Leighton Buzzard

We are on our way south for an autumn break on the Thames, or at least that's the plan. We left Yardley Gobion on Saturday morning in warm sunshine with the forecast of dropping temperatures but not much rain. Looking out over the valley of the River Tove near Castlethorpe reminded us how pleasant our home waters are. Within half a mile we were chasing a kingfisher down the cut.

Tove Valley looking towards Hanslope

Phillips bridge Cosgrove

We pushed on through Milton Keynes because our aim was to be in Leighton Buzzard for Sunday. As we passed through Wolverton a boat was going North with a small terrier trotting along the towpath happily wagging his tail. The small dog suddenly stopped, turned around and proceeded to follow our boat. The dog followed us for quite some distance and would not turn around and return to his owner's boat, which had stopped and was trying to encourage the dog to return. Luckily a walker arrived on the scene and managed to turn him around and he trotted back to the right boat.

As we passed through Campbell Park the first of a steady stream of Wyvern Shipping hire-boats came past going north. They had certainly chosen a good weekend for a break. We didn't find many boats going our direction until we met a broad-beam hire boat (yes there are such things) going south very slowly. The crew were under instruction and were not familiar with boat handling. Getting such a large craft through some of the narrow bridge holes near Simpson was tricky and not helped by overhanging trees restricting the navigation. Following behind we were reduced to going astern on a few occasions to slow down enough. The crew of the broad beam soon got the hang of it and after the instructor left them at Fenny Stratford they began to make good progress.

Trees, narrow bridges and wide boats

We stopped off at Stoke Hammond Lock for the night.

Today we moved on to Leighton Buzzard and by lunch we had found a mooring just above the Linslade/Leighton bridge. We took on water just before mooring up and met NB Morpheus.

Passing breasted up working boats above Leighton Lock

The afternoon was spent with our daughter Emily and grandchildren visiting the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway. Based on the sand extraction quarry area of the town this is a wonderful little railway that winds around the town with numerous level crossings. They were having a motor cycle event as well as running steam and diesel locos. We went on a train to the Stonehenge Quarry and back which was double-headed by two diesel locos each powered by 22 HP twin-cylinder diesels (not too dissimilar to the 2YWM in Albert). Matilda and Hugh really enjoyed the trip, particularly when the train stopped the traffic on the road.

Double-head diesels

Doll

However, the highlight of the afternoon (for me) was driving an 1877 loco called Chaloner with a vertical boiler. It was great fun. It's a wonderfully basic locomotive and doesn't even have a cab or spring suspension.

Chaloner

Outbound

Inbound

Driving Experience

The Leighton Buzzard Railway runs a whole series of events and I am sure we will be back. I would certainly recommend it if you are in Leighton Buzzard and want an afternoon off the boat.