Poetry Corner: From a Railway Carriage

By theorkneynews on February 24, 2019 • ( 1 Comment )

On February 24th 1923, the world famous steam train, the Flying Scotsman, went into service with LNER. It was the first train to run non-stop between London and Edinburgh, and also the first steam train to reach the speed of 100mph. Scotclans

Flying Scotsman in Wartime Livery, Bury Bolton Street Station
Britain’s (and probably the World’s) most famous locomotive, the LNER Class A3 Pacific steam locomotive No 4472/60103 Flying Scotsman was built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of HN Gresley. It was employed on long-distance express trains on the LNER and its successors, British Railways Eastern and North-Eastern Regions, notably on the London to Edinburgh Flying Scotsman train service after which it was named.
The locomotive become the first steam locomotive to be officially authenticated at reaching 100 miles per hour in November 1934 and set a record for the longest non-stop run by a steam locomotive when it ran 422 miles in August 1989 while in Australia. It was retired from regular service in 1963.
During the test running in January 2016 following its restoration, the locomotive was presented in its wartime black livery.

From a Railway Carriage by Robert Louis Stevenson

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!