Yet another railway photo

Here is another photo from my collection. The Internet is a mine of information about steam railways; projects being worked on, restoration to carriages (that might have been used as henhouses or weekend retreats,) engines having new tubes or tyres, cylinder repairs, repaints, and buildings being renovated too. Summer timetables mean more engines and carriages in use but restoration work and repairs carry on behind the scenes throughout the year. I remember during the 1950s spending weekends in the country with my parents and their friends and children using one such carriage minus its bogie as a quiet retreat where we ate sandwiches, drank ginger beer, built boxcarts from pram wheels and scrap wood so we could hurtle down the steep, grass slope. Inside the carriage it was spotlessly clean with chintz curtains, primitive seating, lino flooring and had a toilet and basin. Most of the time we spent filling our lungs with fresh air except when it rained, of course. My parents spent most of their weekends cleaning wounds and applying dressings to five or six children! It's strange to think that THAT same carriage has probably been renovated at great cost, using traditional skills, and someone somewhere is sitting in it on a preserved steam railway line enjoying the thrill of riding behind a steam engine.