https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/07/geoffrey-parker-obituary
This touching obituary of a good man stirred my memory pot.
It got me thinking about my early love of train travel encouraged by the train set I was given one early Christmas–I guess 1948.
Set up by Dad in the freezing, little-used Dining room (not a worry to a charged up six year old,) it circled the room leaving plenty of space for the additional furniture of model stations, goods yards overhead signals.
I’d put my chin on the carpet and using my imagination scaled myself down to the size of the perfectly formed little Trix electric engine and its carriages.
Like a little Gulliver I’d watch, transfixed, as it sped pass my nose and rattlied through hand made miniature stations–presents from gifted model making cousins–just like the real thing from Euston Station heading for Scotland.
I thought it was magical.
Dad worked at Euston for the London Midland and Scotland Railway (LMS) which was incorporated into the newly nationalised rail network as British Rail in 1948.
He was entitled to concessionary travel on the extensive home network and in Europe. There were no cheap flights going anywhere; if you went ABROAD you took the train.
In school holidays from the age of seven I was put on the train at Victoria Station bound for Eastbourne on the south coast, where my beloved paternal Grandma met me and we’d spend a week together at her residential hotel on the front.
So grand.
We’d be three for dinner–Granny, her friend, a rather forbidding Mrs Fitzherbert* and 7 year old me.
The summer of 1953 we took the train to the Costa Brava NE Spain.
Train and ferry to Calais; on to Paris taxi across town to the Gare Montparnasse and the journey south through France.
Sit down dinner–so grand! and the barely audible kechik-kecha of the train lulled us to sleep on our couchettes to wake up nearly 700 kilometres later in Toulouse–then south again to the Spanish border and a change of train (different gauge) for the final stage to Barcelona and the beach at Lloret del Mar.
Seven years later a schoolmate and I did our rite of passage pre-uni, nine week Grand Tour of Europe–by train.
Thus trains have always signalled adventure to me. A significant change–of location and often culture.
I knew for sure, as it “thundered” passed my head, triggering my imagination, that that small but perfectly formed Trix model engine and its beautifully painted carriages was heading for a mysterious place called “Elsewhere” and I wanted to be on board.
Robin Ellis 
I done that journey also to Lloret Del Mar early 70s though wonderful memories
I always enjoy your stories. Mine are being on the farm my grandfather owned. A forty acre playground.
Such a touching account of Geoffrey Parker, followed by your own happy memories. Thanks for sharing them.
I am in the US and 19 years ago was at work in Manhattan when the World Trade Center was destroyed. Finally got home via Metro North Railroad from Grand Central Terminal; no fare was charged; train made every stop and was filled to capacity. May the victims rest in peace.
A timely memory–thank you.
Hi Robin,
Loved reading about your love of trains. Thanks for sharing.
My grandfather was a conductor on the New York Central and once a year I took a trip courtesy of “Pa”. I had a compartment and ate in the dining car. Quite a grown up experience for a young girl. The most amazing thing was that the upholstered chair in my compartment became a toilet when the seat was lifted! How I looked forward to that trip.
Travel is great. Have you and Meredith ever travelled round Europe on the Orient Express?
London to Paris only–but it was fun.
Elsewhere. Powerful word. And a lovely essay.
Thank you, Bob.
That is such a beautifully written essay, Robin. Your word pictures took me straight to the feeling of train travel, and of memories gone by.
Thank you!
Thanks, Genie.
Lovely story, Robin. Cheered my spirits this morning. Much needed. Thank you.
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You are correct Robin.this was a touching obituary Think of the hurt to that little lad who was told never to mention his mother’s name again.
After a life working as a mental health specialist I shudder to think of what he went through and the damage caused by such informed remarks.
As always you create lovely images of your memories.
I also thought of my late husband Barry who loved trains especially steam
In our early years together we lived near the station in Shipley only a short trip from Haworth and Oakworth where there remains a thriving steam train service.
