This post is, like modern trains, somewhat late but it does involve the trains of yesteryear and so is worth it, for the start of the month saw Heather and I visiting a preserved railway we’d barely heard of before, at Epping Ongar.

The railway runs over what was the end of the Central Line in London, before it was cut back to finish at Epping Station. From the original terminus of Ongar the preserved railway runs through North Weald and out into the Epping Forest, to stop (at a picturesque but stationless point) just short of Epping and the tube. There’s an excellent shuttle service, provided by a fleet of vintage buses, between the still operational Epping tube station and North Weald station, the journey included in the price of admission (one day the railway hopes to run right up to Epping again and link in—it would certainly be a sight to see a big steam loco pulling into the little tube station!) They normally run a mixture of preserved steam and diesel but were having a steam gala weekend, complete with visiting locos, which seemed the ideal time to pay a visit.