Monday 3 September 2012

A Day out in Carlisle

Yesterday, we set off on one of our day excursions along the fantastic Settle/Carlisle railway line and pulled by a steam engine. The train arrived at Leeds on time and we set off on one of the most picturesque train rides in the entire country, which takes in some breathtaking views of the Yorkshire Dales and crosses the famous Ribblevalley Viaduct.  We were being pulled by Black number 44932 an engine that we have never travelled behind previously. My brother (who is as enthusiastic about trains as I am) and my sister in law were travelling with us as they have never been on an excursion before.

Waiting for the train on Platform 12

SmileyWhere is the train?

Here we are all patiently waiting on Platform 12 for our excursion train to arrive.

Stretching our legs at Appleby

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Steam trains have to take on water, and our first water stop was at Appleby.

Enjoying ice cream

Here we had a good fifteen minutes to stretch our legs and enjoy an ice cream from a lady who was selling them on the platform.

Black no 44932 in Carlisle

The first chance I had to take a good shot of the engine was when we finally arrived in Carlisle and all the other passengers had departed! Everyone wants to take a good photo of the engine, everyone wants their photo taken in the cab, its not easy to get a clear shot of a steam engine with no one else on it.

Unfortunately we didn’t have long in Carlisle and so couldn’t visit the castle, so we had a walk around the shopping precinct there, we were shot at by two storm troopers on the way, and then we sat out in the glorious sunshine and enjoyed a Costa coffee (and some hot chocolate with marshmallows in Kerri’s case and Terry’s case.

Stormtroopers in Carlisle

Carlisle

Heading our way!

Kerri happily joined in with all the theatricals by getting out her invisible lightsaber and attacking them both. (Always the actress!)

We made our way to the Lane’s Shopping Centre where I took a shot of these attractive coloured lights in the roof, and also one of a very interesting statue at one of the shopping junctions. Shopping centre’s like this one will in my view be the only savour of our towns to counteract the threat from out of town supermarkets, plus they are ideal if the weather is bad as they are covered.

Shopping Centre in Carlisle

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It was a real pity that we hadn’t time to take in the Castle but we made up for it by sitting outside a Costa coffee shop and enjoying both a cappuccino (in my case) and the gorgeous warm sunshine.

Here for your enjoyment I’ve placed all of the shots I took with my camera and phone into a photo album. Click on it to view it as a slideshow.

Enjoy.

Technogran

3 comments:

  1. What a beautiful day! I love going on your excursions with you. Its been a while since I've visited. Glad to see you both looking so well.

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  2. The Carlisle to Settle railway line seems to have cropped up in several conversation I've had lately. Good to see some pictures to go with it.

    I've never managed to find my way to Carlisle castle either which is a bit awful considering how often I've been there. They have a very good museum though.

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  3. What a wonderful outing you all had, Technogran. After reading this post and earlier ones, I do know that one day we must travel across the pond as Grenville is such a huge train fain, especially of steam engines. How he envies your journeys.

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