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Welcome to part 3 of the Driving and Firing Experience offered by the Watercress Line. The afternoon was my opportunity to drive a steam engine – something that I’d wanted to do since I was a child!
Three of us were trainees that afternoon, guided by an excellent Watercress Line driver and fireman. This podcast starts as leave Alresford, for the second time, for the uphill climb to Ropley.
After reaching Ropley we went on a tour of the engineering sheds. The sheds enable the line to carry out work on the locomotives and carriages.
We then returned to Cheltenham for the final section, downhill, to Alresford. I was the driver for this last section but, as you will hear, I forgot about the ‘handbrake’. Silly of me as I’d spent ages putting it on!
You can learn from the driving instructions and from the informal conversations during the afternoon.
It was an amazing experience on a warm and sunny early autumn afternoon.
If you’d like to try the Firing and Driving Experience, or know someone who would, click here. It is a wonderful three hour experience.
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To visit the Watercress Line website please follow this link Watercress Line.
Join me in two weeks for Walk the Line in the series Life on the Watercress Line.
You can also listen to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify and Stitcher.
The theme and incidental music Steam Railway used in this podcast is licensed from AKM Music.
© The MrT Podcast Studio 2019