South Devon Railway

Today we said goodbye to our visitors. Mr PP (AKA Dobbie the house elf) was delighted to find Flossie had left behind a pair of socks. He's claimed his freedom and was last seen skipping down the road ... I'm growing peckish now and wondering if he'll ever return ...!

Well, that's partly true. Actually, we took ourselves out today for a walk to cheer us up after our visitors' departure. We went to Totnes for a lovely walk alongside the River Dart, visiting the South Devon Railway, too. The steam train runs back and forth between Totnes and Buckfastleigh, staffed by volunteers. The big, tall structure on the right of the picture (top left) is what's feeding water into the steam engine (bottom right). The train travels 57 miles a day and uses 1200 gallons of water.

All apart from the old first and third class passenger coaches and steam engine, there are lots of nostalgic sights on and around the station, from the signal and level crossing gates to the old advertisement hoardings and a laden luggage trolley of trunks and cases. You can see the original fire buckets and milk churns in the montage above.