richard wrote:I'm not Scottish so I can't claim any ironic appreciation of it, but this one is more LNER (well NBR):
The Tay Bridge Disaster
Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
'Twas about seven o'clock at night,
And the wind it blew with all its might,
And the rain came pouring down,
And the dark clods seem'd to frown,
And the Demon of the air seem'd to say-
"I'll blow down the Bridge of Tay."
When the train left Edinburgh
The passengers' hearts were light and felt no sorrow,
But Boreas blew a terrific gale,
Which made their hearts for to quail,
And many of the passengers with fear did say-
"I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay."
But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,
Boreas he did loud and angry bray,
And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
So the train sped on with all its might,
And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sught,
And the passengers' hearts felt light,
Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,
With their friends at home they lov'd most dear,
And wish them all a happy New Year.
So the train mov'd slowly along the Bridge of Tay,
Until it was about midway,
Then the central girders with a crash gave way,
And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!
The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,
Because ninety lives had been taken away,
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
As soon as the catastrophe came to be known
The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,
And the cry rang out all o'er the town,
Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,
And a passenger train from Edinburgh,
Which fill'd all the peoples hearts with sorrow,
And made them for to turn pale,
Because none of the passengers were sav'd to tell the tale
How the disaster happen'd on the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.
It must have been an awful sight,
To witness in the dusky moonlight,
While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,
Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,
Oh! ill-fated Bridge of thSilv'ry Tay,
I must now conclude my lay
By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,
That your central girders would not have given way,
At least many sensible men do say,
Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,
At least many sensible men confesses,
For the stronger we our houses do build,
The less chance we have of being killed.
Today's Daily Express contains a poem by William McGonagall from a time when he was trying to make some money from being an advertising coptwriter. In this case, he was extolling the virtue of Sunlight Soap.
L&Y Man wrote:
"Adlestrop" is particularly poignant as it was written in 1917, shortly before Edward Thomas was killed in World War I. The station itself is no more, I understand.
L&Y Man
Yes the station has gone, but I believe an important part of it still survives in a local bus shelter:
5702_hr.jpg
That relic might even be the nameboard which prompted Edward Thomas to write the poem. I don't know the date he wrote it, but I believe the actual incident when the GWR express made its unscheduled stop at Adlestrop has been dated as June 1914 - the poem mentions 'late June', when Thomas was travelling from Oxford to Malvern where he lived atthe time. So it is even more poignant to recall that it was in late June 1914 that the incident which is said to have led to the start of the Great War in which Thomas was killed, occurred in Sarajevo.
It may have been the unusual name of Adlestrop that attracted Thomas's attention. Until recently I always thought the name was pronounced with the first letter A rhyming with 'hay', but when it came up on Radio 4 recently it seems that the locals say it as 'Addlestrop', with the Add rhyming with 'bad'. Well, fashions can change so perhaps both ways are right.
I've just been loaned a copy of "Anthem for Doomed Youth", an anthology of twelve soldier poets for WW1, which includes Philip Edward Thomas. It says he wrote "Adelstrop", along with other poems, between 7th and 9th January 1915 whilst laid up with a badly sprained ankle, something he had done on New Year's Day. Later that year, he enlisted in the Artists' Rifles, although he had considered emigrating to America. He was 37 at the time.
'Manna' stands at the "Cross' tonight
As smoke drifts across a station light
Coupled to carriages of deepest red
While tired passengers prepare for bed
Into Gasworks stygian pit
Past 'Belle Isle's' box barely lit
Black arches mark the way
As she pounds the bank to Holloway
At East yard, shunters whistle and toot
As a businessman removes a crumpled suit
Clattering across the points at Harringay
Heading north come what may
Through Hornsey and Ferme Park
Blowing smoke into a sky so dark
Along the straight to Wood Green
No trainspotters can be seen
I live a life in a land of gums, heat and flies.
But I remember politicians sex and lies.
There were steam trains in my youth.
Before I lost my first tooth.
In an England of my dreams.
I remember my station lights,lit by coal gases.
Of routemaster buses for the masses.
To scenic 'Ally Pally' to the back of Muswell Hill.
But I remember leafy sunken lanes.
That once held rumbling trains.
I remember a beautiful green wood.
Where I once played and stood.
On the side of that leafy cutting.
Where I now stand, sad and tutting.
As I looked at a overgrown bank.
In my mind I see an Ivatt tank.
In an England of my dreams.
You're right about the Ivatt Tanks, Manna. Kings Cross had a couple of them for working the Finsbury Park - AP branch. Was 67374 one of them or has my memory let me down?
Somewhere local to Wood Green it was also possible to see a couple of G5's, were they on the Palace Gates line?
Manna-that's better than the last-i was almost in tearsreading it!! Idont know if you're aware of it,but we have a nostalgia magazine here called "Best of British"-they would love your poem,and i bet they'd print it!!!Go for it man!!!!!
G'Day Gents
I'm glad you liked it, I will admit I can't read it out loud
I did'nt know that any G5's had worked south of Doncaster, and seeing that they'd all gone by 1958, I would have been to young to know them, although I may well have seen them, thanks for that.
manna
I did'nt know that any G5's had worked south of Doncaster, and seeing that they'd all gone by 1958, I would have been to young to know them, although I may well have seen them, thanks for that.
manna
Stratford had a couple of G5s for years, from memory they were 67274 and 67322 but its a long time ago so don't take that as gospel. I think they worked on the Palace Gates line but not right through to North Woolwich, those were F5s and later L1 jobs. Perhaps the G5s came south in exchange for the many GE 0-6-0 tanks J67s which went north.
When you mentioned Ivatt tanks on the Ally Pally line I was thinking of C12s, but of course the N1s also were Ivatts and they also appeared on the line.
Checked in my 1951 Locoshed Book, the Stratford G5s were 67269, 67279 and 67322 and the 34A C12s were 67356 and 67374.
