Don’t put your daughter on the train, Mrs Worthington

This month I spent a weekend in Bruges, travelling most of the way by Eurostar, which for this kind of trip easily beats air travel for speed and is, of course, incomparably more comfortable. I love trains. All my early childhood in north Staffordshire, from four to 12, I travelled every day to school on a funny little LMS puffer on the so-called Loop Line, which went through the various Potteries towns and deposited me at Stoke, where it rejoined the main line. Historically, rail was the most efficient, cheap, safe and customer-charming form of travel devised for ordinary people. Like the 19th century which gave it birth, it promoted civilisation, manners and prosperity. Our Loop Line ran from six in the morning to midnight, every 20 minutes. In all the time I used it, it was never even a minute late. No accident was ever recorded. Drivers, guards, porters, even station masters knew you by name. ‘Morning, Mr Earnshaw!’ ‘Hello, Little Paul!’ My big sisters and I loved the LMS, with its maroon livery. It was our railway. The LNER (yellow) was ‘common’, the Great Western (brown) was ‘stuck up’, the Southern (green) just ‘boring’. Our engines had reassuring names: Victoria, Albert, King Edward, Alexandra and (new ones) George V and Queen Mary.

I have been devouring a splendid railway book by an enthusiastic amateur in the field, Andy Garnett. He is a versatile and highly successful businessman, familiar with engines of all kinds, who has roamed all over the world collecting facts. His book is called Steel Wheels: The Evolution of the Railways and How They Excited Engineers, Architects, Artists and Writers. Characteristically, Garnett has printed, published and distributed the book himself (Cannwood Press, Waldenbury, Chailey, East Sussex BN8 4DR; email: sales@vinehouseuk.co.uk). It deals with rail from the beginnings to the present, all over the world, above ground and below it, and describes many of the astonishing buildings, bridges and hotels which rail inspired.