One Sunday morning many years ago, we were having a leisurely late breakfast
and sharing snippets with each other, as we often did , of our respective Sunday papers.We suddenly heard the whistle of a steam train So,hurriedly donning our coats and with Barry grabbing his camera to indulge his other passion ,photography we ran down to the station.
There in all its hissing, roaring, glory was The Flying Scotsman on its way to Carnforth. (I think for some repair work.)
Barry prevailed up on the engine driver to allow me on to the footplate, He did more than that he allowed me to throw on coal to fire up the Engine.With Barry snapping away
It was a never to be forgotten moment, sadly I no longer have, either, my late husband,nor indeed the photographs ,lost with a house move when the wrong box went to a charity shop.
But I can still recall the heat ,the power and the excitement of that morning.
Oh to share those Sunday morning papers again.
Regards
Brenda
Poignant memory, Brenda–thank you.
Beautifully written. So evocative.
Sorry I should have re read my missive It should say such ill informed comments
Hi Robin, you definitely have a talent for writing and cooking by the looks of it. I love train travel too, it’s an event taking the train and you get the atmosphere of the individual stations and of course the wonderful noises. Choo choo!
Thanks, Stephania.
What a lovely image this invoked for me. Hopefully we all should have memories of “a mysterious place called “Elsewhere”.
I’m curious whether the asterisk by Mrs Fitzherbert is significant, since there’s no footnote.
And this column reminds me of my Uncle Art who was a railroad worker in Pennsylvania and had a whole room of his basement dedicated to his model trains – always a wonder for us kids!
I forgot to clear the asterisk when I changed my mind about the comment!
Great story, love model
Trains and real trains. Remember on an Amtrak train in the eighties, correcting his pronunciation of my home towns, village names from the old country. Just outside Philadelphia. I am surprised not to be thrown off, but give the conductor his due , he wanted to know how names said in the Uk
Thanks so much for that, Robin. It’s timely – because my brother and I have recently resurrected his old train set, now that he has put up a large shed in his garden. (It was meant to be for gardening tools, etc, but he’s found a much better use for it!) When our father passed away, on clearing his attic, we found all the pieces, the board on which the tracks were fixed, houses and stations and bridges Pa had made himself, and so on. So even more precious. There is something magic about a train set when you’re small enough, as you say, to be a Gulliver! Now our grandchildren will be introduced to it.
There used to be a toy shop in my home town when I was a child, that had a train set running continuously beneath the main shop window – and THAT was wonderful too, in the years before our folks could afford to buy us one of our very own! To crouch down on the pavement and see that other world through the glass….. yes, magic!
Thank you for the memory jog. It’s surprising how much we forget – and how much pleasure there is when a sudden gleam of memory lights up a dull day!
Linda J.
Lovely–thanks.
How grand my Granddad was an engine driver for the LNER his engine number was 624000 I think The Kingfisher and it was the Elizabethan leaving Waverly Station at 10:00am I too have had wonderful memories of British Rail. When this Yank was studying in London I would go to my Grandparents in Edinburgh and on the rides up and back I would read one JamesBond novel each way to f course From Russia with Love became my favorite. A sidebar one could smoke in the cinema what fun it was to light up when Bond did. I haven’t smoked for years but they are grand memories !
Thank you for sharing your memories. Kind Regards Jane.
