Xmas Walk-Wythall Station to Wythall Transport Museum 3.6 miles (20/12/23)

Members Present, B Mulrennan, D McDonnell, K Maguire, P Cotterill, A Jones, D Peters, M Sadler, A Dulson, C. Nourish, M Simmonds, H Jones, N Graham, D Chambers, R Jones, R Kumar and R Wilcock (16)

Members met at Wythall station at 1000 in good walking conditions and proceeded to buy from the local shop, goodies for the end of the walk. These were loaded into the car for Helen to take up to the museum. So after shouting 'we all here'? we set off on the short 3-4 mile walk to the museum. After about  5 minutes, I received an out of breath phone call from Adrian saying that we had left him in the shop and he was hastily trying to catch up. Luckily, he hardly mentioned this for the rest of the walk, indeed, day! 
A couple of muddy tracks were walked, a closed golf course( water logged) and a few lanes under our belts and we arrived at the museum just after 1130. Could have been 1120 but I did get lost once!

So, the museum gave us use of one of the display halls to congregate where we were joined by the Graters, Freemans, Cliff, Hema, John Roberts, Kevin Johnson and Andy Sear We had our lunch, which was traditional for our Xmas walk in that members brought lots of their own food and drink  to share and after an hour, quiz sheets were handed out to answer at leisure. Meanwhile, there was an option to take a break from the quiz and go to the miniature railway and have a 'play' on the train. Some played more successfully than others.
Once re assembled back in the display hall, the answers were given to the quiz and then some people had some  Irish dancing moves to show off ( I'd say more like Scottish in parts) and Raj Kumar taught us how to Bangra.
At 1550, festivities were concluded and those getting the train home were shuttled down to the station on a vintage bus provided by the museum.
I'd like to thank the club and it's members for their donations to both the Bus museum and the railway (operated by Elmdon Model engineering society). 

By the comments received, I think most people enjoyed the twists to the day of an arriving at an unusual venue and having the opportunity to drive a real steam train.

Karl Maguire