Back when....

[Nortonboy]

Do you remember the week long rail-fest that was, I believe, called the Yorkshire Ranger Railcard?
Looking back it seems incredible my over protective, folks ever saw fit to agree to one of those. But boy, was this 13 year old glad of it? It was magic. Places I had never dreamed of getting to were there for the bagging. York, Doncaster, Wath, Tinsley, Reddish, Manchester, Leeds etc etc. So much to see that never got to Thornaby.
Off I went with two mates to god knows where each day with no way for my folks too contact me. You can just imagine the conversation with the police if I hadn't come home one evening. "so your saying he didn't just pop down the shops. That he could be anything between 20 or 120 miles away in any direction..."
There's no way my kids would have been allowed to do that at that age.
Anyone else share their stories?

[Autocar Publicity]

I'm too young to be comparing like with like, but I remember having a lot of fun with the North & Mid Wales Rangers. It was a good antidote to the pressures of studying & exams. For £6 a day or £15 for a 3 in 7 day, I could travel on the 09.08 from Machynlleth northwards to Minffordd and (if the Cambrian broad gauge train was on time - about 50/50!) do a Phileas Fogg style cross onto the Ffestiniog Rly ex 10.30 Porth and be in Blaenau for 11.40 in time to connect with the Conway Valley 101, getting to Llandudno about 13.00 for a late lunch. It was a swift turn-round to ensure I caught the last downstream FR train and the tea-time southbound Cambrian back home, but the transport was all 'heritage', with no cattletrucks or guided busses and the scenery and company was agreeable.

Later, when based at Chester, I had more options and could lunch in Portmadog travelling via the north coastline & FR or do the great circuit via Shrewsbury and Talerddig, catching the 16.00 out of Porth to connect with the broad gauge northwards & eastwards.

OK, so maybe there are other things in life which are more exciting, at least in the short-term, but after constant high pressure to perform academically & professionally it was relaxing to just travel and see the sights. And no, although there were a couple of times when the trains blobbed, I never had to spend the night on a park/platform bench!

[52D]

Did jaunts with an NER ranger card caught the last days of steam at Carlisle watched NCB electrics and more than one loop of the North tyneside electrics.