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Of course there are clues, most notably the headboard and the sheer amount of lineside vegetation. However, this could still essentially be a scene from 60 or 70 years ago as an ex-Southern Railway locomotive, British India Line, 35018, powers up the bank from Weymouth approaching Upwey Station. She did spend a short part of her life based at Bournemouth shed.
The famous Longships Lighthouse about 1 1/2 miles off Land's End was first lit in 1875, replacing an earlier version from 1795. The Longships Lighthouse, though now automated, is still active
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longships_Lighthouse
But wait, there is more. Can you see the second light?? Check the horizon, some 15 miles out and you can see Sevenstones Lightship. I've put a note on the photo to help locate the vessel en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sevenstones_Lightship
EDIT : I don't get it. Sometimes the note shows up. Sometimes it doesn't. Maybe best to just scan along the horizon and pick put the lightship that way!
I don't know how Kim spotted this tiny ammonite fossil amongst dozens of boulders, hundreds of rocks, thousands of stones and hundreds of thousands of pebbles.
According to the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, the ammonites found locally are around 195 million years old, give or take a few million years.
I wonder if anyone else has vague memories of journeys in early childhood? I can never be certain. However, it is extremely likely that as a nipper I travelled with my parents on the Pines Express from Birmingham to Bournemouth for a week's summer holiday. The only thing I remember is that on the way back I was extremely impressed by being in a compartment where you could pull the blackout blinds down, still in situ after the war.
The out and return journeys will have been the only time that I travelled on the Somerset & Dorset line and the service will have gone through what was then quite a major station at Blandford Forum.
The above photo of the Pines Express at an unknown station is from an interpretation board in Blandford and is credited to British Railways.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features Hambledon Hill, Dorset. It is a prehistoric Iron Age hill fort where radio-carbon dating of objects found during archaeological investigation show the hill fort goes back to at least 2850BC.....almost 5000 years ago.
Both Maiden Castle and Eggardon hill forts have featured here before. They are impressive. However, Hambledon Hill is even more monumental by comparison, both when viewed from below and from on top. The cattle in the foreground give some indication of the hill fort's size. It rises to 192m (630 ft) from the Blackmore Vale above the village of Child Okeford.
Note the long barrow burial chamber top left on the summit.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a local curiosity revealed by very low water levels in a local stream. If you look carefully at the bottom right corner, you will see the remains of a railway line. Knowing something of the history of the area, we took a guess that it was the remains of an old watercress railway.
Fortunately, a gentleman to whom we have spoken before, just happened to return to his adjacent house with shopping. So we asked him and yes, our guess was correct! There is little information on the internet despite a thriving local history group. However, the gentleman confirmed some basic details.
His father, from whom he inherited the adjacent house, moved in during 1986 by which time the watercress operation had ceased, probably in the late 70s. He told us the house previously belonged to the owners of the watercress company. However, they only visited from Hertfordshire during holidays leaving a local old lady living there as caretaker. At least part of the gentleman's current garage was the packing shed for the cress. Therefore the assumption is that the product was transported the few hundred yards from the cress beds to the shed along the rail line. He didn't know the means of propulsion but it is likely to have been either by manpower or more likely horse-drawn. This remnant of track almost certainly followed a slightly different line to where it was unexpectedly exposed by the summer drought today.
As for the watercress beds, they probably operated for around 75 years. Wessex Water now use the site as a sewage works for the local village of Broadmayne. However, a thriving watercress bed operation still exists barely a mile further downstream!
The regulars might remember this subject from back in December flic.kr/p/2kgxWXo It concerned the Abbotsbury branch line some miles south of the Bridport Railway. Here is the first subsidiary photo that we never figured out flic.kr/p/2kgucMi
The posts are "straining pillars" in a run of simple metal fence posts through which several strands of wire ran. The fence posts were alongside both sides of the track, no doubt primarily to keep animals off the track. The straining pillars "take the strain" to provide a means of getting tension on the wires. However, they also double as gate posts, on each side of any farm track or right-of-way crossing point.
It is quite a large document and will take some time to load but you will get a good idea of how they work from this link digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=16...
