Wherever do I start?

Fire and water have been my fascination as far back as I can remember. Steam engines have always been my way of expressing myself. Somehow, I learned to speak their language and become friends with them.

At the tender age of eight I was shovelling coal into a Steam Crane boiler, while lots of my friends were just starting to write numbers down in train spotters books. That never did it for me, I just had to be part of it.

Although my Mum laughs now, she can remember the bathroom being black with coal and oil stains following my always very late return home on a weekend. I recall doing things that modern health and safety officers would have heart attacks just at the thought.

Images from my childhood of railway locomotives being scrapped still haunt me and without doubt helped to shape my life in years to come. Progressing from being a Fireman on a preserved industrial railway, I went on to be a Driver on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. With experience, I was honoured to be promoted to Firing Instructor and finally Traction Inspector.

For a number of years, this was my full time occupation and I really did get to live the life.

To cut this very long story a little shorter, when the chance came along to take to the road with Elizabeth, there was just no stopping me. Now, as the only full time road steam engineman, possibly in the world, I’ve found my true niche in life.

People often ask if I ever get bored with driving the same journey, several times a day and up to 285 days a year- not likely! So much so that nearly seven years ago I turned my back on the railway engines I have loved so much.

The affair will never die, but I will never go back. I have some wonderful memories from those days. Some of the legends I have driven, not to mention working for television’s Heartbeat and The Royal are things I look back on with fondness, and driving in the Harry Potter films, surely a once in a lifetime chance.

Like all jobs, mine has its moments, but swap it, no way!