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The Signalman is a short ghost story of sorts by Charles Dickens, who you might have heard of. It’s thought to be partly inspired by a fatal train crash where a signalling mix up led to a collision between two trains inside the Clayton Tunnel near Brighton.
It’s also thought to be based on Dicken’s own experiences in the Staplehurst rail crash, where 10 people died and many were injured after a derailment near Maidstone in Kent. He and his two companions managed to escape the train wreck through a window before he set about tending the injured, some of whom died in front of him. The incident affected him greatly leaving him unable to speak for two weeks and he was very reluctant to use trains afterwards. He died 5 years to the day after the accident with his son saying that ‘he had never truly recovered’
Two more recent ones coming to mind are “Win away” = Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) and “Oh Bobby Zamora” = Seven Nation Army which is unusual as it only uses the guitar riff and not the song melody.
Just felt like an off day from too many of our players so happy to come out of it with a point. I had it in my head that four points from this week would be a decent return so we’re on track for that. Oxford won’t be easy but you’ve got to hope for a win and then see what we can get from Bristol. I’d be tempted to start with Burrell on the bench on Weds then let him loose on Dickie on Saturday. U Rrrr’s!
I watched Fremont last night on channel 4. About an Afghan woman building a new life in California producing fortune cookies for a Chinese Restaurant. Really enjoyed it.
Worst flight is probably coming home from Greece after a family holiday in 1990. Very turbulent and 100 mph headwinds meant we had to make an unscheduled fuel stop in Munich. Not allowed off the plane and stuck on the tarmac for about 2 hours before taking off again and completing the journey. To this day it’s my only time on German soil although I never got to actually touch it.
Worst journey overall was on a direct train from Inverness to London about 10 years ago. Delays all the way down and a power outage meant no lights and aircon in our carriage. 12 hours for the most part in a packed, dark, stifling hot smelly train carriage with no openable windows. Oh and the restaurant car was out of service too so no refreshments. Think I might have been given a free bottle of water at some point and I did get a full refund of about £80 in rail fare tokens.
That train journey on the way back from Plymouth last season was pretty desperate too although at least we had beer.
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