Those reading this from the UK will know this Friday is Fireworks Night which celebrates, if that us the right term, the failure of Guy Fawkes and his 12 conspirators to carry out The Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament along with King James the First in 1604. He was caught before he could carry out the destruction of Parliament on the 5th November 1604, then tried where he and his conspirators were found guilty and sentenced to death in a particularly cruel manner - more details by clicking here. The sentence was carried out on the 31st January 1606. However back in 1605, Londoners were encouraged to light bonfires to celebrate the King's escape from assassination. An Act of Parliament declared the 5th November as a 'day of thanksgiving' and remained in place until 1859. Well enough of the history but don't say this blog isn't, at times, educational!
So what has this to do with my blog? Well it was my day to volunteer at the Rocks by Rail Museum where I noticed these two new arrivals when I got there.
I understand that they have been acquired from another museum and are gunpowder wagons and that is about all I know. Lets just hope that they are empty and the both the wagons and museum will still be there next week after Fireworks Night unless of course there is a museum member called Guy Fawkes Jnr!
Getting back to the work for the day, it was back on the chain gang of digging out ballast for cleaning. A hard task when its been contaminated with mud and sand and compacted by vehicles running over it but as I said before - its a dirty job but someone has to do it! That is very true actually and until I started volunteering I had no full appreciation for just what goes it to keeping a museum such as this going - much of it unseen by the public. Anyway three of us managed a fair amount today and Richard's dog Riley was on hand to keep us in line and working!
Start of the day.....
