Norfolk notes - Enthusiasts

Visit the North Norfolk Railway - the 'Poppy Line' today. Amazing, every time the engine's whistle blows - an ear-piercing shriek - at least a dozen children burst into tears - top! Fat Andy and family are with us and the children are very keen to see a real steam engine, although they do have trouble associating the 500 tonne monster at the end of the platform, smelling of hot oil and belching steam and soot, with the wee model Thomas each holds in their sticky paw. Jump on and travel back 65 years. To celebrate thrashing the Bosche, the station is decked out in sand bags and 'is your journey really necessary' posters, a real villkomen for any tourists that might have decided to visit.

There are tourists but there are also LOTS of men in cagouls with expensive looking cameras, looking at the steam engine, photographing the steam engine and videoing the steam engine. There's only one thing they like more that photographing the engine and that's talking about it, which is how Fat Andy gets an education when he calls the engine a 'train'. The train is engine + carriages. The huge green thing being obsessively polished by blokes who have taken time off work to be here is the 'engine'.

We chuff out, we watch the train turn around, we chuff back. We fork over thirty quid for this but, to be honest, it's better value in terms of entertainment than my season ticket. Of course, when getting on the nostalgia express, I had to fight down the urge to plug in the iPod, hide behind a book and commute.