Catering facilities on Heritage Railway trains (ex WSR and SVR Threads)

For families with small children, cost, familiarity and certainty are key. If the kids are at all fussy, or I don't know what the space will be like in the tea room, or I'm trying to manage a budget, or just want to know that I can feed my hungry child before he or she implodes, I'll carry a picnic. "Junk food" is less of an issue - money saved will go on ice creams, souvenirs or, especially on a day trip to the NYMR, fish & chips.

 

I agree with Steven’s comments about length and @35B ‘s about familiarity - but it does sometimes mean you can miss out on little gems if you don’t take a risk now and again, preferring to reprise the family’s Greatest Hits tour from previous years.

In the case of Tanfield, when we visited, it was a one train service doing four round trips in the day. We did essentially two round trips trying a couple of different carriages; had a decent walk on and around the Causey arch followed by a picnic at Causey station; watched the engine work a bit at Andrews House; looked round the loco shed and yards, and pretty much spent a day of it. Plus obligatory tea at East Tanfield and Ice Cream to finish off at Andrews House, to return to a catering theme.

FWIW, and since surely catering has been done to death: the two winners with my kids - daughter especially - are a decent trail and a dressing up box. Tanfield did the first of those quite well. Not many lines do the latter, though I’m sure with my daughter you could just stop running the loss making trains altogether provided the dressing up box was large enough! (Says weary father just back from a visit to Newhaven Fort...)

Tom

 

For clarity, my comment about familiarity relates to food only. We’ve managed unfamiliar locations from when they were young - though I don’t recommend overnight flights with 13 month old babies!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk