Railart 2018

The Guild of Railway Artists annual Railart exhibition ends this Sunday on the 30^th of September.

Until then there are fifty-three paintings on show by twenty-eight different artists, ranging from the uncanny realism of Chris Holland and David French to Emma Safe’s more abstract charcoal drawings.

Though most images concentrate as usual on the post-war age of steam, there are also examples from railways abroad, scrapyard scenes, the heritage lines and modern traction.

A wonderful Malcolm Root special meets you at the top of the stairs, above the museum at Kidderminster station museum. In the Bleak Mid Winter immediately conjures up a freezing day at Epping station featuring the push and pull to Ongar.

Other favourites of mine, in addition to the usual masterful Hawkins and Austin offerings, include David Halliwell and his attempts to bring to life the many onlookers that the steam railway acquired, the atmospheric work of Peter Annable and the convincing way that Rob Rowland embeds his work in the urban environment.

Alexandria - Amtrak and Metro

Alexandria is connected to Washington by both the DC city Metro and the national Amtrak system. The two lines run parallel to each other through Alexandria.

The pleasant and spacious Amtrak station in Alexandria was built in 1905 in what is described as the Federal Revivalist style. It served three different railroad companies at that time – the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Washington Southern and the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac. Today it continues to have links to a number of destinations in Virginia, including Fredericksburg and Manassas.

 

The Railway

The National Gallery of Art in Washington DC is part of the amazing collection of museums and galleries within a stone’s throw [though I wouldn’t try it, if I were you] of the White House and the Capitol building, which are collectively known as the Smithsonian Institution.

Edouard Manet’s “The Railway” is just one of the recognisable masterpieces in an extraordinary array of work from Da Vinci and Giotto to Constable, Turner and Gainsborough and that’s before you even get to the impressionists.

It depicts Gare Saint-Lazare in Paris in 1873, though the only evidence of the train is the cloud of steam visible through the iron railings. Apparently, it was not well received by the critics at the time and was referred to as baffling, incoherent and sketchy. It was later interpreted more favourably as a very modern painting of its time. What is striking about it for me is that it is a very early and very unusual railway painting that once viewed will never be forgotten.

  

Wilkes Street Tunnel

The Orange and Alexandria Railroad was set up in 1848 and three years later they had reached the riverside on the west bank of the Potomac River using the Wilkes Street tunnel. That enabled rail traffic from the rest of the system to run down the slope to the wharves and warehouses in Old Town, Alexandria. The tunnel still exists and is of cut-and-cover stone wall construction. It was used by the Union troops in the American Civil War to equip their army in Virginia.

The tunnel was closed to rail traffic in 1975 and the tracks were removed. It now provides a recreational path for walkers and cyclists linked to a riverside trail. A plaque attached to the sidewall at the tunnel entrance explains its history in some detail. It is one of very few surviving reminders of Alexandria’s former importance as a rail centre.

Cracking the Flags

It was 35 degrees Celsius in Alexandria, Virginia, and very humid. Using our umbrella as a parasol, we intrepidly set forth to look for evidence of the city’s railways, past and present.

A former tobacco port in colonial days and now an affluent suburban settlement on the west bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria’s waterfront is just seven miles south and within view of the Capitol building in Washington DC.

Approaching Alexandria from Washington on the George Washington Memorial Parkway, and having already passed Arlington and the Pentagon, the road crosses the remaining single-line railroad track - unused but still in situ on the northern outskirts of town. A short distance to the east and next to the river, we found the end of the line.

Opened in 1859 as part of the Alexandria, Loudain and Hampshire Railroad, it was one of a number of initiatives aimed at opening up the coalfields of West Virginia. Passenger trains subsequently offered city dwellers opportunities for recreation in the hills of western Virginia. Operated eventually by the Norfolk Southern Railway, this spur from Alexandria Junction to the riverside eventually closed in 1989.

There is apparently some discussion in Alexandria about removing the track over the main road because traffic has to slow down to cross it as it approaches the built-up area. Conservationists may argue that that is no bad thing in itself. On this particular day it was the heat that was slowing us down as we sought respite in an air-conditioned cafe.

No railways in Iceland

A short line ran into Reykjavik from a quarry at Okjuhlio between 1913 and 1928. It was used in the construction of the breakwaters at the port.

One of the two surviving 1890s, Jung-built, 900 mm narrow gauge steam locomotives, Minor, is on display at the dockside, mounted on a short section of rail.

Though I would not normally be drawn to a country with no railways, Iceland has many other attractions, including active volcanoes [one due to blow shortly, we were told], geysers, dramatic waterfalls, relatively recent lava flows, glaciers, hot springs and a rift valley between the Eurasian and American tectonic plates - so something for everyone, as long as you like physical geography.