Rail Discoveries

Never did I think I would write about railroads. It is appropriate for me to at least try, however, having gone on a Rail Discoveries tour of northern Wales. There were 40 of us in the group. Two were from New South Wales, Australia. Two were from southern Wales but identified as English. There were two people from the United States. The rest were English.

Slava is pictured here with a Welshman by the name of Charlie.  Charlie operated one of the steam trains we took.   The remarkable thing is that there were few paid staff running the trains. The bulk of the work was done by volunteers who want to revitalize classic train systems. 

We travelled on three narrow gauge trains with old fashioned steam engines and saw Welsh seaside, sheep farms, and steeply rising hills. On one train we had as a companion a master electrician who had been a volunteer for the railroad for 20 years, driving 3 hours each way on weekends from his home when his services were needed. On another train we were served refreshments by an employee who worked for the railroad in the summer tourist season, and volunteered his services as a professional tree trimmer in the off season, as he had time. All together there were over 400 volunteers on one of the lines, with about 1500 dues paying members of the railroad society. I wasn't surprised to hear one of the guys say that he had three model trains set up at his house. For him and others, it must be a great joy to play with a really big train set.