Full Steam Ahead!

I make no apologies for using as my title what I believe is a nautical expression, for it fits exactly my situation this weekend.  With a trip booked tomorrow on the Churnet Valley Railway, and yesterday spent steaming to and fro on the Severn Valley line, I am blogging this morning betwixt the delight of one dip into history and the anticipation of another.

We had just set out from Kidderminster yesterday morning.  I was intrigued to see the variety of industries large and small in the track-side industrial estates, and remembered a similar variety which I had visited either delivering or collecting in my working life.  Scarcely had these passed from view than I spotted a small first-floor office and I wondered what might go on there, as my mind whizzed back to my own office experiences: paperwork, routines, the need for accuracy and consistency, faces old and new.

Gardens gave way to neat modern houses as we sped through the countryside.  Suddenly, the light above the seat opposite lit up, signifying the approach of Bewdley Tunnel.  My mind clicked back a few more decades to an occasion when I had asked my mother why such a light had gone on in the train we were travelling on.  I became very anxious when she told me it was ready for the train to go through the tunnel.  We were making a journey to Ipswich and had almost arrived.  Clearly, it wasn't my first visit, for I knew that, just beyond the end of the platform there, could be seen the broad black mouth of Stoke Tunnel.  

To a boy of about three or four, it was bad enough having to walk past the big black engines, still steaming away, as we made for the station exit at Norwich, which was our more frequent destination.  The idea of being taken into that big void - even in a well-lit train - was nothing short of frightening!  To be reminded that we were about to stop and would be alighting in the station, before the train went through the tunnel, was very reassuring.

Nowadays, of course, the thought of seeing these great reminders of our engineering past is a delight to be planned and looked forward to.  I'm always impressed by the great army of enthusiasts who keep these preserved steam railways running, whether through practical involvement as drivers or signallers, maintaining the engines or the rolling stock, or ensuring the safely of the lines themselves, or by way of commercial 'front-of-house' activities such as helping in the shops, booking offices or catering.  Many are employed of course, but many more are volunteers, just bringing their own particular skills for a few hours a week to help preserve a charming and attractive way of life from yesteryear.