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kevin_standleeWe took a train trip today from London to Swindon to visit STEAM: The Museum of the Great Western Railway. I did some studying of train times and prices, and found a low spot for a train at 10:16 out of London Paddington and a return from Swindon at 16:50. The price for two adults return was £76 ($97), which was considerably less than the tickets priced before and after those times. I made the reservations and we made our plans.
After breakfast (much busier than expected at 7 AM), Lisa and walked to Farringdon Station.
We caught an Elizabeth Line train to Paddington.
It's only three stops and much faster than taking the Hammersmith & City Tube line.
We went up to ground level and into Paddington Station.
We had lots of time before our train, so we sought out the statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel near platform 9. Kuma Bear had heard us talk so much about him that he wanted to meet him, so we took this picture.
Our train left Paddington on time and was, as we had hoped, lightly loaded, so we got a table and four seats to ourselves. There were only two intermediate stops: Reading and Didcot.
We arrived in Swindon on time.
It's a easy 850 m walk from the station...
... through the tunnel through which thousands of workers once walked daily from their company-provided houses on the opposite side of the tracks...
... past the transfer table...
... to STEAM: the Museum of the Great Western Railway. This museum is located in portions of the former GWR Swindon Works, which built everything the GWR needed from locomotives to coaches to freight cars and everything else that went into making the railway.
I took a whole lot of photos today, and created a Flickr album of our visit to STEAM. I haven't had time to describe each photo in detail.
We spent around five hours at the museum. While we enjoyed it a lot, the floors are hard and eventually we got sufficiently tired that we headed back to the station early.
Our return train originated from Swindon and was waiting on the platform long before the 16:50 departure. Like the outbound train, the return was not that heavily loaded.
Kuma Bear watched the world whiz by at what my phone said was more than 170 km/h over "Brunel's Billiard Table," the flat, well-engineered GWR route set out by Brunel.
The run between Swindon and Paddington takes about an hour. It was a smooth and uneventful trip. Lisa said I fell asleep for at least ten minutes of the trip.
Before leaving, Kuma Bear visited with cousin Paddington Bear.
Conveniently, there were some items (after shave cream, toothpaste tabs) that I could pick up at Paddington before we returned to Farringdon by the Elizabeth Line. We once again bought groceries and had dinner in the hotel room, as we were way too worn out for go out for dinner.
We did not initially plan to make this trip out to Swindon; indeed, we only got the idea from watching a YouTube video while we were in Reykjavik. I'm glad we did, although it left us very tired.
Tomorrow's plan is for a less ambitious trip: more like 3 km than about 100.
After breakfast (much busier than expected at 7 AM), Lisa and walked to Farringdon Station.
We caught an Elizabeth Line train to Paddington.
It's only three stops and much faster than taking the Hammersmith & City Tube line.
We went up to ground level and into Paddington Station.
We had lots of time before our train, so we sought out the statue of Isambard Kingdom Brunel near platform 9. Kuma Bear had heard us talk so much about him that he wanted to meet him, so we took this picture.
Our train left Paddington on time and was, as we had hoped, lightly loaded, so we got a table and four seats to ourselves. There were only two intermediate stops: Reading and Didcot.
We arrived in Swindon on time.
It's a easy 850 m walk from the station...
... through the tunnel through which thousands of workers once walked daily from their company-provided houses on the opposite side of the tracks...
... past the transfer table...
... to STEAM: the Museum of the Great Western Railway. This museum is located in portions of the former GWR Swindon Works, which built everything the GWR needed from locomotives to coaches to freight cars and everything else that went into making the railway.
I took a whole lot of photos today, and created a Flickr album of our visit to STEAM. I haven't had time to describe each photo in detail.
We spent around five hours at the museum. While we enjoyed it a lot, the floors are hard and eventually we got sufficiently tired that we headed back to the station early.
Our return train originated from Swindon and was waiting on the platform long before the 16:50 departure. Like the outbound train, the return was not that heavily loaded.
Kuma Bear watched the world whiz by at what my phone said was more than 170 km/h over "Brunel's Billiard Table," the flat, well-engineered GWR route set out by Brunel.
The run between Swindon and Paddington takes about an hour. It was a smooth and uneventful trip. Lisa said I fell asleep for at least ten minutes of the trip.
Before leaving, Kuma Bear visited with cousin Paddington Bear.
Conveniently, there were some items (after shave cream, toothpaste tabs) that I could pick up at Paddington before we returned to Farringdon by the Elizabeth Line. We once again bought groceries and had dinner in the hotel room, as we were way too worn out for go out for dinner.
We did not initially plan to make this trip out to Swindon; indeed, we only got the idea from watching a YouTube video while we were in Reykjavik. I'm glad we did, although it left us very tired.
Tomorrow's plan is for a less ambitious trip: more like 3 km than about 100.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-05 11:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-06 06:25 pm (UTC)A great railway, but so full of it's own self-importance
If you want a REAL railway museum ... go to York
no subject
Date: 2024-08-07 07:48 am (UTC)