Having recently forced myself to get out more, following two years of Covid and a few more of post British Red Cross-induced mental illness, I’d got back to train spotting, of sorts, just like I did when I was young. The ‘of sorts’ qualification is relevant in the sense that I never troubled myself with actually taking train numbers. Watching the trains go by was enough for me. Plus I was always obsessed with railway tunnels, something for which I am sure there is some kind of psychological explanation. Having been laid low with Covid-19, I’ve had to do my train spotting from my Man Cave.
To that end, I invested some time ago in a website called Railcam.co.uk which gives me access to webcams from Crewe to Canada, Wigan to Wisconsin at a cost of £20 a year. As us old folk say, BARGAIN!
This is a particularly useful hobby since it involves being sedentary for long periods at a time when concentration can be an issue, especially when I feel like falling asleep.
Today, I have been here, there and everywhere. I have watched freight trains – a particular highlight – in Crewe, Beattock, the Ribblehead Viaduct and in various towns in America and passenger trains passing through snowy Finse in Norway. It’s not exactly an intellectually taxing experience, but I do get some pleasure out of it. Perhaps it’s a sign of age that I am working my way through a selection of railway webcams looking at trains instead of Porn Hub? Thinking about it, if the Sun newspaper was to restart it’s notorious Page Three feature with a heritage British Rail diesel locomotive, I couldn’t guarantee my boycott of anything by Rupert Murdoch would stand the temptation. “And today’s Sexy, Soaraway beauty is 55015 Tulyar, a stunning MILF of a loco.”
When – or is it if? – I ever get over this sodding virus, I am definitely going to step up this train and tunnel spotting malarkey. Already, I have a very exciting list of possibilities, including the legendary Dainton bank of Devon, your actual Severn Tunnel, Box Tunnel (the eastern portal, which I’ve never seen) and Chipping Sodbury (the eastern portal, which I’ve also never seen). I can only dream of how exciting these things will be. And in the middle distance, it’s going to be Beattock, in Scotland, and the Tay Bridge. And while I am at all these places, I won’t make a single note.
I’m sure you can work out for yourself how knackered I am with Covid from the abysmal quality of this blog, but I have to do something other than look at trains all afternoon. Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a freight train about to cross the Ribblehead viaduct. I mustn’t miss that one.
