B

ack in the days when the Fat Controller from the Thomas and The Tank Engine series was still allowed to be called fat, many a child would have spent hours watching their Hornby train chug merrily around the tracks, imagining themselves in the engine room shovelling coal and manning the controls.

Well, now it’s time to delight your inner-child by driving a real life full-sized steam train at the Midland Railway in Butterley.

The Railway’s Footplate Experience provides big kids with all the necessary know-how to be able to control the mighty metal machine that is a steam locomotive. After getting that engine stoked, it’s time to blow that whistle, release the break and set off down the main line.

There’s plenty of opportunity to build up a real head of steam on the five mile round trip whilst sneaking peaks at the beautiful countryside.

If your only previous experience of shouting ‘all aboard’ is ushering the family into the Mondeo, now’s your chance to do it for real.

As you stand before the shiny brass controls with the pistons working overtime and the deafening roar of the steam chuffing high into the Midlands sky, you can doff that railwayman’s cap and shout it for real.