Not just a double-header but a rare triple-header set of photos for this week's Saturday Timewatch. All feature rail transportation used in Mexico during a visit ten years ago. You can see the other two here :
Given just a very general geotag location, this photo was taken on board the Primera Express Chihuahua Pacifico service from Chihuahua to the west coast at Los Mochos. Taken a decade ago in 2010, this 'fast' train had left Chihuahua at 06.00 arriving at 21.30. The journey is approximately 390 miles. A slower and presumably less comfortable but cheaper 'stopper' followed at 07.00, scheduled to arrive at 23.30.
Sadly, I gather that there is now just one train every couple of days and seems to be the only current passenger long-distance rail service in Mexico, though new ones are both being built and planned.
You are right to think this looks one heck of a gradient for the locomotives as the line climbs up to a maximum altitude at Divisadero of 2400 metres / 7847 feet. Should any of those who are more knowledgeable than myself about railways know anything about the traction being used, I'd be interested to learn more?
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to Victorian times. The photo shows Bockhampton's old school bell. A nearby interpretation board says that the school was founded in 1847 and was Thomas Hardy's first school. Closed in 1961, the property became a private house but the bell has remained in situ ever since. The photo is slightly overexposed to show the bell in the recess above the porch.
Today's Saturday Timewatch is inspired by Chris Firth's 1987 photo flic.kr/p/2k5Empp. My photo goes back 6 years almost to the day. It was delight to be able to travel on the rural railway routes of Japan and as often as not you could bag a front seat and watch the road ahead. That of course also takes us back to the era of DMUs in the UK when that was also quite common so long as the driver didn't pull the cab blind down!
This service was the stopper from Takayama to Nagoya. Why is the driver pointing you might ask? No, he is not adjusting the wiper. No, he is not pointing out some passing landmark or interesting bird. It is shisa kanko which translates into English as "pointing and calling". It is one of Japan's rail safety systems, in this case to help concentration and avoid mistakes by pointing at important indicators and calling out the status. Here he has acknowledged there is a crossing ahead and that the way is clear.
I can't find any confirmation. However, I reckon someone from the Isle of Portland with a wry sense of humour has erected this 'unofficial' road name to reflect Chiswell and Castletown being one of the most deprived areas in the country. This is especially so ever since the Navy left harbour over a decade ago.
"Ope" is a Portland word for "opening to the sea". Lerrett Ope recalls the unique lerret boats designed for fishing. Big Ope speaks for itself whilst elsewhere on the island there is Clay Ope and Church Ope.
Kim of course knocked up the collage. Thanks again!
Yesterday's photo of Hambledon Hill featured the southern slopes flic.kr/p/2nCF8pp. A double-header of posts this weekend is completed by this view looking north from the hill fort. To anyone who knows the area, Shaftesbury is situated along the flat horizon to the right of the photo as you are looking at the screen.
Scale is given to this enormous Iron Age hill fort by a person with white clothing coming into view along the lowest of the tracks along the hill side.
A modern twist to almost 5000 years of history is the solar farm to the middle right of the photo!
A significant winter rock fall at Ringstead has revealed this giant ammonite after some 155 million years. A £1 coin gives scale, that is about the equivalent size to €1 or a US quarter. Below you can see the context of the ammonite.
Some of the old and new photos from the Isle of Portland show a lot of change. Not so here on the northern approach road up to Fortune's Well. If you compare carefully, everything is highly recognisable. The old photograph is from an unknown date. I have put circa 1900 as a very general indication.
The first Saturday Timewatch of 2021 features several items of historical interest found totally by chance in the village of Okeford-Fitzpaine, deepest Dorset.
First up is another classic and well maintained Dorset fingerpost,
Second is a most unusual green phone box. A Grade 11 listed building, apparently it is green in the colours of the Pitt-Rivers estate who are huge land owners in the area. Whether that is the true origin of the paint colour or not, I really don't know.
Above the box is a fine old sign "Telephone. Telegrams may be telephoned"
In the wall next to the telephone box is another survivor from around a century ago. It is a George V post box. George V reigned from 1910 - 1936. K's photo below shows the detail of the post box.
Finally, presumably of more recent times but perhaps still several decades old is the village stores sign.
But wait...there is more. Behind where I was standing for the main photo is yet another survivor, apparently dating from the 19th century. It is the door of the old prison lock-up, now incorporated as part of a dwelling house. You can see it in the second subsidiary photo below.
