Music to the ears

Diesels sound different - Growlers growl, Ventura engined HSTs scream and Hoovers - well, they can make a noise like a vacuum cleaner. That Deltic blowing off under the train shed at Leeds Central did have a certain attraction, though I’m not sure that I ever saw being engulfed in clouds of acrid blue smoke as much of a plus. We were children of the age of steam and our senses were ignited by the smells, sights and sounds of it. Diesels were never going to be able to match up.

The beat of the steam engine was accompanied by the beat revolution. Our platform end experiences were accompanied by an explosion of musical innovation. When not note taking, we imitated our heroes by twanging imaginary guitars, and whistled, sang and misquoted lyrics throughout the day. The Beatles, the Stones, the Kinks and the Beach Boys seized our attention and soared through our consciousness. It’s difficult to convey just how strongly we identified with each new sound and thought of it as somehow belonging to us – House of the Rising Sun, Strawberry Fields, Like a Rolling Stone, See Emily Play, God Only Knows, Space Oddity.

The blossoming didn’t stop when steam finished or the Beatles disbanded. The music just kept coming. I nailed my colours to the prog’ rock mast as well as to Westerns and Warships. The Nice, Vanilla Fudge, Pink Floyd, Yes, Supertramp, Genesis and Procol Harum accompanied me on nationwide rail-rovers, collecting and photographing diesels and electrics - because that was all there was - but by road, too, visiting the embryonic heritage railways for a fix of steam.

I think that’s when my musical clock stopped, because these are the bands I return to time and again, just as I can’t keep away from the Severn Valley Railway or our own Great Central. This is where the mood music is played out now – the thoughtful, tuneful, melodic arrangements of Gary Brooker, Roger Waters, Roger Hodgson and Tony Banks that took the genre as far as it could go. I’m just so grateful to them. Humming chords on a railway platform has a lot to be said for it. Its music to the ears.