinks and other extras were charged-for, but the basic dinner was included in the room rate and it was altogether a very good deal indeed. We went for a stroll along the beach at sunset with one of our sons, by which time the view across the sea was a little clearer and the Isle of Wight was visible, along with three cruise ships resting at anchor, unable to operate because of the pandemic.

On the Sunday nothing had been planned and the weather forecast was fairly dire. However, we did agree to go down to the beach mid-morning and after delaying it for half an hour because of heavy rain we did venture out, encountering occasional light showers but remaining reasonably warm (although those who went into the sea were not as warm as those who didn't!). I spent much of the time shuttling off to the National Trust coffee bar watching the morning coffee for the three groups arriving at different times dictated by the sleep patterns of the youngest children ... I think all the adults got their coffee in the end. The first trip to the shop also included plastic buckets for building sandcastles, and one of these went back partly filled with shells from the beach. This really was a very traditional family beach holiday and it was great to enjoy it all together as one big family. At lunch time the younger generations enjoyed a bar meal together at the hotel while we made a snack lunch in our room out of what was left from our packed lunches of the previous two days! There was plenty for the two of us.

In the afternoon each household followed its own agenda, ours being a walk to Studland village across the fields from the hotel, following a signposted bridleway and footpath. From the village we walked down to the beach: this was South Beach, a small, fairly secluded beach for the village, but with a fair number of visitors even though the car park was closed. We walked northwards towards Middle Beach, which segues into Knoll Beach, by means of which we could return to the hotel. We set off encouraged by the sign that Middle Beach could not be reached at high tide, for the tide, although just beginning to come in, was still very low. However, getting to Middle Beach was not exactly a breeze even at low tide, involving scrambling over uneven and slippery rocks and chasing some very muddy sand and fairly stinky seaweed, too. But it was fun, if not easy! After all this effort, actually to land on the sand at Middle Beach still looked like defeating us when we encountered the works being done to repair erosion, but by sidling along a retaining wall we were able to gain the path up to a promenade behind the beach, coming across a handy tea room in the process where we stopped for tea before completing our walk back to Knoll Beach and the Knoll House Hotel, ready for the pre-booked family swim in the little indoor pool (there is a larger outdoor one, too, but this had not been open when the booking was made). Then we just had time to prepare for our last hotel dinner and a final stroll before bed.

Travel money seller in Bournemouth tries
desperately to draw attention to himself
at a time when no-one is going abroad.

On our last morning we all had breakfast together and said our farewells, some of the children reluctant to leave! With one granddaughter we waited for the 09:35 Breezer bus back to Bournemouth via the Sandbanks ferry. The rest of the family was leaving at about the same time by their different ways and we all kept in touch on the way home. None of the children seemed to want to go home, apart from the very youngest who had spent the whole weekend being carried or strapped into one sort of seat or another. We took a bus rather earlier than we needed to catch our train at Bournemouth and had a coffee break before the train, but with the coffee shop on the station being closed we found ourselves in the McDonald's opposite, the already cheap drinks being reduced by the government's "Eat Out to Help Out" subsidy - not that we were looking for a bargain. The train journey home was much as the one out, with our packed lunch supplied by the hotel, having been ordered the evening before, and a rather shorter wait at New Street. It seemed no time at all before we were collecting our luggage and donning our rainwear for the walk home through the darkening weather, with the distant rumble of thunder, arriving just in time before the rain began. It had been a great weekend and the whole family seems determined to do something like it again. For us it was a demonstration that rail and bus adventures can still be done, although the feel is very different without the usual catering, with less frequent trains and with the need to book absolutely everything in advance.

Exciting, but daunting

The next few trips by train

Well, over the last week or two I have bought train tickets for our August excursions. One of these trips I had almost decided would have to be done by road, and I really was not looking forward to that, and the other two have had to be cut short because of cancellations and other complications arising from the coronavirus pandemic. They are all long journeys and involve changes of train, and although I have been able to minimise the number of changes I am still concerned that if we miss a connection owing to late running we may not be able to board a subsequent train if it is deemed "full" by social-distancing regulations. I am also, I must admit, not overjoyed at the prospect of wearing a face-covering for a long journey, even though the journeys will be broken by mealtimes when we can temporarily remove them. It is also unclear at present what catering will be offered, if any, on the services we shall be using, so we shall take our own provisions.

Coastway train approaching Chichester

These will be our first train journeys since February and the first long ones since last autumn, so I am looking forward to them immensely even with the foregoing concerns! The first will be our usual trip to Chichester where we shall meet our friends holidaying on the south coast at Bracklesham Bay. We are omitting the originally-planned few days on the Isle of Wight which were going to precede it because of the uncertainty of how we might have been able to get there: these trips require advance planning and there was no way of working out what would be operating and what would not, and if we could not cross the Solent we could not get there - and that was one trip for which I definitely did not want to take the car, too. We can manage that with just two changes, using a Thameslink service right through from Peterborough to East Croydon - slow but simple, and the trains are spacious. We'll do that in Standard Class as there is little to be gained from First.

The next is a family gathering on the Purbeck peninsula in Dorset, and we'll be travelling via Birmingham New Street to Bournemouth by Cross Country Trains and then open-top bus to the hotel. This is the journey we had always planned to do, although I might have chosen to go one way via London and the other via Birmingham, but although much longer the Birmingham route is so much simpler and involves just the one change of train - the reduced frequencies do mean a long layover in New Street but it is at lunch time so we can eat there.

Finally there is Edinburgh. This was to have been a couple of nights before a Royal Scotsman tour of the Highlands, but that had to be cancelled by Belmond, the provider, because although they could manage financially with only half a load, all the rest of the booked passengers were American and would be unable to get to Scotland. So we are just going to spend the weekend in Edinburgh and come home: the Royal Scotsman will have to wait for another year, if, indeed, Belmond is still in business another year. It is all very difficult to plan anything at present.

In the autumn, all being well, we are due to go to Italy with Great Rail Journeys, but who knows? we could be in the midst of a second wave of coronavirus by then, with international travel curtailed. Next year? Well, that is anyone's guess. We'd like to pick up the Scottish rail tour and to return to Le Locle, Switzerland, in the late spring when the lakes and rivers are full, and to visit the Isle of Wight again. The putative trip to the USA is pushed back further and if Amtrak does not survive it may never happen.

In the beginning

Just a small piece of cake ...

Ten years ago we were on holiday in Bridport, Dorset in England, by car, and I saw a sign pointing to Pecorama. As a railway modeller I had heard of this place but had never really thought about visiting it, but I followed the sign and we had a great half-day there.

Pecorama is a pleasure garden attached to the Peco model railway equipment factory at Beer, near Seaton in Devon and includes a permanent model railway exhibition, some great gardens and a long miniature railway ride.

We have returned a few times since, the highlight always being a cream tea in the static Pullman car Orion, one of the famous Golden Arrow coaches from the 1950s.

It was the experience of sitting in Orion that set us on the hunt for further Pullman train experiences, and 2014 had turned out to be the year of the Pullman! It has included a Pullman afternoon tea on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, the Pullman Dining class excursion to Snowdonia and hopefully will include another tea on Orion.







I thoroughly recommend a visit to Pecorama: you do not need to be an avid railway fan to enjoy it as there is plenty for everyone and the ticket prices are very reasonable. Buses X53 between Exeter and Weymouth will take you to Beer from the stations at those places.