Along the Mineral Line
Listen,
can you hear her coming
All the way
from over yonder
All the way
To Bishops Lydeard
Can you
feel the pressure rising …
Pistons shoving, pushing,
pulsing ..
Hark now listen,
can you feel her coming
Surely,
then it must be,
all of ten plus forty-two
precisely ..
Ah, aaahh ah .. she sighed
Bang
on time then my lovely …
Oh’ yes,
my word, how she did
shake then gasp
and hiss and spit and
puff, puff, puff …
Sounding like some
frantic, jealous lover
While
steam clouds tracked
above
and slowly trailed away
somewhere
far behind her ..
Oh’ yes, indeed, it did
much like
some off white braided
ribbon might …
Surely he would not
forget
such moments with her
On the way
from Minehead,
along the
good old mineral line ..
Stopping
only briefly, at each of
Watchet, then
Washford and Williton
On her way
to Bishops Lydeard ..
And yes,
then heading back
the self-same way she
always came
and once more home again ….
-
Author:
Neville (
Offline) - Published: June 27th, 2021 07:26
- Comment from author about the poem: ................... She runs not that far from my little patch of Somerset and when the wind is in the right direction, I can hear her from my top garden .......... enjoy the ride, and though only passenger class, the trip is on me :)
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 86
- Users favorite of this poem: Accidental Poet, L. B. Mek.
Offline)
Comments10
Steam trains always remind me of simpler times. And i love the smell of the coal. Lovely poem
You and me both SC ......... long live steam & ta for stepping aboard my friend .... 🙂
Got to smell the steam the coal dust smoke and midnight once more, Neville - many thanks.
Steamily right on the dot is your tale of fun-line journeys through much loved countryside - the thrill of arriving comes over distinctly in this exciting read - top marks again Nev for this well writ mineral trip from one luverly gifted and train-spottin' fella .....................x
... Thanks for hopping on board ma'am ... I sincerely hope you had a first class ride .. like I said, this one's on me .................. 🙂 x
Good write N.
Cheers Mr. O ..... I am well n truly chuffed ..........................
.................................................................................................................................... toot toot 🙂
Thanks for the poetic ride, even though not on this journey, have taken a few in India, seems like many centuries ago on the old steam trains. There is a completely different experience when one is at a train station, the hustle and bustle has its own charm mixed with the multitude of vendors and coolies, yes even now.
Thanks my dear friend and truly ... and for what its worth, I know precisely what you mean having travelled more than once myself by train in India ..................... 🙂
Great write N. I have a train not far from my house and always hear the air horn when it crosses the Cape Cod Canal. ; )
............... sounds amazing sir and in more ways than just the one .. and thanks for taking the time to check in today ........................ 🙂
I am a devotee of the romance of steam locomotion and the whole aura around the latter days of branch line operation. Nearby we have the severn valley railway which is splendid but we never see an 0-4-2T loco or a small prairie loco with an autocoach. Thank goodness for the reminders of youtube.
Your piece took me straigh into GWR past days of romance and I enjoyed the trip.
Delighted I am that you alighted at the write platform DA ... and if you found the journey enjoyable, then we got ourselves a bloomin steamy win win .......... toot toot 🙂
Enjoyable ride, Neville.
Drove one once, my uncle was a fireman on the Southern out of Charlottesville and one night took me to the yard and the engineer let me drive over to fetch water. 70 years later still as vivid as that day.
Why am I not surprised eh' ... an awesome experience at any age I should well imagine .. ta for being a train-spotter again for a few moments my friend ................................................................... 🙂
Wonderful journey Neville, steam trains are so wonderful.
https://youtu.be/U6OHD2uCpfU
Andy
Ta for the tip/link my golden friend .. and for the visit, ... I'm a bit of a twitcher and always keep my eye open for you sir 🙂
what a mesmeric read of subtly detailed
sensory nuanced: inflections, dear poet
jolted - me, back
to my days of traversing
this beautiful Island of ours, daily
on that return trip, from
King Cross to Waverley - 6am till 9pm
and those, rare
but lifetime imprinted, images
of sublime sunrise and sunset, picturesque scenes
I was being being paid: to experience;
sadly, I was but a self-centred teen
foolishly assuming, I would witness
much more grandeur sights - during, my life;
how, cruel
the time it takes for some of us, to realise
the true simplicity
in Nature's unsurpassable beauty...
... I am sincerely gobsmacked my friend .. thank you so very bloomin much and then a load more, just for good measure .. 🙂
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