We last rode the steam railway in May 2018. That's a long time to be unsteamed...

Today, the penultimate day of the railway's regular runs for 2023, we drove to Port Erin, took the train to Douglas, and then caught the bus back to where we'd left our car. A thoroughly successful day out.

I've talked before about the warm, glowy place the steam railway occupies in my otherwise mixed memories of childhood.

All of which means I just love this experience. It's all the good bits of being a kid, bottled, and tied up with a ribbon.

I can't describe the smell of clinker -- you just have to know it -- but it is the first thing that powerfully transports me back. Then the adorably tiny engine pulls out of its shed, puffs off up the line, and returns to couple with the adorably tiny string of coaches.

And then you're off. Woo-wooooo goes the whistle; duh-duh-duh-dunk go the wheels.

And the engine chuffs. Busily, importantly. Nothing ever sounds quite as busy and important as a steam engine: "Don't bother me; I'm BUSY; I'm doing VERY IMPORTANT getting-you-there things."

Clouds of steam drift past the windows. The countryside somehow seems even finer through this gauzy veil.

And I'm not really rendering the half of it. Underlying the sensory experiences is the perception of a place where my little history melds with Big History. Which generates a nostalgia, a melancholia, a very definite impression of sadness -- these things are over, and cannot be brought back -- but at the same time a palpable sense of gratitude that -- at least for the moment -- we can recreate something of what I and the Island once knew.

I'll let the pictures convey something of the atmosphere:














And finally, you pull into Douglas:


Where, after all that adventuring, you need some lunch. There's a kind of farmer's market down on the quay on Saturdays, it seems, and all the eateries nearby seemed pretty full. The Little Fish Cafe still had a table, however, and provided some very decent grub:




After a bit of a walk around Douglas, we sailed back to Port Erin on the top of a double-decker bus. And credit where credit is due, the Island has a very impressive bus service, with frequent departures, up-to-date vehicles, and no mysteries about how to buy tickets. (And, while we're doing credit, the public toilets over here also deserve a mention. Free, plentiful, clean, and well-equipped, they knock the spots off the offerings of other countries not a million miles away.)

Anyway, this was a red-letter day. Can't wait till next time.