After the harbour-side lunch in Brixham (thieving seagull and all) I found my way back to the car and set off towards Paignton. I’d worked out that I had enough time to do a there-and-back trip on the Dart Valley Steam Railway, and still have plenty of time to get to Killerton for the performance of Hamlet.

I found a little station with a car park some distance away. I parked up and paid, and walked to said station. In spite of signage directing drivers to the station, only on arrival did I see signs saying trains stopped only at the two ends of the line, Paignton and Kingswear, not at any intermediate station! That information is in the small print on the leaflet which I could have picked up in Dartmouth, but I think that brown signs indicating steam trains should be removed if they point to a station where no trains stop.

What could I do? Walk back to the car, shrug off the expense of having paid, and head for Paignton. There, the Dart Valley line and the main line sit side by side, and appear to share the station. However, the entrance to one line does not give access to the other. The car park, though, serves both, and is further away from the Dart Valley Station than the main line, so more walking. That wasn’t the worst of it! – The ONLY parking was for the whole day!! No alternative seemed to be available.

When I got to the correct station, the train was just coming in from ‘the other end’. There was a 15-20 minute pause needed for the engine to change ends, so no rush, I thought. BUT the ticket office was unstaffed. A very nice man did appear, eventually, and asked if I wanted something. “Yes. I want to ride on that train!” He did his very best to make everything as good as it could be (apart from the expensive parking!). He allocated me a seat in the nearest carriage – it was just outside that very door (sorry! those less familiar with ‘The Ghost Train’ won’t realise why I’m phrasing it like that! There’s more to come!), and he explained that the ticket included the ferry crossing to Dartmouth and back (from and to Kingswear) and that I could return by any train. I wouldn’t be crossing to Dartmouth anyway, but returning on the same train.

So I hopped on (er, no – climbed on) and settled in for the trip.

What I’m going to do now is post a few photos of the ride, with a minimum of comment. No more rambling narrations – not till the final event, anyway!

(Sorry about the finger!)

Coming in to Kingswear – that’s Dartmouth over the river.

The engine comes down from the other end to reconnect for the return.

OK – where’s David?

I must get one of those! (When the boat comes in …)

A red lamp! There’s someone … (I told you there was more ‘Ghost Train’ to come!)

Looks like someone’s been bargain hunting!

Paington has some very nice beaches – I wish I’d known that last week!

So what remains? It was no problem to get from Paignton to Killerton in good time. I probably stopped at the Moto services, since they were on the way, then I tried to follow brown NT signs to Killerton House, rather than ask Satnav to find it, but even they weren’t visible when needed once or twice. No problem parking at Killerton, and the buggy service was available to get those who needed the service to the ‘theatre’, or nearly.

As we know, “the play’s the thing ….” – it’s a quote from Hamlet, so what of it? It’s a very long play; it could take between four and five hours to perform, according to scholars. It is always cut, but this group of seven male performers shredded it to less than two hours, racing through what was left of Shakespeare’s script at breakneck speed!

I could go on – I often do about Hamlet!

The journey home on Wednesday 24th July was uneventful, apart from one 20 minute delay – a complete standstill on M5, and once at home, I ate the one remaining boiled egg, which had survived the week! Smudge seemed pleased to see me, but he had been well looked after by my neighbour, Tracy, and a couple of visits from Chris.

If I had to sum up this trip in one word it would be ‘disappointing’ – but with the rider ‘there were some good moments’.

Here’s one last photo:

“Last scene of all, which ends this strange, eventful history ….” (That’s from ‘As You Like It’, but it fits …)