The best day ever!

It is a little known fact that bears love trains. We are for the most part creatures of style and nothing is more exciting than a huge, lumbering, noisy, elegant steam train.

Here I am at The National Railway Museum in York which was established in 1975 and now contains over 100 locomotives. Coo!

This is me on LNWR 2-4-0 no. 790 Hardwicke. She was built in 1892 at Crewe Works for the London and North Western Railway and was withdrawn from service in 1932. Just think of the history beneath me!

As you can see this is one of the American style trains but I got so excited I forgot to write its name down. Pretty cool though.

The next picture is me on the Japanese Bullet train.

How about that for comfort. By the way, the story about the men in white gloves pushing people into the trains so that they can get the doors to shut is absolutely true!

Here is something that amused.

I'm sure that by 'lower orders' he was not including bears!

With the advancement of the railway the Duke's fears did indeed come to pass and the country was opened up to people from the cities. The seaside particularly became everyone's favourite holiday destination.

What do you think? Does my bum look big in this?

Or this?

Although I am too old now to fulfil my dream of being an engine driver, I must admit that I do look rather dashing here although I am perhaps a little short to reach the controls!

Now here's a train to get a little bear excited. This is Great Western 4-6-0 Hall Class 5972 'Olton Hall' dressed up as the Hogwarts Express. Magic! She was built at Swindon in 1937 and was preserved in 1981.

Here she is before the make-over.

It was amazing day at the Railway Museum (which has the highest amount of visitors of any museum outside London) but I was a little disappointed to find otu that Mallard was out on display to another museum. I would have dearly loved to see that beautiful train.

Here's a little info for you.

The Doncaster built Mallard is the holder of the world speed record for steam traction on rail. This record was set on the 3rd July 1938 (same year as it was built) when the 70 ft, 102 ton locomotive registered a speed of 126 mph. Blimey!

LNER Chief Mechanical Engineer Sir Nigel Gresley designed the Mallard. He came up with the name while feeding the ducks at Salisbury Hall.

The £8,500 Mallard ended its service in 1963 after a lifetime distance of almost 1.5 million miles. It's official name was LNER 4-6-2 A4 class No 4468 Mallard.

Now that really is magic!