THE END OF THE LINE, By Bryan Morgan. (Cleaver-Hume, 25s.)
THOSE who dream of the miniature trains which England knew and lost can turn to Mr. Morgan's survey of little old trains in the Low Countries, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
The author is no pedant chatting of draw- bar pull percentages and firegrate areas, but a man who loves an independent branch-line engine for its appearance ('prettily kept, if rather insubstantial locomotive'), and who can enthuse over the stove in a coach which is a club for regular travellers who play games with Gothic cards. He has a lovely eye for macabre scenery and passengers who are war- locks in Homburg hats, and a poetical lyricism for sweet ambling journeys on the narrow gauge when peasants doff hats to scarecrows. He notes signals that work in pri- vate gardens, tunnels where lights are turned on for twenty yards of darkness, floral iron- work and delicately decorated station lava- tories and obscure tickets. He is a delight and a high standard bearer who can remark that the only excuse for Languedoc ordinaire is that it keeps open some Languedoc little railways.
It is to be hoped that he will spend the rest of his life exploring exotic branch lines. One longs to hear his full report on the train at Spiekeroog where, it is said, the spur is so short that the stationmaster looks through fieldglasses to its far end to see if anyone is waiting, the rule being: no passengers, no train!,
OSWELL BLAICESTON
Previous page
