Life must be filled up

Yesterday, huskyteer and I visited the Shillingstone Railway Project. No more will I go to Blandford Forum by rail, but drive up there and turn off for Sherborne, Bath and points west and you come to the small village of Shillingstone. Although no train has run here since 1966, some old buildings remain and are being lovingly restored, unlike the railway buildings and track in our town, long since overlaid by an industrial estate. If you enjoy visiting quirky, amateurish little museums run by enthusiasts, you’d like it here.

The project is very much a work in progress and there’s a relaxed attitude towards visitors. There’s no charge to walk round and you can do pretty much what you like: sit in the train carriage and imagine yourself travelling, walk on the track, admire the flower border, watch people painting or trundling machines around for mysterious purposes. As well as genuine railway memorabilia like cast iron signs and guards’ lamps, they’ve acquired a lot of old junk suitably vintage pieces, all scattered around in a higgledy-piggledy way. I was itching to re-style it, so as to make better use of items like the original platform vending machine, which dispensed bars of Cadbury’s chocolate at 6d a go. A makeover would destroy some of the charm, though.

















A word about my header. I never say ‘train station’. To me, they are railway stations and always will be. Apologies for the photo-heavy post but I've had to remove the cut because with it LJ wouldn't show the rest of the pictures. Grrr!

Like me, the writer of Liberal England watched the programme English Soul, about Steve Winwood. He points out a few things the programme makers missed. Steve Winwood will be in concert on Radio 2 tomorrow evening, Thursday. It's a date.

I'm really linking to the blog for a wonderful little film about London termini of the 1960s. You don't have to be a train buff (I'm not) to find this interesting. It lasts just under twenty minutes and has a *great* soundtrack.