Much Randomness in the Marsh

[hirez]

I'm staring only slightly vacantly into space, waiting for a train at Bath station (because it would be mildly inconvenient to wait for a piano. They only come on Wedensday mornings, and it's Monday evening. What kind of oaf d'you take me for, etc.) when I hear a low hooting noise.

Since I don't own a music-player with built-in Ableton functionality, although that sort of thing would be very nice, it must have come from outside. However, it's not the sort of noise one associates with modern trains. Clearly someone's having a jolly laugh with a ringtone or the station staff have cracked under the pressure of having to make constant excuses for the shiteness of the Cardiff service.

Nope. No. 34067 'Tangmere' huffs into view from the Bristol end and steams (quite literally great mate, etc.) at some pace eastwards.

Not unlike this.

Which made a pleasant change. I'm not sure that I'd want to want a return to steam traction, mind. It would be a murky and smut-filled place. It laid down a better smokescreen than a Suzuki Kettle, KH250 or RD250LC.

Edit: Thinking about it some more, it seems to me that the driver's mate bore a remarkable resemblance to one swisstone of this very parish.

Was this in fact a live enactment of 'Steam locomotive of the day'? I think we should be told.

I mean, it was jolly lucky I was handy for some railway. Had I still been working at Labs, there would have been no end of a palaver; cranes, low-loaders, navvies, ballast, health and safety. It just doesn't bear thinking about.

So my tip for you chaps out there is to think first of the other fellow and make sure you're convenient for a railway at all times.

Comments

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

It's forty years since mainline steam ended on BR. This is being marked by various specials.