Hello from the UK.

[Mr.Brunel]

Hi all, I'm already a member of a couple of UK based railway forums and I just thought it would be good to find out what is happening in the rest of the world.
My interest is steam which I guess started back in the early 1950's when I used to go to my local station and watch in awe as these amazing pieces of engineering roared by.
Then I left school and started a career at sea so I lost touch with what was happening on the railway.
However when I retired age 60 I decided to find something to do to pass the time, and a friend suggested that I become a volunteer at Tyseley Locomotive Works here in Birmingham. Now almost four years later I put in three days a week working on some of the finest steam loco's ever built (in my opinion) all of them are restored Great Western Railway loco's.
I'm also a member of the support crew that goes out with the loco's on the mainline, which means I often start work at stupid o'clock and finish at even stupider o'clock. But I wouldn't change it for the world. After all I get the privilege of riding on the footplate on the mainline at speeds of 75 mph.
Just to give you an idea of what we get up to here is a link to our website..... http://www.vintagetrains.co.uk/