A Trombonist Celebrates Mother's Day

My sisters and myself always try to do something special, obviously, for our Mum on Mother's Day. Usually Amy, sometimes Sophie, is in charge of organising this. Often it's a meal out, possibly a theatre trip. This year though, I got to choose. And I chose a steam train.

More specifically, I chose to book us all onto The South Devon Railway's Mother's Day Cream Tea Special. The thought process being that Mum like's cream teas and Arthur and I like trains. It had the added bonus of being able to travel on the railway's normal timetabled services for no additional cost.

The morning though started, as most Sunday's do, at Paignton Salvation Army where we had a special Mother's Day service featuring the members of the Music Tots group. These informal meetings where everyone sits around the edge and the kids play in the middle, are a fairly new addition to our Corps programme and are always well attended and well received. After Army (after a quick stop at home) we headed off to Buckfastleigh train station where we had lunch in the café with Mum and Dad and Arthur and I looked in the shop and at the model railway layout it contained. We then boarded the train for a return trip to Totnes along the stunning route which runs alongside the River Dart. Needless to say, Arthur had a brilliant time, looking out of the window and having a lengthy conversation with the train guard. After a stop at Totnes for the engine to change ends, we completed the return journey and arrived back at Buckfastleigh. 

Here we met Amy and Dale, who were joining us for the cream tea train. We had plenty of time before the train left again, so Arthur and I once again headed into the shop to look at the model railway. We then went into the railway's museum where we  saw the oldest surviving broad gauge locomotive and Arthur delighted in changing a signal. 

Eventually we were allowed to board the train. We were sat at two tables with Steph and Arthur with Amy and Dale, and myself with Mum, Dad and Joseph. The whole experience was excellent and we all enjoyed ourselves.