Remember When

Remember years ago when we took  day excursions to the seaside – I thought it would be a good idea to re-live those good old days so I took the wife and two friends off to Lowestoft on the train.  It is probably not a good idea to compare  times past with  today’s mode of rail travel and trying to turn the clock back is guaranteed to bring nothing but disappointment.  Even so I found I was making comparisons from the moment I entered Thorpe station.  First thing missing was that marvellous smell that used to pervade the whole area when the old steam engines would belch out smoke and soot.  We entered the booking office where three lines of, would be, travellers were being served by two overworked clerks.    A third man was trying extremely hard to persuade people to leave the queue so he could show them how to obtain tickets from the automatic machine outside, but few were prepared to lose their place in the queue to take up his offer.   When we eventually got our tickets we made our way to the platform where two young women checked our tickets.  I recalled the old days when passengers waited at the iron barriers (all gone now) where a uniformed ticket inspector would punch the tickets and allow the travellers onto the platform. 

As we waited for the train to pull in we looked in dismay at the empty tracks covered in weeds and rubbish, polythene bags, bottle tops, unidentified waste and an old plastic bucket.  We also noticed some timber wedges had fallen out of the track chairs.  

When the train arrived we boarded and waited for the off.   The man who used to tap the wheels with a hammer is long gone.  Now  the doors close automatically instead of porters slamming them shut along the length of the train.   There is no guard’s whistle anymore only an airline style “this is your captain speaking” over the intercom.   

Dead on time the train pulled out of Norwich Thorpe.  The carriages were very clean and it was a pleasant ride through the Norfolk and Suffolk countryside.  But I did miss the sound of the old steam engine labouring up the gradients, the clicketty clack of the wheels and the rolling motion of  the old carriages with people standing in the corridors.  Leaning out of the window and getting a spark in the eye.  Nowadays its all rather like a bus ride, I guess it probably seemed more exciting than it actually was when we were kids. 

Lowestoft has changed as well – I can remember when the trawlers were tied up three deep in the harbour now it’s mostly a marina for expensive sea going cruisers.  We spent some time in the shops and made our back to the station, again the train left dead on time.  It was a nice day out but the essence of the day excursion seems to have been lost along the road of progress.

We off  to the North Norfolk railway next week – ah! the smell of soot and oil mixed with steam – I can’t wait.