You're a really useful engine!

On the little island of Sodor is where Thomas the tank engine and his friends live........

On the not so little island of Scotland is a place called Bo'Ness where steam engines masquerading as Thomas and his friends reside. Haha!

I had the fantastic fortune the other day of getting a completely free tours both in front and behind the scenes of the various steam locomotives that have been decommissioned from public service but which have since been lovingly restored by a bunch of 60 year old volunteers that enable the steam trains to start working again, giving joy rides to adults and kids alike.

Come Monday, the Lions will be headed to Bo'Ness for "A Day Out With Thomas" (hopefully, the weather is beautiful and there will be few people).

It was a completely chance encounter that we landed up in Bo'Ness the other day. In fact, we wre quite supposed to be headed in the opposite direction to find the other missing Nessies in my collection. Funnily, we ended up at another "ness" instead.

Mr. Alex King found us wandering around his station looking rather lost and offered to take us around the station and even took us to the offbounds parts restoration and manufacturing warehouse which is usually off limits to the public due to it being an absolute trip hazard.

It was absolutely educational and entertaining because we saw trains built in 1928, 1955 etc. We also saw the various parts of trains that were currently undergoing restoration to make it suitable for use. It is absolutely amazing as to the number of parts required that has to be fabricated from castings and moulds since there are hardly any companies that still sell the parts. Many of the train cabins, boilers, roofs, pipes etc were rusted through, corroded, or simply unusable. So these had to be recast and moulded in other to restore the trains.

In the words of Mr. King, "We started merely with a few picks, hammers and a couple of eejits (that's scottish for idiots) with a passion for steam engines". Today, they've got a whole station of trains that run every so often, but because the entire place is run by volunteers, they cannot afford to open everyday due to the lack of manpower. Which is an absolute pity if you ask me.

Currently, its just this handful of old men who average 60 years old each. Children and grandchildren of theirs alike all dislike this job because it is a dirty and thankless job with hardly any propsects financially. Thus, this is likely to be closed down within the next decade or so unless some new blood comes in to take over.

So, if you are headed to Scotland for a holiday, hopefully you will catch a ride on these steam engines at the Bo'Ness Railway before it disappears.

Trust me, there is a lot more to see than just the Harry Potter train in Glenfinnan!!!