Very touching. Robin, you also evoke a past time of hardship but also egalitarian values by what you say. Ellen
Although I follow your mass mailings for your recipes as well as your insights into life, I promised myself I would never write back. Watching the remake of “Poldark”, however, has forced me to do so. For many years, I was a writer/producer/creator of TV series and adaptor of existing material in the US. I am now a novelist, but I screen virtually everything produced (except things that might give me nightmares), and am particularly fond of BBC series, so much richer and more satisfying than American productions. I recently began watching the new “Poldark” series, and although the new technology improves many aspects of the production, the writers/producers of the new series have failed to make the best of the material at hand, and I often find the new presentation disappointing. Perhaps they neglected to read Winston Graham’s remarkable, perceptive books, choosing to base the series on the original episodes. This isn’t necessary bad, but they either didn’t understand, or chose to overlook, many of the nuances of character and plot that made the original as great as it was. This is a sorry disservice to Winston Graham, a man philosophically ahead of his time, with an extraordinary comprehension of human strengths and weaknesses. The performances in the new series are for the most part excellent, but the characters are stripped of many of the details that Graham’s writing and the original series captured. For example, it may have been politically correct to smooth Elizabeth into a kindly, gentle soul motivated by love, but it overlooks the opportunity to explore her inner fears and conflicts. Erasing Ross’s desire to first save the victims of the shipwreck before encouraging “pickings for all” undercuts his sense of ethics and morality when he is confronted in a court of law. Most viewers of the new series are probably only marginally aware of the original and/or the books, and as general soap opera entertainment, it works adequately. But when, as creators, we have an opportunity to break new ground, only the cowards opt not to do so. I therefore salute you, and all of those involved in a now over thirty-year-old series, for being so bold and so far ahead of your time. Bless you and thank you for your contributions to history, art and entertainment. Best wishes,Janis Hendler p.s. Excellent performance as Magistrate, by the way. Nasty bastard!
Thanks, Janis for leaving this comment and overcoming your reluctance! Much appreciated.
Kind too to think it “over thirty” years ago–it’s forty five this year. Heavens!
Thank you, Janis. That is all so interesting. I too have just watched the original ”Poldark” and, as you say, many of the characters’ struggles and trials were portrayed, I’m sure, true to Graham’s intent. To me, those portrayals were definitive – so much so, that the ‘dramatis personae’ in the recent series seemed comparatively shallow and one dimensional. (Though it was still enjoyable, of course!)
I thought the acting in the 1980’s version was very impressive – and thus was driven to do some digging to find out where they all are now, which is why I arrived here. And I was SO glad to discover that ‘our Ross’ is living a wonderful life. Long may it continue! Thank you for your own memories, Janis.
(Thank you too, Robin!)
Linda J.
very nice…I love trains too.
Wonderfully evocative post, Robin. I love that the trains in the obituary served as your “petite madeleine” to your own memories of trains and then your readers’ memories of trains. So Proustian, without the need for seven volumes!
Thank you, Susan–love the Proust ref!
As my dad always wanted a boy, I had train set. It was a wind up tin plate, then we moved on to a real electric train set. When my son was born in 1983 we had a beautiful train set with a beach & seagulls and strangly evacuquees. Travelled every year to my mums home in Ireland on the overnight train. So exciting for a little one. Funny how your memories triggered mine. I had almost forgotten my train set!
Happy it stirred your memory pot too!
Oh! Another memory jog! A delightful rural train from Carcassonne to Quillan for ONE EURO! (And only about five years ago!)
LJ
Such a lovely memory, Robin. Thank so enjoy how you write.
Hope you two are well!
Claudia
Claudia Gallant
yayagal1@hotmail.com
619 972-4307
Thanks Claudia. We are well and trust you too!
Lovely memories and a foretaste of happy times ahead.
This resonates with me because I come from near Neasden (Kingsbury) and still pass through often. And like you I also took a Grand Tour by rail (Interrail) – in the summer of ’74 before university: it was brilliant. It’s so sad to see empty trains now, though ironically it is of course the safest time to travel by public transport in our whole lives. Vive le train!
Je suis bien d’accord!
Love ’em!
My Dear Robin
I am very sorry to hear of the death of your father. Our parents are the souls of our lives. Like him, Douglas and I love Trains and one of our friends is a guard and driver at Havenstreet Steam Trains on the island and we have such great fun. Your father was so lucky to have his dream come true, there is nothing like it.
You are so blessed to have had the love of your father for so many years, what a wonderful age, 95. Your father lives on in your heart and in the special beautiful memories you have of him.
Best wishes Shawdian Uttley Isle of Wight
Best wishes
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