Railway Poets

At Southwell library’s most recent writers live open mic’ session, Betjeman was recalled. Sir John was a prominent railway poet. The statue erected in his memory at St Pancras station pays tribute to his successful campaign to restore the station hotel building.

Philip Larkin is similarly associated with the railway through some of his poems, to the extent that his statue adorns the concourse at Hull Paragon station.

Perhaps less well-known is that Thomas Hardy was a prolific poet as well as a novelist and that he did not ignore the railway scene, either. His statue in Dorchester overlooks a busy roundabout.

 “……..And then, on the platform, she:

A radiant stranger, who saw not me.

I said, “Get out to her do I dare?”

But I kept my seat in my search for a plea,

And the wheels moved on. O could it be

That I had alighted there!”

[From Faintheart in a Railway Train, by Thomas Hardy]

Happened to us all at one time or another, surely?

At sixes and sevens

The BBC weatherman recently informed me that the temperature was “at sixes and sevens”, so obviously, we were none the wiser as to how things were actually going to turn out.

However, the weather has put me off trying out my new bridge camera on the railway a couple of times recently. I just don’t fancy standing around on station platforms on cold or wet days any more. It would not have worried me at all at one time. In our youth, it was probably only settling snow that would have put us off playing football. I am now not just a fair-weather cyclist [when I’m not between bikes] but a fair-weather railway enthusiast, too.

On a recent visit to the home of the first president of the USA at Mount Vernon [Virginia, USA], we discovered that George Washington’s death was precipitated by his decision not to change out of wet clothes to avoid further delaying his dinner guests, having just returned from his estate on horseback. This led to a cold and a sore throat and then quinsy and things went dramatically downhill from there.

So, keep warm and stay dry and roll on summer - but not too hot, this time, please.

 

Railway Club

I finished Simon Bradley’s book, The Railway, recently. There were lots of good moments. Way back on page six, for example, “To travel through Britain equipped with a little knowledge of how its railways were built and operated is…..to journey in time as well as space”.

Southwell Railway Club members are probably fed up with me reading out the latest chunk from Simon’s book to have amused me. Only two more quotes to go, everyone - but not at this week’s meeting.

Wednesday’s get-together will be given over entirely to Les Nixon, perhaps the best-known of all current railway photographers and we are looking forward very much to his visit. I have this photograph of his in my own collection, so here is a little taster for anyone else who can make it.

  I hope that Les is happy with me flagging up his imminent appearance in this way. I wonder if he knows how it came to be in my possession. All will be revealed on Wednesday.

The First Battle of Bull Run, 1861

The American Civil War was the first major conflict to be photographed, though shutter speeds were too slow to take “action” shots. It was also the first in which combatants moved to their next engagement by train. Confederate reinforcements embarked at Piedmont station, Delaplane, on the Manassas Gap Railroad and let the train take the strain as far as Bull Run.

The First Battle of Bull Run, also known as the First Battle of Manassas, was fought over control of a strategic railway junction at Manassas, in Virginia. A year later, they came back and did it all again in the Second Battle of Bull Run, which, as you will have guessed, is sometimes also known as the Second Battle of Manassas.

The 1861 encounter was the battle where “Stonewall” Jackson got his name. He stood firm with his Virginian troops on Henry Hill. The splendid modern-day visitor’s centre is located here and a statue to Jackson has been erected at the place where he made his famous stand. America knows how to do public monuments. They all seem to share a solidity of fabric, organisation and presentation. They take their history seriously and they communicate it very well.

The belief in Washington was that the Union forces were going to teach the rebels a lesson at Manassas. Wealthy establishment figures, including congressmen and their families, travelled in their coaches the twenty-five miles west-south-west from the capital to watch the spectacle unfold. This attempt at war as entertainment misfired badly. The additional Confederate troops that had come from the Shenandoah valley by train tipped the balance in favour of the South and the Union soldiers were forced into a disorganised retreat. The would-be spectators fled for their lives, blocking the same roads as the dishevelled government troops, in what the Southern press described as “The Great Skedaddle”.  

   

Breakfast in America

We enjoyed breakfast at the Omelette Café, Manassas. It had certain other attractions in addition to the tasty omelettes - and the grits and beans that our grandson got stuck in to. A railway runs alongside the rear of the building. When we arrived, a diesel locomotive on a short permanent way train was just pulling out of the loop but I couldn’t get out of the car quickly enough to take the picture. I had to make do with the repeated, characteristically mournful hooter that so typifies the American railway scene, as the train slowly disappeared into rural Virginia.

Beginning life as the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, it changed its name to the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Railroad in 1867. The line was later taken over by the Southern Railway System and when that concern joined with the Norfolk and Western, it became part of the present-day Norfolk Southern. Amtrak now runs a locomotive-hauled commuter service to Washington on this route.

The close association between the town and its railway is represented in a series of murals in the Omelette Café. I have seen this notion featured elsewhere in America, on occasions. It seems entirely appropriate to me that local enterprises should choose to display their railway heritage so emphatically in this way.

Big Birthday Present

Peter Waller’s excellent book, England’s Railway Heritage from the Air, ticks a lot of boxes for me - railways, landscape, history and photography. Mostly, however, it ticks the friendship box, especially as it comes with heartfelt dedications from my closest friends, as we clock up yet another decade together - for which I am extremely grateful.

  

Looking Forward

From outside the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, on Shooter’s Hill in Alexandria, VA, one has a good view of the Amtrak and Metro lines which connect the town to Union station in Washington, DC.

Amtrak diesel No. 9 was just leaving for the capital with a passenger train from Fredericksburg or Broad Run. In the background is King Street, the main road through the town that connects the stations to the waterfront, from where you can see the Capitol building on the other side of the Potomac river - the beating heart of USA government.

The memorial costs 18 dollars to look around. Instead, I stayed outside on the steps and watched the white-throated sparrows and flame-red cardinals in the surrounding gardens, and listened to the northern mockingbirds going through their varied repertoire.

Then I wondered if the USA government’s heart is still really beating in the way that George Washington and those who came after him had intended and when at least one aspect of American democracy might be restored to something approaching its full health.