We meet at Crewe about lunchtime and our first visit is a few miles further north near Northwich. Here we take a boat ride through the amazing Anderton Boat Lift – a truly remarkable piece of Victorian engineering and the world’s first boat lift.

A cracking day out in The Wirral is completed without the use of a coach at all. Local rail and the famous Mersey Ferry take us to Albert Dock in Liverpool for the extensive Merseyside Maritime Museum. In the afternoon we are back across the river for Birkenhead’s historic trams and associated heritage museum. Mid- afternoon you have the option of visiting picturesque Port Sunlight or of returning to Chester early for independent explorations of the city.

Off over the border today for a round trip into Wales and a super steamy excursion. We travel over the hills to the Bala Lake Railway at Llanuwchllyn for a narrow-gauge trip, chuffing alongside the lake and keeping an eye out for the resident monster. Later we track the ex-GWR line back into the Dee Valley for an afternoon at the Llangollen Railway – another scenic ride of riverside and country views.

After breakfast we head south once more by rail to Wrexham and on then to Trevor. The highlight of our last day is quite literal as we travel the “stream in the sky” over Telford’s famous Pontcysylite Aqueduct by boat. After a local lunch we set off cross-country to Crewe Station where homeward bound journeys commence mid-afternoon.