Magnettes & Steam
On Easter-Saturday morning (22 March) around 7am I was at home watching snow
blowing horizontally past in a gale outside, and wondering whether to make the
journey from Surrey up to the Magnettes+Steam event at the Midland Railway
centre. However the forecast was fairly promising so I set off hopefully, and
indeed the sleet and snow eased as I headed north, even though temperatures
remained just above freezing.
The railway centre is about 10 miles north of Derby, and close to the M1. It's
unusual amongst steam railways in having been almost completely recreated rather
than just reopened. Although the 3-4 miles of track follows the route of a
Midland branch line, the stations themselves have been entirely constructed over
the last thirty years, mostly using demolished buildings from other railways.
Despite Alan Slack having carefully explained how to find the Swanwick site
where parking was arranged, several of us somehow ended up together at the other
station in Butterley. As this group included Peter Martin and Paul Batho I felt
in good company, and we headed off again in convoy. The two stations are only a
mile or so apart by train, but to get from one to the other by road seems to be
much further. After a couple of wrong turns we finally reached Swanwick about
11am to find Alan standing in the cold and wondering where we'd all got to.
There was already a selection of other MGs lined up, including a striking
two-tone Y-type, and several local Morris Minor owners also arrived. Any
embarrassment about navigation errors was lessened when another register member
and party arrived considerably later, having started out only 10 miles away from
Swanwick and then driving round for a couple of hours trying to find it !
Eventually about 10 or 11 Magnettes were assembled, with roughly the same number
of other cars. Mine seemed to be the dirtiest, despite being carefully polished
beforehand. No doubt the weather was responsible for the slight downturn in
attendance, and compared to previous Magnettes+Steam events, there was less
standing and talking around the cars - although John Barringer's newly carpeted
boot (fully trimmed) was attracting admiring looks. There's plenty to see at
Swanwick, including old busses and a bookshop, but going for a ride on the train
was a popular option - the carriages were pleasantly warm and it made an
interesting round trip of just under an hour. The museum hall contains a well
presented selection of Midland Railways engines and rolling stock, unfortunately
not heated, whereas the station cafe was somewhat more inviting and did brisk
business.
I left Swanwick mid-afternoon to visit family in Marple. The winding roads
through the Peak district were very scenic in the snow, and a nice change after
all the motorway driving. I eventually got home at 10pm, after a round trip of
about 450 miles, and I've just about cleaned off all the grit and salt covering
the car ! Thanks again to Alan for organizing and publicizing the event so well
- as Easter 2009 falls in mid-April we can perhaps look forward to a warmer
weekend then, but whatever the weather I'd encourage everyone to turn up and get
the season off to a flying start.
Stephen Tickell
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