Steam, Cars and Steam Cars

Not a great day weather wise, it was damp when I left site and headed for the Strumpshaw Steam Museum. I probably wouldn't have known about this but for the TV programme Salvage Hunters. It's another of those collections started by one man, but it's now a trust. The difference to Thursford is immeasurable. This is anything but a sanitised tourist attraction, you can wander around amongst the engines, etc. Everything is oily and a bit grubby and they don't mind if kids start clambering on things (although they rarely get youngsters). It's quite an eclectic collection, including various steam tractors and rollers, a few diesel tractors and engines plus a couple of larger engines. One of the beam engines and a couple of the smaller ones were running (on compressed air) and they also started up one of the fairground organs. I had a bit chat with a couple of the people and a coffee, well worth a fiver.

Not really having much else planned I thought I'd drive down to Caister, but before I got there I saw signs for the Caister Castle Car Collection. I thought that looked a good visit and it had the advantage of being largely indoors as the rain was getting quite heavy. This started out as another private collection, that of a Dr Hill, and is now housed in purpose built galleries adjacent to the ruined castle. They have everything there from the very first cars (and bicycles which predate even those) through to some relatively modern "classics". If there was an issue is that the cars are so packed in it's not easy to take photos. A few cars stood out for me, including a small collection of steam cars (a White, a Stanley and a couple of others).

I made use of their tearoom but decided not to climb the 147 steps to the top of the castle tower - the wooden spiral staircase is open tread and I really don't like those. I did run down into Caister itself but with the poor weather didn't stop so made my way back to the site. There had been talk that the Vulcan would be flying over but no sign of it - I don't know if the info was incorrect or if plans changed due to the weather.