Train of thought

     I'm in unapologetic nostalgic mood today, caused in part by listening to the Flanders and Swann song "Slow Train". If you don't already know it, it's about the closure of the less-used railway lines and stations (the so-called Beeching Axe); you can listen to it here, and I urge you to as it's sad but lovely.

    Who better to look to for a sympathetic view of railways than John Betjeman. Here's a passage from Trains and Buttered Toast: "Best of all I know that station in Cornwall I loved as a boy - the oil lights, the smell of seaweed floating up the estuary, the rain-washed platform and the sparkling Cornish granite and the hedges along the valleys around, soon to be heavy with blackberries. I think of Edward Thomas's lovely poem 'Adlestrop', on a country station in the Cotswolds:

     Yes. I remember Adlestrop - The name, because one afternoon Of heat the express-train drew up there Unwontedly. It was late June.

      The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat. No one left and no one came On the bare platform. What I saw Was Adlestrop - only the name.

That verse recalls one of the deeper pleasures of a country railway station - its silence, broken only by the crunching of a porter's feet on the gravel, the soft country accent of the stationmaster and the crash bang of a milk can somewhere at the back of the platform. The train, once in the centre of a noisy town, has drifted into the deep heart of the English country, with country noises brushing the surfaces of a deeper silence."

 

     Betjeman goes on: "I like an old, bumpy carriage with a single gaslight in the ceiling, that peculiar design only known to railways on the upholstery, views of Tenby, Giant's Causeway, Morecambe Bay, Bala Lake and so on under the rack marked 'For Light Articles Only'. I like to see a loop of upholstered leather in the corner seats of first-class carriages into which you are meant to put your arm should the train travel fast...."

    As to station refreshment rooms, who could forget the one in Brief Encounter where Laura and Alec meet and their romance - all clipped vowels and Rachmaninov - begins. It's wonderful stuff, and to get a taste of it have a look here.

    And after Flanders and Swann and Johnson and Howard, there can't be a dry eye in the house!

Comments

[Margaret Powling]

One of my dearest memories of steam travel was when, in 1960, I (and others) went on an exchange holiday to Luneburg, Germany. We took the train from Torquay to Paddington and then the boat train to Dover. It was, as were most trains in those days, a 'corridor' train, and packed to the rafters (if trains have rafters!) mainly with a German youth orchestra returning home after a tour of England, with all their musical instruments in cases and piled in the corridor. It was late at night when we reached Dover, and excitement was mounting amongst us all, the young Germans returning home, ourselves on our first trip abroad. I'm sure it wouldn't have been half as exciting by diesel engine or even Eurostar. We were going across the sea to a foreign land ...

[Simon Thomas]

Thanks for alerting me to my Normblog profile being posted - and thanks for your kind words. It is fun, isn't it?

Have you read As It Was and World Without End by Helen Thomas, Edward's widow. Autobiographical, only with changed names, they are beautifully written narratives of their courtship and marriage, up to Edward's leaving for WW1 (where he died). Natural story teller - I'll be blogging about them further soon.

And your Mum sounds exactly like my Mum!

[Claire]

Love the pictures. Is the train interior an Edward Bawden?

[daphne sayed]

cornflower, You have the right mix. i love your blog and wouldn't mind if it were even longer.

[Becca]

What a perfect post. I adore trains and tiny stations and station/village names and all the possibilities. Adlestrop ... I love your blog ...

[Fay Sheco]

Karen, my teen-aged son's old-time string band is named after a defunct Montana railroad line, and I forwarded him the YouTube link. Great song.

Jawbone Railroad:
http://www.myspace.com/jawbonerailroad

[Margaret Powling]

Oh dear, Cornflower! Your blog will be the ruination of me! I've known about this book for some time and of course, I couldn't resist looking it up on Amazon from where it went straight onto my Wish List. I've now converted that into an order. Oh, I am so weak-willed where books are concerned!

[rosie]

How I love travelling by trian, though I do miss the days of diesel railcars: fabulous wide windows and the chance to sit right behind the driver. Modern trains seem alarmingly hermetically sealed. I also love that Ravilious painting (Train Landscape, 1939). Have you seen the pastiche of this which Slightly Foxed will be using as the cover for issue 17? (if not, it is on my last blog post but one or two).

[Peter the flautist]

This "cat on a seat" is also a lover of rail travel, but has no problem with modern locomotives and carriages. Do any of you know the utterly wonderful book "Notes from the Overground"(Paladin Books) by "Tiresias" (1984)? If you have ever commuted, or had a partner or friend that commuted, by rail this book should be at the top of your (voluminous) "to be read" piles.

Steam-powered mog

[Mr Cornflower]

From time to time I have to use the Docklands Light Railway from London City Airport which uses unmanned i.e. driverless trains; I always - overgrown child that I am - try to sit right at the front so that I can get the best view and pretend to be the driver. Who says the romance of railway travel is dead?
Incidentally, I once heard that someone created as an insomnia cure a film recorded, I believe, from the driver's cab of a suburban train in Germany which went round a suburban loop line, slowly. Apparently it was hypnotically effective. Has anyone else heard of this and is there a link to it?

[Juliet]

There's a stage version of the film on in London as from this week - played in an old cinema, complete with period-costumed staff and lots of Rachmaninov. Sounds rather wonderful! http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2244698,00.html

[Frank]

Love the paintings. I heard a radio one hour doco about Flanders and Swann on Canberra radio, ARTSOUND FM in December 2 or 3 years ago, here in Australia. It was delightful to listen to. It described the lives of the artists/singers and played their music. Isn't the radio presenter Laura Flanders of The Nation the daughter of the Flanders guy? Isn't it funny how writers or radio/singers continue thru generations. Is it genetic or nurture? Who knows?

[Lyn Baines]

Karen, you've planned my Sunday night movie viewing for this week. Another lovely wallow in Brief Encounter, one of my favourite movies. I may have to get the Rachmaninov CDs out this afternoon to get myself in the mood even more.

[Avice]

Lovely post. Thank you.

[Nan]

I have the Betjeman book waiting patiently on the shelf. Just the name warms my heart and stirs my imagination, toast being my favorite food.

[Lewis Bae]

Those were lovely paintings, and such a nice post..