This week's late-running Saturday Timewatch visits Fortune's Well on the Isle of Portland. The photo above was probably taken in the very late 19th century, before piped water arrived for the community. The bustling village of that time got the name from the well which is out of sight below the line of the railings, directly behind the children holding pails. Note that some children are barefoot.
Below is the 2023 photo of the same spot. Whilst figuring this location out, we got talking, as you do, to the gentleman who lives in the house behind where the photo is taken from. He moved there a couple of years ago and hadn't seen the photo above before. He immediately said "well that explains why my house cellar is always damp"!
It was a decade ago that John Egging lost his life during Bournemouth Air Festival. He was flying as Red 4 in the Red Arrows display.
Two years later the John Egging Memorial Sculpture was unveiled on the East Cliff, Bournemouth. Then a major cliff fall in 2016 made the site inaccessible. The memorial was re-sited and unveiled for a second time at a new safe site. It is there to this day.
Apart from this year's festival being the 10th anniversary, today was particularly poignant because a further crash has taken place. A Wingwalkers biplane ditched into the sea just yards offshore from nearby Sandbanks. Thankfully, this time there were no fatalities and no serious injuries, either to the crew or to anyone on boats or on land.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features the oddity of a village hall with a thatched roof. But why "Debenhams"?
A previous farmyard barn was turned into a village hall in the 1920s, paid for by the incoming local estate owner Sir Ernest Debenham. He was the grandson of William Debenham, founder of Debenhams department stores that a century later are now in serious jeopardy of closure forever. After Sir Ernest's death, the Debenham Estate was sold again at which point the Parish Council managed to buy the hall in 1953 for £420.
Next door, the brick building was originally a granary, as suggested by the raised floor, still visible today. This has also been a community building for the last 60 years or so. For example, for some years it housed the village youth club. However, after the closure of the village shop, the use changed again to become Briantspuddle Community Shop and Post Office, still managed and run by local volunteers.
Now catching up on some "stopover" photos from Finland this spring.
What a sad state of affairs. Knowing nothing of this site until stumbling across it by accident, I thought it was totally derelict. But no! Porvoo's old railway turntable is still operational as evidenced by copious amounts of grease applied to the winding mechanism in the white box to the bottom right corner of the photo. Also, much to my surprise, a steam-powered locomotive is locked away in the engine shed beneath where the scaffolding is. The only way out is along the track to the turntable and then off along the track at the left side of the photo.
A bit of research revealed that as recently as 2014 steam was used to run a Saturday summer-only service, as far as Kerava on the outskirts of Helsinki, a distance of c40 kms / 25 miles. Although it is entirely in Finnish, I can see that this summer the line remains open, just 6 heritage diesel services being advertised.
Heritage and steam railway enthusiasts in the UK would die to get hold of this operation. A good run of track still just about exists from the capital Helsinki, going through attractive countryside. At least one steam locomotive is still present. Some platform facilities remain at Porvoo, where the old station area is within easy walking distance of the old town, a World Heritage Site. Plus, I understand that it would be entirely possible to make a day trip from the capital going by rail in one direction and the other by boat.
WHAT an opportunity!!
In a welcome gap between heavy showers, 30120 leaves Corfe Castle "tender first" towards Swanage.
30120, though renovated many times, is an old locomotive. Built sometime between 1899-1901, the locomotive originally operated on the London and South Western Railway, so seems quite at home at Swanage Railway. This is the only T9 class survivor and will once again undergo major works as her boiler certificate expires later this year.
This is a screengrab of a satellite image released today by the Met Office. For those abroad who may be less familiar with UK geography, hover your mouse over the image to see a small note showing we are in one of England's driest parts during this prolonged drought. We have not had a single spot of rain for the last six weeks and I'm pretty sure that it is rather longer than that. There has been no water in our rain barrels for over three months.
The solution is simple. Bring back Denis Howell who in 1976 was appointed Minister for Drought aka by many with a wry eye as "Minister for Rain". As soon as he was appointed severe thunderstorms broke out at the end of August. Thunderstorms are indeed expected next week so the government-in-stasis is missing a propaganda trick.
Meanwhile compare and contrast to the satellite image below from December 10th 2010 of the UK covered in snow!
This week's Saturday Timewatch shows the River Frome in flood at Wool. It is an unusual landscape in that it will barely have changed for centuries. Dating from the 17th century, Woolbridge Manor is famed for being the location of Tess and Clare's honeymoon in Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles".
