Steam train driving experience
My wife and I both did the Driver Experience and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The enthusiasm of everyone at the Watercress line was infectious, from the lady in the café who took our names and made us a cup of tea, to Stephanie (Steve) in the signal box, Bill the fireman and Neal the driver.
Both of us were a little anxious before the experience, but everyone was quick to help if anything wasn’t quite right. This gave us a lot of confidence.
Some of the controls in the signal box and on the engine took some effort to move, but immediately we had even the slightest problem, the staff were on it and resolved it for us. Stephanie in the signal box was very slight, I must be twice her weight, but I struggled. Impressively she threw her weight into moving the heavy points. She enthusiastically explained the principles of safety on a single line railway. Fireman was the most physically demanding role and Bill kindly stepped in every time I was tiring and filled in the “holes” I’d left in the grate. This made it quite doable, even as a retired pencil pusher! Trying to keep the grate covered requires a surprising amount of skill (which I didn’t have, but I learnt a lot all the same). The balancing act between keeping the smoke clean, covering the grate, having enough coal to get up the hill and keeping the boiler pressure high enough but not too high is clearly quite a tightrope act.
“Dave”, sometimes known as “Thomas” the tank engine was used for the driver experience and weighs around 50 tons. Needless to say, my wife parked it precisely on a sixpence, and my parking was a “little less” accurate. The obvious challenges like the lack of space and the heat on the footplate are rapidly forgotten. But this isn’t an experience for the feint hearted. A great sense of achievement, well worth the cost and the effort. The day ended with an inevitable certificate and photo in front of the train.
We stayed a couple of nights at the Swan Hotel, Alresford which is in an ideal location for Alresford Station and went to the Jane Austen at Chawton house the day after.
We’ve also had a thoroughly enjoyable dining experience on the Watercress previously and will be doing that again!