This book by Francis Bourgeois is imbued with infectious enthusiasm. I never imagined that there was so much fun to be had with diesels, having hardly welcomed them in in the 1960s, as steam gradually gave up the ghost. I had to adapt pretty quickly and, certainly begrudgingly, I came to accept them as the main actors thereafter. After all, I kept on spotting them, travelling behind them and photographing them.
I admired the HSTs when they were new – screaming through
Goring and Streatley in their bright blue and yellow kit. The loudest noise I
ever heard a diesel make was a Deltic under the roof at Leeds Central. Sudden
blasts from both engines - the loco’ had appeared dormant up to that point,
which shot powerful jets of blue smoke up to the rafters. Why it did that, I
have no idea, but it was very theatrical. I copped my last Western diesel – D1028
Western Hussar – at Newton Abbott. As it approached in its maroon livery, I had
a premonition that this was finally the one – and it was.
Francis Bourgeois is an excitable young man and the first
ever celebrity trainspotter, through his action videos and the TV appearances
that followed. I guess I had never even thought of that as a possibility. He is
very candid in this very readable account about how trains play on his
emotions, as well as on his positive relationships with his fellow spotters,
his dealings with those he comes across while following his obsession and his
friendships amongst the railway community - such a large proportion of whom
have always been enthusiasts at heart.
Effervescent personality springs from every page of this book, and there is abundant warmth and humanity, too. It made for perfect bedtime reading, reminding me perhaps about how reserved and almost embarrassed I might sometimes have been in the past about proclaiming my hobby. I should have simply rejoiced in it quite publicly, as Francis Bourgeois manages at every turn.
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