Railway poetry

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Thanks Flamingo, it's nice to find out that there loco's from different regions wandering around the KX area.

Hertford Mornings

I come down the stairs, my bag and me.
A long cold walk to platform three.
A hot ride in the dark.
Out to the shed at Finsbury Park.
Find your engine cold with dew.
Along a line, not a few.
Take it out to Hertford North.
Hurry up let's go forth.

In to the siding we must go.
Heat up the train now covered in snow.
In go'es the steam,a billowing cloud.
Hissing steam at night so loud.
To heat that train is now our job.
And to wait for the shunter, called 'Bob'

We back into the platform.
It is the quite norm.
From the gloom, troglodytes emerge.
To push,shove and surge.
We leave before it's quite light.
Is it day, morn or night.

We travel through country green and bright.
With patches of snow so light.
Bayford and Ponsbourne tunnel.
This old 31 has no funnel.
Cuffly and Gordon Hill.
Enfield Chase and Winchmore Hill.

We pass a smokey Cravens unit.
Rumbling on, we can do it.
Things are good, we're not late.
When we roll in to a dingy Moorgate.

manna

[Ferrybridge Flyer]

Get these poems published man!!!You never know,they could earn you some beer money!!!

[Autocar Publicity]

Should you mix your drinks,
the results may be adverse,
I beg you to have second thinks,
may I warn you with this verse:

Beer on cider makes you grow wider,
Cider on beer makes you feel queer,
Whisky on gin makes you go for the bin,
Gin on whisky makes you feel frisky,
Brandy on rum results in a noisy bum,
Rum on brandy helps you feel...

Nauseus

"I can't think of a rhyme here, can you help, Lurcio?"

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Hi, AP, I think after all those drinks, the word you are looking for would be NUMB!!

FF, I'm looking into it

The Tunnel
It is dark and smokey in this tunnel.
Ash and sparks blast out the funnel.
The cloying heat, the frightening dark.
The noise of our engines bark.
As our eyes try to pierce the gloom.
Next to hell, it is like a tomb.

ECS
Empty coaches out of the 'Cross'
Something which nobody give's a toss.
Your just something thats in the way.
In and out, day after day.

Without you my dirty son.
There would be no pay or fun.
We'd clog the station, shut it down.
Then the SM would deeply frown.

So they need us in this lowly link.
In and out of Gasworks stink.
It's better than a factory loom.
To live life in the railway womb.

manna

[Ferrybridge Flyer]

Get in there!!!!And of course,the more ecs moves,the more photo opportunities!!!

[52D]

Futher to Adlestrop, I was in Rare and Racey (A second hand bookshop ) in Sheffield looking for rail related stuff and i saw in the poetry section a volume called Adlestrop Revisited so i picked it up and looked through it. As well as the poem of the name there were other efforts some rail connected, others not, i thought it was a fine tribute to the original Author.

[Flamingo]

Futher to Adlestrop, I was in Rare and Racey (A second hand bookshop ) in Sheffield looking for rail related stuff and i saw in the poetry section a volume called Adlestrop Revisited so i picked it up and looked through it. As well as the poem of the name there were other efforts some rail connected, others not, i thought it was a fine tribute to the original Author.

This is the book.

It's available on Amazon and EBay and I keep meaning to buy it, but haven't got round to it yet. I really should as Thomas' poem is one of the few that I know by heart, but that isn't too difficult as it only has 4 verses. (I used to be able to recite Macaulay's 'Horatius' which has about 600 lines, but that was long ago "In the brave days of old").

[52D]

Yes thats the one i reccomend it in fact i think i will have it if its still in.

[hq1hitchin]

LINES WRITTEN ON THE CHANGES AT FIRST GROUP ANNOUNCED RECENTLY

In the style of William McGonagall who was a great poet of Dundee and if he were alive today would be most welcome on Reading Station

T’was on the afternoon of eighth of June twenty ten
Most interesting and curious news came to Reading Station
That the gallant knight of Scotland called Sir Moir
Was reorganising First Group leaving blood on the floor

From First Group House in the granite city of Aberdeen
The word went out along the railways from Wick to Sheen
Great changes were afoot in the corridors of power
The dark and beetle browed knight was man of the hour

But then as always gangs on this sad earth some evil news
The queen of buses, Nicola Shaw, had gone, new job to choose
‘Tis said that she was most affronted
Not to get his job and was in a siding shunted

The bosses of First Group are paid very well
But that’s the purpose of privatisation I’ve heard tell
Our maisters tell us ne’er ever should we complain
T’is a privilege to pay handsomely to travel by Sir Moir’s train

Now welcome back to Britannia Tim O’Toole
A sharp and clever graduate from law school
On Britain’s railways that’s the skill that’s needed
To ensure the company’s demands are heeded
And the Government continues great sums to pay
First Group PLC until Judgement Day

[52D]

Thanks hq1 i am now going to post a poem with railway connections that i found in a journal belonging to my Grandfather regarding the Gretna crash in 1915. Although the crash at Gretna was off LNER metals my grandfather was in the Royal Scots who were on the train and also in civvy street a driver for the NBR.