The name "Wool" (now a large village) seems to have nothing to do with sheep. It derives from the Saxon 'wyllon' meaning 'spring' or 'well'. Other names of the settlement through history have been 'Wille' and 'Well(e)'. Wool Old Bridge, across the River Frome, dates from the 16th century. It is still used for pedestrian, cycle and horse traffic. A major collapse in January 2018 led to a temporary footbridge being erected nearby whilst significant engineering work took place. That has now been completed very sympathetically and I doubt the work will be noticeable, even at close quarters, in a couple of years time.
The river itself is in full flood after persistent and heavy rains. In drier times, most of this view is made up of fields.
Bokerley Dyke is the high bank along the right edge of the photo. It is sometimes known as Bokerley Ditch as can be seen running through the centre of the scene from bottom to top. The structure is a linear earthwork 5.75 kilometres or 3 1/2 miles long, some of which still forms the Dorset and Hampshire border. It is thought to have originated in the Bronze or Early Iron Age when it will probably have formed a political and cultural boundary rather like the later Hadrian's Wall from the Roman era.
The person on the left gives scale.
Not just seashells but fossil seashells. As usual with fossil photos I am indebted to Southampton University's publications for explaining what these are. I'll stick to the short version. Basically these are mostly bivalves, exposed on horizontal pavements that are exposed at low tide. As with most fossils around here they are from the Jurassic period and in this case over 155 million years old.
Yesterday's post flic.kr/p/2n4e8Tb showed a wave breaking that completely obscured Pulpit Rock on the Isle of Portland.
In this second of a trilogy of storm photos, Pulpit Rock can clearly be seen. According to The Encyclopaedia of Portland History, it dates from quarrying activities in the late 19th century. So how did it get the name? It is due to that huge slab on rock on the landward side that leans against the main stack. This was perceived to resemble a bible leaning on a pulpit or alternatively steps leading up to the pulpit.
The full article is here www.portlandhistory.co.uk/pulpit-rock.html
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back approximately 150 million years, give or take a few million either side. I'll stress as always that I am very far from a fossil expert. However, I think this is the imprint / mould of Titanites giganteus, a giant ammonite that swam in what were then tropical seas. The photo was taken in a Portland quarry. It was physically difficult to get up to the huge boulder so I was looking up at the fossil remains. However, I won't have been too far off when estimating the size of the fossil to have been not much less than my height, 5' 10".......maybe around 5'?
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to 1487 - apparently that is the date on All Saints Parish Church "Est pydeltrenth villa in dorsedie comitatu Nascitur in illa quam rexit Vicariatu 1487" Several sources say that this is a very early use of Arabic numerals in England. I have no idea why that happened in what was then, as now, a relatively sleepy, rural backwater of England. Elsewhere in the country, the use of Roman numerals continued for another century and indeed they are still understood to this day.
Personally I find it difficult to read those numbers so will have to take the word of other people.
The Koppelpoort is the northern gate to the city of Amersfoort. It was completed in the early 15th century with both land and water gates and is largely preserved in its original state.
Hirosaki Castle was built in 1611 by the Tsugaru Clan. It is now a three-story castle tower with moats, castle gates and some corner turrets. The castle's original five-story keep didn't last long, burning down in 1627 after being struck by lightning. Rebuilt in 1810, the present three-story keep is the only one in the Tohoku Region that hasn't been rebuilt in the modern era and it is among only a handful across the whole of Japan.
Access is currently limited due to major renovation on the walls. However, it can be seen here at night through the cherry blossoms of Hirosaki Park.
This advertising sign is on an old building in the centre of Sturminster Newton which these days is actually a tea room. I don't know whether the sign does indeed date back to the bread-makers advertising slogan of the 1920s. Note to self : I should have gone in and asked!
Any thoughts on "the rule of the road"?? My guess is that when travelling a century ago, the rule of the road was to make sure you stopped for refreshment at an establishment that served Hovis bread!
Nicodemus Knob is a stack of rock at East Cliff, Portland. It is approx. 30' high. The most common explanation as to why it is there is that the top of the column marks the ground level before quarrying started at this site in Victorian times for the breakwater construction at Portland Harbour. You can read the full story here in The Encyclopaedia of Portland History.
www.portlandhistory.co.uk/nicodemus-knob.html
EDIT : Unfortunately the Portland History website seems to have bitten the dust. Pity!
