Jackie Wesley

Oh Jane – yes, I can totally imagine that. And Richard – it would be so much easier if they actually had the right info on the signs, wouldn’t it?!

Toutes Directions, yes yes, Autres Routes, yes yes yes, but where is the bloody road to [insert town as appropriate]?…

None of the holidays we used to have in France (we haven’t been there since we’ve acquired a sat-nav) used to be quite complete without getting comprehensively lost at least once.

I am so glad to hear that I’m not the only driver who goes through this!! Part of me was thinking I was a real idiot for getting so worked up after over 30 years of relatively trouble-free driving…but maybe getting majorly lost somewhere is a rite of passage that I’ve just managed to delay?!

You have my sympathy on two counts, Squidge. Fifteen or so years on, I still shudder at the memory of my only encounter with the Boulevard Périphérique in Paris – which will remain my only encounter if I have anything to do with it. And losing the GPS signal just when you need it: I’ve been there too, more than once. So frustrating.

Glad the d…[Read more]

Thanks both – I can honestly say I have never experienced the stress/panic I did yesterday. Once I knew I was safe – ie at the school – I was OK. Quite cathartic to write it all out though and wonder why I responded like I did when I don’t usually react in this way.

How incredibly generous of you to share your notes in this way, KazG. Thank you.

They’re favourites of mine. And they were exceedingly good engines too. A design that stays in front-line express service for forty years is not to be sneezed at.

I own the current iteration of the Hornby Castle. A lovely model to look at, but my example is an erratic runner, so it sits on my desk as an ornament.

I told you I was a nerd…

When they put the Great Western locomotive Caerphilly Castle in the Science Museum my father said, ‘The father of one of classmates at school used to drive that engine.’

In a word, Athers, no. Just a life-long interest in railways, which is a spin-off from a passion for steam engines that started before I can even remember. I’m a nerd, basically. Though not an anorak: I was never a trainspotter, and collecting numbers seems a pointless exercise to me. Though if you were to ask me about the technical workings of a…[Read more]

No, I hadn’t heard of this one, but with two (as it turns out) of the four fatalities being railwaymen it probably wouldn’t have made a big splash except in the local press. Your father’s reaction, though: kids, eh?

Richard,
My late father would tell of a train crash in Diggle, then in Yorkshire, in 1923 or 1924. He was four and witnessed the accident whilst out walking with his granddad. He was interviewed by the local newspaper and is reported to have said “It were a grand smash” or similar. I see from google that four people died, so it probably wasn’t so…[Read more]

Really enjoy these tales of the rails, thank you.

Yes, I’m sure that the signalmen must have thought their systems were foolproof. As for their motivation, it seems to have been professional pride more than anything else. It was a matter of pride not to fall down on the job, to keep the traffic moving if at all possible. And though no one would have blamed them if that arriving train had been…[Read more]