 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Old magazines |
|
|
Alan Dorrington (he of crisp packet, coach and locomotive driving fame) recently lent me an old bound copy of "The Railway Magazine", volume 72 covering the first part of 1933. It is fascinating to read of now historical events in the present tense, and also something that is written in a style of English which it might be nice to see resurrected today. Mindful of the name of this busines I though tyou might like to read this extract, in which one Mr Desmond R Lysaght comments upon the accuracy of railway scenes in film: Many of your readers will, I am sure, have seen and enjoyed the film of the "Ghost Train," which relied for its success largely on the collaboration of the G.W.R.; and they will, no doubt, remember the incident of the hero (Mr Jack Hulbert) pulling the communication cord and stopping the express in order to retrieve his hat. This fine train, when it came to a stand-still, was headed, appropriately enough, by a locomotive of the "Castle" class; but when, a few minutes later, the journey ws resumed, the "Castle" had mysteriously become a "Mogul." A strange metamorphosis in the open country. Later in the film, the ghost train itself, on its brief and ill fated journey, was seen to be hauled by two or even three different 0-6-0 locomotives consecutively. Admittedly the "shots" of the film had to be made on a number of different occasions, when the same locomotive was perhaps not available. I am of the opinion, however, that if a little more trouble were to be taken by film producers to overcome there absurd little errors, any slight expense so involved would be more than justified. For then the one man in ten thousand who is the best technical judge of the picture will come out satisfied. Well quite. This was the first film of the stage play written by famous Bath resident Arnold Ridley and had been filmed on the Camerton Branch south of Bath, which in 1952 was the setting for Ealing Studios' "Titfield Thundeerbolt" comedy. With that in mind, it is interesting to note another article "New 0-4-2 Type Tank Locomotive, G.W.R." which announced the introduction of the distictive tank loocomotive that featured in the Titfield Thunderbolt. An astonishingly late introduction of such an antiquated looking locomotive, the similarity of which type to designs from nearly sixty years before is noted in the article.
|
|
|
My magazines
|
|
|
I love magazines. Welcome sources of sanity in an insane world, generally written and produced by enthusiasts for enthusiasts and covering wonderfully obscure parts of life. At once completely inconsequential and yet, somehow, representing and illuminating what may be some of the most important things in life, not the least of which are (obviously) trains and model railways. I still have the first model railway magazine I ever purchased, the October 1968 issue of "Model Railway News," obtained from WH Smith's shop at the bottom of Station Hill in Chippenham, and read from cover to cover more times than I care to remember, both then and since. Fast forward to the Nineteen Seventies and a family move west, the Railway Modeller pictured on the right was purchased from the same company's premises, but now from the High Street in Bath. Apart from the contents (Peter Haddock's imaginative Wannetka Warlock and Western, Derek Shore's forward looking locomotive weathering, Cyril Freezer going bananas in a double garage and Count Dracula's imaginative offerings from Broadley Street) the abiding memory that this wonderful magazine stirs for me is going away for a family weekend to a beautiful cottage near Builth Wells, no electricity, the wonderful smell of wood smoke and a great read in store too. Years later and by now working for a fascist recruitment company in a job that I frankly hated, I remember being blissfully immersed in the Model Railway Journal and Malcolm Mitchell's glorious article on George Illife Stokes, a world away from where I was and a feeling of utter enchantment at the glimpse into the work and life of a genius. These days I am very fortunate to be surrounded by people and things that I love, but there's still not much better in life than a pile of old magazines, a glass of wine and a steaming hot bath - bliss! |
 |
|
Simon Castens |
|