the Forth Valley Sensory Centre newsletter - Falkirk Council

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