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Over in the UK, a small-scale idea was being planned for August 2005.
The venue - The East Lancashire Railway - on which happened to be one of the Railway's "Days Out With Thomas" events.
Four members of the forum were in attendance on that fateful day, which turned out to be more of a disaster with two members
at the ELR and two in the middle of Manchester trying to get back to the ELR!
The day began like any other. Due to be in attendance were Truro,
Eliot, Ryan and MrOliver of Sodor Island Forums. The agreed meeting time of 12pm for meeting up at Bury Station was
made easy for Truro and Eliot, who happened to meet outside the station and ended up getting lunch together. Meanwhile,
Ryan was late, and by the time he had arrived he couldn't find Eliot or Truro anywhere...until he managed to get hold of Truro's
mobile number and call him, unbeknowst that he was sitting a few yards up the platform. Formalities exchanged, MrOliver
hadn't yet arrived, and time was getting on. By the time he would get there by public transport it'd be quite late,
and that wasn't an appealing option. Instead, Ryan ventured into Manchester City Centre to collect him and bring him
to Bury instead. This is when the real trouble began...
Ryan made his way into the city centre to try and find the train station,
and ended up taking a wrong turn, which sent him around the ring road right around the city! Eventually, he reached
Manchester Picadilly station, where he was to meet MrOliver. The two were aware they were close to one another, they
could see the same building at least, but neither of them knew where the other could be. Easily solved because Ryan
was on the ground floor of the car park, which was not adjacent to the ground floor of the train station where MrOliver
happened to be! Problem solved, they headed back to Bury where they were reunited with Eliot and Truro again for a photo
with Thomas before heading off on a short journey to the sidings with Thomas and Diesel, and then later along the
East Lancashire Railway behind a 9F loco loosely guised as Murdoch.
T'was a grand day out, and a great stepping stone for what was to follow
the next year, but largely remembered more for the disasters and follies of the day as a whole...
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