Here’s my little contribution to the Railway 200 celebrations.
Peter Ashley edited the anthology Railway Rhymes (2007) and included his own poem, Railway Scrapbook. He very cleverly, through the use of half-rhyme and rhythm, turns a list into a poem, an evocative picture of a vanished, gentler age of railway travel. It’s striking how only a few of the things described remain as a recognisable part of the railway scene today.
It’s a marvellous anthology, and I’ve included more than one poem from it on this blog. The dustjacket resembles the clipped railway ticket mentioned in this poem.
My only quibble is that I would have liked the lyrics to the song Slow Train by Flanders and Swann to be included.
Railway Scrapbook by Peter Ashley
Dockside stations
Estuary halts
Trolleys for luggage
Platelayers’ huts
Steamy warm buffets
Station clock hands
Weighing machines
Post Office vans
Sidings and signals
Newspapers sweets
Cycles in cardboard
Platform seats
Coalyards and taxis
Pincers on tickets
Gaslight on blossom
Pigeons in baskets
Fire buckets red
Timetables white
Posters for seasides
Booking halls bright
Bridges and cuttings
Telephone wires
Tunnels and viaducts
Waiting room fires
The Good Reader 