RTC - Christmas Sussex Belle

I could take that, whats the other station in the video ?
I'm a bit of a stranger to those rails yesterday..After we left Gatwick and until we got to Nunhead.. everything else in-between was completely new track for me...
Last time I did a Bullied on the mainline was 34092 on the Bolton Spa Express... somewhere around the 1980s.

 

and me

 

Bolton Spa? I've heard Bolton described in several ways but never as a spa.

 

The council's apparently trying to rename the place Bolton - Le - Moors.

Bolton Spa... that was my bathroom on a sunday night as a child.
Bolton has it's own disneyland too... a slot machine arcade on Orlando Bridge...

You should go sometime, it's famous for it's cheap fish market...whole salmon for £10, £8 after 5pm, but you have to head and gut it yourself.

 

And here is a view of Shortlands I took in early 1961. The 2014 Sussex Belle was on the track next to 34077, but going in the other direction.

 

You need a van to take it away tho, all those out of date tins really weighs a lot.

 

Maybe its an acronym - you known S.P.A. (suggestions on a post card .....)

Steven

 

By way of contrast between the generations, my Dad used to take me to this bridge to watch the Eurostars go through!

 

Big brother Don used to take me there until I reached the age when I was sometimes allowed out to prowl on my own.

Dad used to take the whole family up to a location near Bickely Junction, (Blackbrook Bridge), just a few miles further away from Shortlands. That was well before 1961 and that is what started Don and me on our life long love of steam.

 

It was somewhere in the Bromley/Shortlands area that I saw my first steam loco on the mainline, 34016 Bodmin on a Cathedrals Express. The spectacle of a Bulleid at speed made an impression on me (as well as seeing 35027 at the Bluebell) made Bulleids my favourite of all the big pacifics.

 

Sunshine for Santa at Eastbourne.