While in the highlands of Scotland during our second week, our rental cottage was about five miles from Boat of Garten, a town that is said to be the inspiration for the popular children’s story, “Thomas the Tank Engine”. For a time, my five year old twin grandsons were so obsessed with Thomas that that was the only thing they thought about.
The route for the Strathspey Steam Railway, the carefully restored steam engine railway that runs between the towns of Avimore & Broomhill, with Boat of Garten the mid-point.
The station itself has also been charmingly restored and has a beautiful ironwork foot bridge crossing the tracks.

They’ve gone out of their way to ‘stage’ the entire station to give you a feel of a bygone era. Notice the old wagon with the milk cans next to the door and the station master waiting for the next train to arrive.

Even the waiting rooms are authentic – starting with the gender-segegated waiting rooms. The Ladies Waiting room looks more like a turn of the century parlor than a train station, don’t you think?

We wanted to take a picture of Thomas for our grandsons, but he didn’t make an appearance. However, Percy came steaming into the station with a long line of dining cars in tow. I apologize for the shaky video, but I was on the foot bridge as the train arrived, and had to walk fast to the front to get the water being pumped into the tank. If you move the time up to the 30 second mark, that is when the train appears.