Trains

The trains at the back of my house are on the move again this morning and making the entire house shake. This isn't a particularly unusual occurance - my terrace backs onto railway sidings that are used by freight trucks, mainly carrying coal for the nearby power station these days (years ago I'd also sometimes see stacks of motor cars, but not any more).

I've never counted how many cars form each train but they are very long and very heavy - much longer and heavier than passenger trains - and when they move it can sometimes feel like a scene from the 1955 film classic "The Ladykillers" - everything in the house can vibrate, including the floors and cheap IKEA wardrobe, and occasionally the bedroom door will swing open slowly. I'm sure that my original stereo got slowly shaken to bits as a result, and it has also caused me a degree of distress (and plenty of needle-wobble) at times while recording my old LPs.

Even so, I do like the trains. I find their constant to-ing and fro-ing reassuring somehow, and it's interesting to see the edge of the otherwise secret world of rail freight. Plus it's fun sometimes on a grey Monday morning to imagine that you might be in a classic Ealing comedy.