If I think about it, in all honesty it is the recollections of my childhood that it triggers that gives me the most pleasure with steam trains, not the journey itself.

I grew up in a railway environment ,Bushbury, with three loco sheds and a loco works close by and all the smells and sounds associated with them. Also of course like most people at the time our family holiday involved a long train journey, to Devon in our case.

My strongest memory is sitting on my dads shoulders on the crowded platform of low level station and pressing my head against him in fear as a very loud and steamy loco dragged the coaches of our train in ready for the journey. I can even remember the smell and fell of his tweed jacket!

So the journey, its OK, but the memories that come flooding back, priceless!