After an absence of almost one year, steam finally returned to Weymouth with today's excursion from London hauled by 35028 "Clan Line" www.clan-line.org.uk/35028-2/
Here she is climbing Upwey Bank. With little or no wind, the glorious sound of steam locomotion echoed around the valley for several minutes until she finally made the summit at Bincombe Tunnel from where she would drop back down to Dorchester.
As Kim said "I think I can.....I think I can"
Saturday Timewatch looks at the classic all-American burger and fries. This helping was courtesy of The Grill, Dalhart, TX. Established in 1958, the owners might have changed several times but the menu remains traditional. We were delighted to occupy one of just 8 booths and and chose their bacon cheeseburger with curly fries. Don't even think about cutlery!
An honourable mention also goes to the GoldenLight Cafe, Amarillo, established 1948 and still providing classic American dishes.
Over 2,000 barrows are known in Dorset, and there is a major concentration along the South Dorset Ridgeway where over 400 are still visible. The burial mounds in the photo are known as the Bincombe Bumps. They belong to the Bronze Age, approximately 2400-700 BC, though these probably originated between c.1700BC and c.1000BC.
As the Dutch are such a sea-faring nation, it is easy to find older vessels moored in harbours or underway, such as the ship in the distance at the entrance to Enkhuizen harbour.
In the forground, Willem Barensz, a traditional 3-mast sailing ship was built in 1931 and named after the 16th century Dutch navigator, map maker and Artic explorer. She now plies her trade on day trips on the IJsselmeer or Waddenzee, being used for corporate events, weddings etc.
This week's Saturday Timewatch might not seem much of a photo. However, it illustrates a very important aspect of Portland's industrial past.
This is the trackbed of what was then known as Portland Railway, now called Merchant's Railway. The island has long been famous for Portland stone. However, how do you get the very large blocks of stone from the quarries on top of the island down to the sea for shipping around the country? One solution you may have seen on previous photos was the use of derricks to lower blocks down the sea cliffs onto barges. A hazardous process given the strong tidal currents! A second was to build short piers but again these were very exposed to tide and storm.
This was a third alternative, a 650 yard long horse-drawn and cable railway that dropped 270 feet down to Castletown. It was for the exclusive use of Portland's stone industry. You can read a full account here www.portlandhistory.co.uk/merchants-railway.html
Saturday Timewatch this week features a remarkable transatlantic connection that we only found out about a couple of weeks ago from someone in our village. It concerns the church in the hamlet of Steeple, Dorset.
Quoting from websites including that of the Church of St.Michael & All Angels, Steeple, Dorset :
"Agnes, heiress of the Washington family and ancestor of George Washington, the first President of the United States of America, married Edmund Lawrence, whose family (as did hers) originated from the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1540 the Lawrences moved to Steeple, while a descendant of the Washingtons, John, settled in Virginia, and became the great grandfather of George Washington"
"The Washington family’s coat of arms is the three stars atop the two stripes and it is this coat of arms that was used by George Washington, when he became the first president of the United States in 1789. This star and stripes motif was replicated in the flag of Washington DC" "It also was presumably the inspiration for the design of the US National flag."
That is all very difficult to see in the ancient, worn and weathered tablet photographed on the outside of the church. It is much easier to make out in the drawing below that copies the original's design.
The full story is here.
Cut and Shoot, Texas, Population 1,158.
Saturday Timewatch this week looks back to how Cut and Shoot, TX, got the name. It is well worth your time reading the link here.
I stumbled across this by accident whilst exploring downtown Beaumont, Texas...but that's another story!
Built in 1941, it carries Kansas City Railroad freight traffic across the Neches River in the port area of Beaumont TX. In fact, it is just possible to see quite a large ship moored behind the bridge on the right of the photo. It was very late in the day and sadly, no trains crossed the bridge before dark to enhance the photo. I have since discovered that an average of 50 train movements per day is not uncommon, still to the chagrin of local residents who have been complaining of in-town road blockages by stopped trains for many decades. I've also read that the bridge lifts an average of 231 times per year but do not know if that is still the case....somehow I doubt it. What I do know is that for the last decade if a lift is required it has been done remotely from Kansas City, rather than on-site.
