On Track - a Gricer's Tales
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        • August 2018 - the best laid plans of mice and men
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        • July 2019 - Interrail part 1
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        • June 2022 - Interrail
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        • June 2024 - France, Belgium, Luxembourg
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2018 marked a Significant Birthday and to celebrate this, it was decided that Mrs EG and I would spoil ourselves with a 10 day first class Interrail, sweep up a lot of oddments in various of my 'usual suspect' countries and have a brief look at Switzerland via the Golden Pass line. Pretty straightforward.

The winter discount offer from Interrail was made use of, a flight to Wrocław was booked with a certain Irish airline, along with passholder fares on Eurostar for the return to allow a reasonably comfortable return (at least as far as Wolverhampton). Several months of research followed to establish places to stay, places to eat (one of us is vegetarian and the other is, as readers of this site will know, the world's fussiest eater), and places to visit.

With just a month to go, all seemed 'fair set for France' and, if I remember correctly, 8 other countries. Then one July morning I awoke to see what appeared to be a large swelling on the outside of my nose. An exploratory finger soon revealed that there was no such swelling and it quickly became clear (or not) that an arc on the left of my field of vision was in fact a field of non-vision. To cut a long story short, a detached retina was confirmed and in all fairness to them, the NHS sprang into action and I spent the following day at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital, extremely frightened but ultimately repaired, up to a point. Those who've had this experience will know that you end up with a bubble of gas in the affected eye which holds the retina in place while it heals, and the consequences of flying in such a condition don't bear thinking about!

So that put the trip on hold. Complications following the op which meant I had only one functioning eye for three months, and added complication from a malevolent and recurrent chest infection which prevented any further repair work (coughing during eye surgery is not recommended!), meant complete abandonment. For the first year since 1991 I did no 'mainland' European track at all, and UK track was limited to the admirable Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway (done on that birthday with only one eye functioning and not really new track as I did it in BR days) and the equally admirable Kinver & West Midlands Society of Model Engineers miniature line in south Staffordshire. The pictures below sum up the year's bashing, although we did get to Ieper for the parade on Sunday 11 November 2018, but not by rail - oh wait, I suppose I did re-do some European track from wherever the border is on the Eurotunnel system, to Coquelles and back. Further exploration had to wait until 2019.

