Random Stuff About Trains
Mar. 25th, 2023 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphilo 1. When I think of trains I think also of David Lean.
David Lean loved trains; they're all over his movies. There's the armoured train in Zhivago, the troop train that gets dynamited in Lawrence, the train that goes through the bridge in Kwai, the multiple trains coming and going through the provincial station in Brief Encounter...
Trains are to David Lean's movies what those blink-and-you'll-miss-them directorial cameos are to Hitchcock's. You watch out for them.
Lean may have loved trains more than he loved people. There's a story about how he went up to a woman at a party and said, "Hello, I'm David Lean." And she replied. "I know. I used to be married to you." I don't know which of his many wives that was.
2. The first train we boarded took us along the coast to St Leonard's, Warrior Square. "Hello Pevensey Castle, Hello sea!" The second was a London train and it got fuller and fuller as it glode north. Coming home, mid-afternoon, we had our choice of seats and as much leg room as we wanted. There was a young white guy sitting opposite us wearing a jacket with Black Panther printed in big white letters over the left breast. Ailz leaned across and asked him what the smaller writing on his left breast was and he smoothed it flat for her to read. It said, "We will all unite to fight for Wakananda".
So not a follower of Elijah Mohammed after all...
3. I have- or used to have- an anthology of poems called something like Dandelions Grow Wild At Rural Stations- and every poem was about the railways. Fancy there being enough of them! The most famous English train poem must be Edward Thomas's "Adlestrop".
4. I worked as a cleaner on the railways once- servicing the express trains between Manchester and London Euston. Best job I ever had. I used to spend much of the time in empty first class carriages with my feet up reading discarded newspapers.
5. Trains run more smoothly than I remember them running and the staff are given to making humorous remarks over the intercom which I can't remember ever happening in the days of my youth. Riding them today was fun.
Well, we'll be doing a lot more of it....
David Lean loved trains; they're all over his movies. There's the armoured train in Zhivago, the troop train that gets dynamited in Lawrence, the train that goes through the bridge in Kwai, the multiple trains coming and going through the provincial station in Brief Encounter...
Trains are to David Lean's movies what those blink-and-you'll-miss-them directorial cameos are to Hitchcock's. You watch out for them.
Lean may have loved trains more than he loved people. There's a story about how he went up to a woman at a party and said, "Hello, I'm David Lean." And she replied. "I know. I used to be married to you." I don't know which of his many wives that was.
2. The first train we boarded took us along the coast to St Leonard's, Warrior Square. "Hello Pevensey Castle, Hello sea!" The second was a London train and it got fuller and fuller as it glode north. Coming home, mid-afternoon, we had our choice of seats and as much leg room as we wanted. There was a young white guy sitting opposite us wearing a jacket with Black Panther printed in big white letters over the left breast. Ailz leaned across and asked him what the smaller writing on his left breast was and he smoothed it flat for her to read. It said, "We will all unite to fight for Wakananda".
So not a follower of Elijah Mohammed after all...
3. I have- or used to have- an anthology of poems called something like Dandelions Grow Wild At Rural Stations- and every poem was about the railways. Fancy there being enough of them! The most famous English train poem must be Edward Thomas's "Adlestrop".
4. I worked as a cleaner on the railways once- servicing the express trains between Manchester and London Euston. Best job I ever had. I used to spend much of the time in empty first class carriages with my feet up reading discarded newspapers.
5. Trains run more smoothly than I remember them running and the staff are given to making humorous remarks over the intercom which I can't remember ever happening in the days of my youth. Riding them today was fun.
Well, we'll be doing a lot more of it....
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Date: 2023-03-25 07:48 pm (UTC)About an hour and fifteen minutes from here by train.
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Date: 2023-03-26 07:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-26 12:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-26 02:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-03-26 07:34 am (UTC)