The bridge is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places but doesn't seem to have been listed. Currently, plans are afoot for a new bridge to alleviate traffic problems so maybe this wonderful structure is heading into the last years of its operation?
....but not quite gone.
Taken on April 14th 2025, the foreground features locomotive 568 in Galveston's BNSF boneyard. Meanwhile in the background, the old concrete grain silos are being taken down blow by blow.
MKT linked its namesake states with key connections to St. Louis, Kansas City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Waco, San Antonio, and Galveston/Houston. Efficient but never highly profitable, it eventually joined a stronger system in 1988 when it was acquired by Union Pacific.
The Tex-Mex existed for just over a century, owned for much of that time by the Mexican government despite the fact that it was almost exclusively located in Texas between Laredo and Corpus Christi. When the Kansas City Southern began expanding south of the border it was able to acquire Tex-Mex early this century.
The Seaboard Air Line was another interesting railroad in the South, not least because the name had no connection to the airline industry. It was in use as a marketing gimmick more than thirty years before the Wright Brothers' first flight! After well over a century of operation including assorted mergers, nowadays parts of the Seaboard network are owned by CSX while others are operated by short lines.
The Rio Grande is somewhat different being a Colorado heritage railway that carries passengers to this day. The section of track used originated as the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1878.
Flickr Explore # 147 on Sunday, December 9, 2018
This week, Saturday Timewatch looks at the remains of Rufus Castle on Dorset's Isle of Portland. Most of the remains date from the 15th century though fortifications are known to have been here earlier than that.
A detailed history can be found here
Saturday Timewatch this week kicks off a new, likely to be long drawn-out, exploration of the Dorset section of the Old Somerset and Dorset Railway.
This rather typical 2022 urban scene, with a Co-op and a car park, is the site of the old southern terminus of the S&D that used to be known as Bournemouth West Station....closed in the mid-1960s. You can see what it used to look like from the same vantage point in the photo below.
Nothing remains of the railway here, although part of the line running from Branksome Station to Bournemouth West is still in use as the access to the South Western Railway train depot. The present-day Co-op used to be the Queen's Hotel (see second photo down). Behind me, the Midland Hotel built for the railway terminus in c 1880, is now apartments and sports a commemorative plaque (see third photo).
Saturday Timewatch this week features the now redundant stores or warehouse of James Foot Ltd of Dorchester.
James Foot first appeared in the 1895 Kelly's Directory as a miller and corn merchant with a shop in the centre of Dorset's county town at 36 South St. By 1907 the business was described as an "army, navy and military contractor; corn, seed, oilcake, hay, straw and forage merchant and haulier" By then they had moved to 25 South St with 'stores' on Maumbury Rd i.e. the building in the photo above. Milling operations continued at Burton Mills and Charminster Mills.
The shop in South St closed in 1992 though the above warehouse stores apparently continued for at least another year. I cannot ascertain when the above building was shut down.
It is difficult to read the old signage. It says "J Foot ; Hay ; Straw; Corn; Seed" on the building to the left as you look at the screen. On the building to the right, the only words I can take a stab at are "Co Ltd" at the top and possibly "Oilcake" at the bottom left.
A bonus Timewatch photo this week features the old toll-house at Maiden Newton. On large size, you can just make out the name next to the door.
Should you be interested, there is a good article linked below about toll-houses in Dorset and the above building is indeed mentioned www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2009/11/taking-their-toll/
The b-side festival provided a rare opportunity to get inside the Old Engine Shed, Portland. It was built in the mid-19th century to stable the locomotives used in the adjacent Admiralty Quarries. For a period it was also used to stable the horses that worked in the quarrying industry.
Not entirely appropriate to commemorate the type of industrial locomotive used here but as a railroad fanatic Johnny Cash could always be relied on to turn out railroad tunes.
The 1960 American b-side to "Girl in Saskatoon"
bithbox # 174
Apart from upcoming Xmas specials, it was the end of the season at Swanage Railway this week. In this photo, 80078 coasts into Swanage Station passing Eddystone 34028 on the turntable. 30120 peeks out of the engine shed. Having been effectively donated by the National Railway Museum, she is hopefully being positively assessed for an overhaul with a view to a return to working condition.