You can’t use your bus pass here!
Well it was worth a try! Nor, despite the fact that the East Anglia Transport Museum is fairly near the sea, would they even recognise my Oyster Card.
The transport museum – rather like the one at Crich and I suppose the Beamish site in County Durham has examples of all sorts of public transport from the 20th century.
I recognised trams that I saw as a young boy in Blackpool and trolley buses that got in the way of traffic in Bradford.
But the East Anglia transport museum at Carlton Colville has examples of all sorts of public service vehicles including a train. True the train vaguely resembles the sort that goes up Mount Snowdon, but it is, non the less a train and passengers are taken for a 20 minute ride on it (it rumbles rather than chugs – if you know what I mean)
All the vehicles seemed to be incredible well cared for and the staff operating them looked the way I remembered bus drivers looking ie they had hats and ties and in the bright summer sunshine that in itself must have been something of an achievement. They were helpful and talked readily about their tasks.
If one digs a little deeper at Carlton Colville one can find all sorts of almost hidden gems. There are road signs from yesteryear, electric vehicles which were operating long before Elon Musk devised his massive Tesla white ambulances (sorry cars…it was the darkened windows that fooled me.)
Behind the scenes there is at least one large workshop, where I was allowed to peep – terrific.
I think, in order to support those with enthusiasm, there are plans to develop and expand the site, which I felt was necessary. It is a bit cramped and at the moment bus rides sort of go three times round the block. Nevertheless I recommend it as a place to visit and to watch out for.
Long may it flourish.