Today we visited the Train Thur Doller Alsace. Another group of heritage rail volunteers who could not have been more charming and helpful! Due to unforeseen circs we had to shuffle the excursions round on a couple of days, including today. The rail team were happy to help us with an extended rail journey and numerous photo opportunities.
As is traditional, we started with a tour of the workshop where they are rebuilding a massive locomotive (known as a ‘Mikado’ apparently…. No, me neither)
Our locomotive for the day was a type known as a Mallet. It has one boiler but two engines and two sets of pistons, the forward bogie (and low pressure pistons) swivelling for tighter turn radius (so my very knowledgeable clients told me). And then we were on the rails again…
In the early afternoon we took a very French lunch in the autumn sunshine. Very French means cheese, wine, cold meats and fresh bread.
Very French also means that it was taken at a leisurely pace and for one of our engineers a short recovery nap was obligatoire.
We got under way, crossing a bridge and then to the depot where our coach returned us to the hotel in time for our dinner in a local restaurant.
TimOnTheTrain 