Robbie Dale talks trains before getting on one and heading further north.

THIS weekend I'm not going to be in York. I am jumping the fence to escape home to Glasgow to enjoy a debauched foray into the world of the 21st birthday.

A friend from school receives the key to the door this week and, as is requisite, our tribe will ingest horrendous alcoholic concoctions and lay claim to one or more of Glasgow City Council's trustingly placed road signs.

My pilgrimage back to Scotland means I will be missing out on the opening to RailFest 2004. OK, I will be spending a morning winging up the east coast on our great railway systems; but that's hardly a 'fest', is it?

Taking place at the National Railway Museum in York from tomorrow for nine days, RailFest promises to "celebrate the past, present and future of rail transport - the technology that changed the world".

Ordinarily, I would find it hard to understand how any curious person could not be entranced by the wonder of having a fantastic museum dedicated to the world of rail in our town, but really... a 'fest', of rail! RailFest!

Come on - I implore you to remember how cool trains are when you have to spend four hours just outside Crewe with only a five pence piece in your hand, which was all the change you got from that very expensive sandwich.

Updated: 08:31 Friday, May 28, 2004