Railway Life Part Three

Railway Life Part Three

It’s full steam ahead –

Until, freezing in the cab, paper in his boots,
He gets stuck in a wind-whistling loop,
Out here in some unsheltered, open landscape;

Or, shovelling six tons of coal
Choking in some seeming endless tunnel,
On a two-hundred-mile journey
Of relentless, endless standing,
Shovelling, shovelling, back-breaking labour,
Watching and checking and checking and watching,
Until the journey ends, lodging away.

(He had left home early in the morning,
A stranger to the children;
A weekly pay packet to the wife;
Waiting for the proud longed-for day,
When he takes control of the regulator:
A right proud member of ASLEF);

But now he’s on another interminable shift,
Freight train working in the dead slow of night,
Catching a moment to dream his future:
Mainline passenger link,
And the top pay packet each week –
When name, engine and coal consumption
Will be systematically monitored –
Renting a house close to the lodge,
And close to the marshalling yard,
With double-homers to boost his wage;

 

A spring time step in his walk to work,
On past the gas works, the pub and the chip shop,
A wriggle of his hips as he walks past the football pitch,
With egg and bacon for a fry-up on the shovel;

But back in the house, she sits fretting.

Is this the time he crashes?