Playing Trains & Rievaulx Abbey
26 August 2023
A day trip out with the wonderful Jane to an old haunt and a new haunt.
The RSME Main Line Rallies are among the star events in the 5-inch gauge railway world and attract model engineers who prefer to run their locomotives or rolling stock in prototypical fashion. There is also a growing following among the public who just like to watch the trains go by. The RSME rallies are organised by two Model-engineering societies, the RSME and the LMS (Lindsey Model Engineers) and take place on a weekend for two days in early May and three days over the August bank holiday.
11227 LMS Pug built by Bill Underwood and Steve Probert
I’ve enjoyed attending this wonderful event many times over the years. It’s lovely to come back and play trains again. Somehow men don’t tend to grow out of this hobby!
1997
2001
2012
2023
Highlights from the 2023 Mainline Rally
Highlights video here.
Michael Topham
Michael Topham
Jane & Jon
11227 LMS Pug
11227 LMS Pug
Sir Nigel Gresley
Good for a railwayman's dinner
NER Class E1
LNER A3
Only 15 minutes down the road we have the amazing...
Rievaulx Abbey
Though it may appear to be an unspoilt natural landscape, the Rye Valley has been used and shaped by human hands for almost 900 years. For the monastic community who settled here in 1132, the valley offered an ideal sheltered situation, with abundant resources of fuel, building matcrial and, most importantly, fresh water. In harnessing the valley's water supply, the community at Rievaulx and many others since have had a profound impact on the landscape and its wildlife.
Abbot William and 12 monks of the reforming and austere Cistercian Order founded Rievaulx Abbey in 1132. The Cistercians wanted to return to the basic principles of monasticism, following a daily routine of church services, reading and manual work.
Rievaulx prospered and there were soon other Cistercian settlements in northern England and Scotland. By the 1160s the abbey was home to 640 men who dedicated their lives to the service of God. The community comprised choir monks, who spent a large part of their day in church, and a new type of monk called lay brothers, who worked the land. Rievaulx attracted recruits of the highest calibre, including Aelred, abbot between 1147 and 1167, who was later venerated at the abbey as a saint. Many of Rievaulx's buildings date from his time.
For 400 years Rievaulx was a place of piety, a provider of charity and hospitality, and an important landowner
