“Morning/evening/afternoon/that special twilight time/other. Today i’m going to start the jauntily titled Tickets Please! I feel i need to clarify (not rant, no sir) about this book as it will make me feel better if nothing else so just go with the flow.
The trains don’t bother me…..i am a man of romantic nature and that’s why i am focusing on the stations. I like them, the small ones, the overgrown ones, even the forgotten ones.
What i like about them is the smell and the architecture, the qauintness and the slightly sad air of reminiscence for the glory days when the station was the hub of life. Indeed the station i like for many reason to wit i am now goijng to bullet point, with a short explanation that you may or may not find informative or maybe you will just find the fact i’ve gone to all this trouble somewhat hilarious:
- Architecture; Muchos variation on this one duckling! Many different styles were used, there was no uniformity in the main design although certain things were uniform throughout the station complex. I like architecture anyway, makes you feel close to history
- Heritage; Apparently safeguarding English things is racist or something and as thats not allowed anymore, I want to see what’s being maintained and how stuff looks today etc. You get the point methinks. Also i want to see what’s been leftvto us from them black and white days.
-Culture; Liking social/economic stuff (hardcore!) I am fascinated to see how the railway became the hub of life in villages and towns and what the chuff went on and how the closing of railways led to a ‘rebalancing’ of the economic structure and focus of towns etc.
-History; T’is i fear self explanatory.
-Power; We had an empire back then and the culmination(arguably) of the industrial revolution was unpresidented travel to sea side places for common folk and tramps.
-iconography; You’re a film man, you may appreciate this, the idea of a train station seems indicative of leaving and loss( i.e the Blitz, soldiers going off to war, Dr Lewis leaving Dr Greene at the station to go to Phoenix with her druggie sister to look after her kid instead of calling social services like a human being would(season 3 that was i think)) I’m sure there are countless others but there seems-to me at any rate-less emphisis on arrivals and jolity, i feel i should explore this. Also i may get into collecting postcards, as it seems a noble art and the train station has according to post cards much hilarity to it, such as missing a train. This worries me, i must investigate further.
-Innocent times; Possibly making this up but it makes me thinks of innocent times, when everything seems rose tinted and Famous Five-esqe. I’m sure only nice people worked on railways or pantomime villains but that’s okay because they will be bought to justice at the end of the book. Ginger beers for all woo!
That is all i shall say now, as i shall start my book of choo choo’s after an episode or two of the wire, incidently the episode i last watched yesterday was on BBC 2 that very same night. It seems they are showing them dead late. Anyway i feel that you now will not call me an evil trainspotter behind my back (anymore?). I fel calm now and not at all like i have to much time on my hands. And so (belatedly) i shall do what all old men in railway stations eventually do and chuff off. Good day sir”.
This rant looked a lot longer on a Facebook page i grant you but i like to think it does the trick of making the railways a bit more accessible and fascinating. I will give a full review of the book when i have finished it if anyone is interested.
