The blue train was a Lumo one (London to Edinburgh). The silver one may have been Cross Country, and the British Rail-type one could have been an excursion from Bedford to Edinburgh.
Books to explain all this are indeed available....

Bamburgh is lovely. Much more castly than Alnwick which I visited the same day. I'm a member and go on most of Philip Dulys tours. Well worth doing the tours. Also an episode of Blake's 7 was filmed in those sand dunes.

We don't put decorations or cards up until 24th December. They then stay up until 2nd February (the official end of Christmastide) so that we get good value from them! Like you, we go down the minimalist route.

Thanks Man of Kent. Which books do you recommend?

Debster - I didn't know about HH until a coupleof weeks ago. They need to do more publicity.

Tim - blimey.

I had to buy a second tree as I've got too many balls. Now the old tree has the crazy decorations like the dinosaur on skis and the new one has the normal balls. That's the only decorations I do though.

There aren't enough trees in Kielder Forest for all the baubles we have Debster. However, we now seem to only use the blue and gold ones.

No tree this year as the chaotic kittens are on the loose. They have taken to scratching and eating wallpaper!

One wooden tree made by good friend of ours and patterned with the battery and water method? Not sure of its name. Not pyrography as you can’t plan where to burn. Minimal decorations on it almost all flat rounders with designs from various people. Oh and Mr Mogs felted snowman on sledge with snowballs to be thrown.