SiF UK Member Meeting

In spite of 2005's disasterous day out, the general concencus was that we were going to do it all again in 2006. The venue was to be one of the grandest of all the Railway related venues in the UK - the National Railway Museum in York. On the 22nd of August 2006, eight, out of a potential twelve, members of Sodor Island Forums made their way to the NRM for the big SiF day out. At first, it looked fairly daunting. The amount of drop-outs we'd had was discouraging, and from a phone call earlier that morning from Chris Burrell, it looked like the eight would become seven, however, the problem was quickly rectified and returned to eight again.

Again, as was done last time, the group trickled in seperately. Two initial groups were formed early on with - Eliot, Chris and Alaric; and Ryan, ChrisTheXelent and Truro meeting up early on in their visit. ChrisBurrell finally showed up, and joined the latter group, before the merging of the two occurred. Standing on the footbridge for best effect, Ryan called Eliot on his mobile and told him to meet his group in the Great Hall. The desired effect was not achieved. They were under the footbridge when Ryan called, and to quote Alaric "No-one said to look up!" And then finally, Christopher joined the motley crew, and began handing out certificates to commemorate the big day!

Following that, the browsing through the galleries and exhibits of the National Railway Museum began. Locomotives of all makes, shapes and sizes, nameplates, models, and other railway memorabilia housed in the glorious National Railway Museum. Locomotives such as Green Arrow, who was in the workshops for repairs, and the frames, cab and tender of the Flying Scotsman. Then, on through the exhibits and out for a spot of lunch. This happened to be the highlight of the entire day for everyone. Just sitting down together and reliving the magic of the forum that had brought us all together. We sat and we all laughed, joked, griped, commented and consulted for the best part of an hour about all things SiF and Thomas. It was by far the most magical and fun part of the entire day - just sitting with a Thomas and Friends 2007 Annual and a copy of a correspondance e-mail Christopher had received from renowned script writer and voice actor - Brian Trueman, who is famous for his work on many Cosgrove Hall programmes of the 1980s including Count Duckula, Wind in the Willows, Danger Mouse and Chorlton and the Wheelies.

After lunch, the official photography for the day, which was posted on the forum, was done, and then on to the Great Hall again. Ryan, Christopher, Truro, CtX and Alaric then went on the Simulator, where we had the opportunity to travel from London to Brighton in 4 minutes by travelling at 765 mph! If you've seen the video, you know how that went down. If you haven't, well...there's a reason they don't let trains go that fast. Then, off to Japan to catch the Bullet Train. Then it was off to Wales to see the Talyllyn. Both of which were video clips! We sat in the Bullet Train of the Great Hall for the Japanese video, and on a bench to watch the short 1950s film - "A Railway with a Heart of Gold" - for the remainder of the afternoon.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. The eight friends then walked down to the big station at York to see each other off. Following a period of watching Ryan's filming back, and saying goodbye, one by one, the members began to fall away, until Ryan and ChrisTheXelent were left. Considering both were staying in York for the night before travelling back in the morning.