Solway Aviation Museum

We had initially planned to visit the Dumfries & Galloway Aviation Museum just outside Dumfries but they're closed on Fridays so the next nearest on the west coast was the Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle Airport.

So, armed with our Scotrail Friends and Family tickets courtesy of Jim McCulloch, 12 of us met at Barrhead Railway Station for our day out south of the border.

That's when problem number one struck - Raymond couldn't find our tickets. 😔

He reckoned he's dropped them while having breakfast in Cup N Saucer, one of our wee local cafés. Thankfully a couple of frantic phone calls later and the owner Joanne drove them down to us in Barrhead.

Since the distance to Carlisle is just over 100 miles, we'd already planned to disembark in Dumfries for a break and some lunch/refreshments.🍴🍺

We were wandering up to the main centre and that's when problem number two struck - I discovered that I'd lost my wallet. 😔

My partner had made me change into a different pair of shorts, which had unfamiliar pockets. Not so much "The Wrong Trousers" but definitely the wrong pockets 🩳. I reckoned it had fallen out on the train seat so, once we'd had a bit of food and I'd cancelled all my cards, I had a chat with the clerk in the station and he phoned Carlisle who confirmed that it had been handed in there. 😀

Once in Carlisle I hunted down the duty manager and retrieved my wallet so many thanks to everyone involved in the recovery and the lads who were quick to offer me some cash for the day.

Onwards to the museum involved us getting three taxis from the station and I don't think any of the taxi drivers knew where it was but we've all got GPS these days so we got there easily enough.

Once we were in, we had a good wander around inside the museum and and then outside to get among the aircraft. We'd had a chat with one of the volunteers and he'd offered to give us a bit of a tour of some of the planes.

Stewart had recently had one of his knees replaced so decided to sit out the more rough and tumble part while the rest of us had a good old rummage about the planes and bits of planes waiting on restoration and so here's a few more photos of us doing that:

Here's a sample of some more of the aircraft you can see and you can see all of the photos taken on the day here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCncwn

So, once we were all aero-planed-out it was back in the taxis to Carlisle for some dinner in the William Rufus, so named after King William II of England, before heading for the train back home.

I think we all enjoyed our day out, regardless of the mishaps, but it had been a long day. We'd all been up since about 7 a.m., had travelled over 230 miles, and didn't get home to nearly 10 p.m. 🥱

Again, many thanks to Joanne from Cup N Saucer and the various railways staff for saving the day.

If you'd like to visit the Solway Aviation Museum, then you'll find all the information you need on their web site:

• • https://www.solway-aviation-museum.co.uk/

They've also got a YouTube Channel and Facebook and Instagram pages:

• • https://www.youtube.com/@solwayaviation

  • https://www.facebook.com/solwayaviationmuseum

  • https://www.instagram.com/solwayaviation/

Other useful sites are:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solway_Aviation_Museum

• https://www.targeta.co.uk/solway_aviation_museum.htm

• https://www.airhistory.net/