written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Thursday 30 November 2017

Take the train - a journey into the imagination.

I have very early memories of trains - but the small, perfectly formed 'model' variety.   I am the youngest of four and have two older brothers. They had an amazing model train set that rain all around the loft space of my father's pub. There was a terrific Scalextric set running on the inside of the  of the train track.  The two of them would spend hours up there, building layouts, racing and running engines. They saved all their pocket money for additions.  Dad started them off - he knew what he was doing. Both became engineers, one mechanical, the other telecoms, moving with the times into fibre optics and systems analysis. The train set helped to develop their technical skills and set them securely on a journey to fulfilling careers.

I am not sure when I took my first actual train journey, it may have ben a school trip. Strangely enough, I remember my first 'imagined' train journey extremely well because I spent my formative years at Northway County Primary School under the progressive tutelage of a remarkable teacher, Miss Higham, who introduced me to a wonderful Scottish poet, Robert Louis Stevenson -

From a Railway Carriage

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2w2m1JmCY

Thanks for reading.  Adele


3 comments:

Steve Rowland said...

An excellent blog, Adele. I enjoyed watching/listening to The A Train over breakfast coffee - it's a great clip. Do you think Donald Trump would like to tweet it?

Adele said...

Maybe not - but I have!

Lady Curt said...

Riding on a train is rhythmic ( well in the past even more so ) and it's that time to dwell on the scene all around, especially nowadays when we travel or drive in cars , where our attention is always on the road ahead !