In the end it was a year before I was anywhere near fit to travel and even then it was a last minute expedition, having had to cancel a railtour booking as my constant coughing would have been a nightmare for my fellow passengers on a three day trip! As it turned out my symptoms were minimal when I finally boarded a plane to Munich and cleared completely when I arrived in Prague a couple of days later, ironically on a day with an air pollution warning was in force.
Picture
Alas, I wasn't able to photograph GWR haulage at the GWR, so the rebuilt Merchant Navy was requisitioned instead. 35006 'Peninsular & Oriental S.N.Co' is seen here after arrival at Cheltenham Racecourse - at least I was able to grice a new platform on foot!
Picture
GWR haulage was the order of the day at Kinver, where one of the members owns this very handsome 5" gauge model of 7804 'Baydon Manor'.
The next trip turned out to be a rehashed version of the 2018 plan, starting in Germany rather than Poland as originally intended.
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  • Home
  • The Tales
    • The Tales - Index
    • How it all began
    • 1991-1999 >
      • 1991
      • 1992
      • 1993 >
        • April 1993 - Belgium & Luxembourg
        • September 1993 - Germany & Poland
        • September 1993 - Belgium
        • November 1993 - Belgium
      • 1994 >
        • January 1994 - Belgium & Netherlands
        • January 1994 - USA
        • April 1994 - Luxembourg
        • May 1994 - Belgium
        • September 1994 - Belgium
        • October 1994 - Luxembourg, Germany, France
      • 1995 >
        • March 1995 - Belgium
        • April 1995 - Poland
        • May 1995 - The Netherlands
        • August 1995 - Belgium
        • October 1995 - Belgium
        • November 1995 - Belgium
      • 1996 >
        • April 1996 - Germany
        • May 1996 - Belgium and the Netherlands
        • July-August 1996 - Belgium
        • August 1996 - Anniversary tour
        • August 1996 - Belgium
        • September 1996 - Netherlands and Belgium
      • 1997 >
        • May 1997 - Belgium
        • May 1997 - Netherlands and Germany
        • July 1997 - Belgium and Germany
        • July 1997 - Germany
        • October 1997 - France
      • 1998 >
        • January 1998 - Germany
        • February 1998 - Belgium
        • April 1998 - Belgium and Germany
        • April 1998 - Netherlands, Belgium & Germany
        • August 1998 - Germany, Poland, Czech Republic
        • December 1998 - Germany
      • 1999 >
        • January 1999 - Germany
        • February 1999 - Belgium
        • April 1999 - Germany, Czech Republic, Poland
        • June 1999 - Belgium, Germany
        • July 1999 - Germany
        • December 1999 - Germany
    • 2000-2009 >
      • 2000 >
        • February 2000 - Germany
        • March 2000 - Germany
        • April 2000 - France
        • April 2000 - Germany
        • May 2000 - Germany
        • August 2000 - Germany, Czech Republic
        • September 2000 - Belgium
        • September 2000 - Belgium and Germany
      • 2001 >
        • January 2001 - Germany
        • February 2001 - Northern Ireland
        • March 2001 - Germany
        • April 2001 - Germany
        • May 2001 - Germany, Denmark and Sweden
        • May 2001 - Netherlands and Germany
        • October 2001 - Germany
        • December 2001 - Germany
      • 2002 >
        • February 2002 - Germany
        • March 2002 - Germany
        • April 2002 - Germany
        • August 2002 - Czech Republic
        • September 2002 - Netherlands
        • October 2002 - Germany
        • November 2002 - Germany (1)
        • November 2002 - Germany (2)
      • 2003 >
        • January 2003 - Germany
        • April 2003 - France
        • May 2003 - Germany
        • June 2003 - Czech Republic and Slovakia
        • October 2003 - Czech Republic
        • December 2003 - Germany
      • 2004 >
        • March 2004 - Germany
        • April 2004 - Various countries
        • May 2004 - Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia, Hungary
        • August 2004 - Germany, Switzerland, Austria
        • October 2004 - Germany
      • 2005 >
        • April 2005 - Germany, Czech Republic
        • June 2005 - Portugal
        • August 2005 - Belgium and Germany
        • October 2005 - Germany and Czech Republic
      • 2006 >
        • January 2006 - Germany
        • March 2006 - Germany
        • May 2006 - Ireland
        • July 2006 - Germany
        • August 2006 - Germany
        • September 2006 - Czech Republic and Slovakia
      • 2007 >
        • February 2007 - Czech Republic
        • May 2007 - Czech Republic
        • June 2007 - Germany and France
        • October 2007 - Czech Republic and borders
        • October-November 2007 - Czech Republic
      • 2008 >
        • April 2008 - Czech Republic
        • April 2008 - Germany
        • July 2008 - Czech Republic, Poland
        • August 2008 - Austria (1)
        • August 2008 - Austria (2)
        • December 2008 - Czech Republic
        • December 2008 - Austria
      • 2009 >
        • July 2009 - Czech Republic, Slovakia
        • August 2009 - Austria
        • September 2009 - Slovakia
        • November 2009 - Austria
    • 2010-2019 >
      • 2010 >
        • April 2010 - Germany
        • July 2010 - Germany, Belgium, Netherlands
        • July 2010 - Austria
      • 2011 >
        • April 2011 - Austria
        • June 2011 - Germany and 6 others
        • October 2011 - Germany
      • 2012 >
        • April 2012 - Belgium and Germany
        • May 2012 - Germany
        • July 2012 - Germany
        • October 2012 - Germany
      • 2013 >
        • March 2013 - Czech Republic
        • April 2013 - Germany
        • August 2013 - Germany
      • 2014 >
        • May 2014 - Germany
        • July 2014 - Germany
      • 2015 >
        • April 2015 - Germany, Czech Republic
        • June 2015 - Slovakia, Czech Republic
      • 2016 >
        • March 2016 - Slovakia
        • April 2016 - Slovakia
        • June 2016 - Netherlands plus 5
        • November 2016 - Germany, Poland
      • 2017 >
        • March 2017 - Germany, Poland
        • July 2017 - Czech Republic and Poland
        • July 2017 - Poland and Slovakia
      • 2018 >
        • August 2018 - the best laid plans of mice and men
      • 2019 >
        • July 2019 - Interrail part 1
        • August 2019 - Interrail part 2
    • 2020-present >
      • 2022 >
        • June 2022 - Interrail
        • September 2022 - Belgium
      • 2024 >
        • June 2024 - France, Belgium, Luxembourg
  • Contact