the Forth Valley Sensory Centre newsletter - Falkirk Council
the Forth Valley Sensory Centre newsletter - Falkirk Council
the Forth Valley Sensory Centre newsletter - Falkirk Council
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Service Users News<br />
A Day Out at Boness<br />
By Ann Lavery and Ca<strong>the</strong>rine Carmichael<br />
One Saturday, six of us from B.S.L. OAP Club in our cars arrived at<br />
Bo'ness Old Railway Station at 10am. Lucky for us it was rained earlier<br />
and it was <strong>the</strong>n sunny and warm day. We met up with Harold Nicolson<br />
from Edinburgh. He, kindly, offered to act as our guide with his rich<br />
knowledge of <strong>the</strong> trains histories. Some of us knew him very well when<br />
we were at Donaldson's School in Edinburgh years ago. We all<br />
communicate in our B.S.L. (British Sign Language). We went into <strong>the</strong><br />
tearoom at <strong>the</strong> station and had some lovely homemade cakes with our<br />
cup of tea/coffee. We popped into <strong>the</strong> wee gift shop next door for a quick<br />
nose around and saw <strong>the</strong>y sell toy trains, jigsaws and o<strong>the</strong>rs. As it was<br />
time to catch <strong>the</strong> train, we bought <strong>the</strong> traditional Edmondson tickets for<br />
<strong>the</strong> train fares. All <strong>the</strong> people who were involved working at <strong>the</strong> station<br />
were volunteers. All <strong>the</strong>ir hard work to keep <strong>the</strong> station running are very<br />
well and done on <strong>the</strong>ir spare time including repairing, painting and<br />
keeping <strong>the</strong> engines in very good condition. They wear <strong>the</strong> traditional<br />
outfits. We met up with a lovely and friendly chap called Mat<strong>the</strong>w<br />
Lambert known as a porter cum a ticket inspector cum a singal man with<br />
<strong>the</strong> red and green flags. In <strong>the</strong> 2nd class train coach, we all went in that<br />
pulled by <strong>the</strong> steam engine. Oh! how it was a wonderful to smell <strong>the</strong><br />
steam smokes that took all of us back to our childhood. We all laughed<br />
a lot and enjoyed <strong>the</strong> reminscing and viewed of <strong>the</strong> countryside with <strong>the</strong><br />
grey and white puffs of smoke floating by <strong>the</strong> window from Bo'ness to<br />
Kenneil and <strong>the</strong>n Manuel. The speed of <strong>the</strong> steam engine was on 20<br />
m.p.h. It was lovely and relaxing to see <strong>the</strong> views and sat on very<br />
surprisingly so very comfortably springy seats compared to <strong>the</strong> hard<br />
seats we have on our trains nowadays. We arrived at Manuel and <strong>the</strong>n<br />
went back to Bo'ness by <strong>the</strong> afternoon. We all walked over <strong>the</strong> bridge<br />
overlooking <strong>the</strong> train rails. The steam train went under <strong>the</strong> bridge and<br />
blew <strong>the</strong> loud whistle from its horn and Ann Lavery jumped with a fright<br />
meanwhile <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r five people including Harold were busy admiring <strong>the</strong><br />
trains and couldn't hear a thing. Over <strong>the</strong> bridge we went to <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>Forth</strong> <strong>Valley</strong> <strong>Sensory</strong> <strong>Centre</strong> Newsletter - Autumn Edition Page 19