JUST about every conceivable means of propulsion greeted visitors to Lymm Historic Transport Day.

Classic cars, trial bikes, tractors, vintage buses, model railways, canal boats, there was even a bi-plane fly-past on the bill.

But no trams - and that is where, if these village travel buffs really wanted to refocus their energies, travel in North Cheshire could enter a new golden age.

Amid all the talk of HS2, electrification and the Northern Hub, why not float the idea of getting the Metrolink to spread its tentacles even further west?

Think what a boon it would be for the village to shake off the shackles of merely being an outpost of Greater Warrington and become better connected to the thriving metropolis.

No sooner would the line be extended off from Timperley than other long forgotten stop-offs en-route could be rescued from the depths of history like Heatley and Warburton, Dunham Massey (handy for the hall) and Broadheath.

Before you know it there could be a much sought-after branch line servicing High Legh, Chelford, Mobberley and Knutsford.

(One Metrolink extension to Manchester Airport is already scheduled to open soon, running through Wythenshawe and Benchill, so at least a North Cheshire line would counteract that loss leader.) If I was feeling truly ambitious I'd suggest you could look the other way to Thelwall and Latchford but that might just scare the horses a little, especially if it eventually linked to the town centre through Arpley.

Honestly considered, it would give some purpose to the viaduct which runs at the back of Boteler playing fields, which was once used by an (occasional) classmate to take potshots at members of our school football team with a BB gun in the middle of a game.

This would however lead to howls of protest, no doubt, from the operators of our local 'stopper' service, on the Manchester to Liverpool line, who would insist we should continue to use their Third World carriages.

If I know walkers, cyclists and horse riders like I think I do though then I'm positive they would relinquish the Lymm to Broadheath section of the Trans-Pennine Trail in favour of a cleaner and greener tram concept which may take more cars off the north-west's roads in the long run.

Maybe I've squandered too many hours impatiently sat at bus stops or on train station platforms this week and my thinking has become somewhat cloudy.

But compared to cutting through a vast swathe of Culcheth, a la HS2, for little discernible benefit for the borough, this pie-in-the-sky idea is gold-dust.