The 1st Y Royal Scots on the fatal journey from Falkirk to Gretna Saturday 22nd May 1915.

The whistle blew and the flag unfurled the guard said ”Right away”
The Falkirk friends said a sweet good bye to the “7th Royal Scots” that day

All went well till Gretna reached then what an awful scene
An accident, the like of which, on railway ne'er had been

Fire: Fire: hark to that awful cry, resounding in the air
The dead and dying all around, the wounded everywhere
one long unbroken line of flame, a veritable hell
What painter should depict the scene what tongue,but truly tell

Scorched by the flame, the (WORD UNSURE)* and the soldiers everyone
Who could assist a comrade, there his noble duty was done

Victoria crosses oft were given, both by a King and Queen
For lesser deeds of valour, than were done at “Gretna Green”

They went at dutys stern command to battle O'er the wave
They went to fight for liberty, for glory or the grave
The joke went round, the song went round, reminded of the foe
The sentiment by all expressed “are we downhearted no”

No battle field no fiendish foe for them across the foam.
That dewey morn alas for them a soldiers death at home

A cruel death a noble death heroic none more seek
Than, those alas who perished at dawn near Gretna Green
And many a gallant soldier speeding home that morn
To see he'd left behind him in the land where he was born

Death he had even left behind danger he fancied past
While speeding home in the express grim death he met at last

Shall we forget the exalted one who saith, even in the midst of life its self, we even are in death
Can we forget no never, the horrors of that scene
The Noble band who perished in historic “Gretna Green”

And as this awful story endshis thought to us, will cling
Thus let us ever play our part and be at duty's call
That no neglect of ones,shall cause
Our fellow men to fall

(WORD UNSURE)* is possibly a shortened form of Doctors.

Found among the belongings of Pte Thomas Derry 1st Battalion Royal Scots and Locomotive driver for the NBR, LNER & BR.
Contributed by his Grandson George Derry Moffat.
gdmoffat@btinternet.com all rights reserved.

[Flamingo]

You should try taking that to the Antiques Roadshow. Might be worth a bit with the original manuscript which records a tragic event.

[52D]

Flamingo i have seen a few versions of this poem with slight differences, so the original Author seems to have been lost in the mists of time. I would like to frame the version i have but it is written on both sides so i am unable to do so. I have copied it up for scholars to use and the content has already been forwarded to a chap who is giving a talk on the crash at one of the Aln Valley Railway Societys meetings. I only put the copyright notice in case someone copies the originals without asking first, im pretty open about letting stuff i have be used as long as people make a donation to the NER Autocar appeal.
The way this thread is going we may have enough material for an anthology soon.
Please keep them coming.

[brsince78]

John Axon was a railway man, to steam trains born and bred.
He was an engine driver at Edgeley loco shed;
For 40 years he travelled and served the iron way.
He lost his life upon the tracks one February day.

Ewan MacColl, Charles Parker and Peggy Seeger

[brsince78]

Somewhat less prosaic, but credited to Gerry Fiennes (I may be wrong) no less......

There was a young lady from Staines
Who liked to get ravaged on trains
She was offered a season
For no other reason
By a man with more urges than brains

[Flamingo]

The song about Driver John Axon refers to an accident involving 2-8-0 48188, in 1956 or '57 I think. A steam brake pipe burst in the cab of the loco just as they were about to descend a steep gradient, down through Chinley I think. I believe he told his fireman to jump out and try to apply some of the wagon brakes, but still the train rapidly went out of control on the gradient. Knowing that there would be a local passenger train ahead, Driver Axon stayed in his cab hoping to regain control on a flatter section of line, but was unable to do so and was killed in the derailment that occurred.

Can anyone remember a poem which I saw many years ago, it was about the Caledonian and the Glasgow & South Western railways racing each other to see whose train got to Carlisle first. I can just about recall a few lines of it:

"It was at St Enoch station, the time was nine fifteen
The electic light was shining, her beauty there was seen"

etc etc etc, all forgotten, but the ending went something like:

" And we beat the Caledonian with the two-five-nine"

The lines were obviously penned by a GSW man, but what was GSWR no. 259 and when?