Informative Ruth was on the right track

FULL STEAM AHEAD

SITTING on a delayed train after a trip to see the Flying Scotsman, I wondered at what point did the relationship with our railways go from love and respect to one of weary resignation.

I mean, I can’t imagine in 100 years’ time train enthusiasts will be jostling for the best position to take photos of the 8.38 from Edinburgh Waverley to Glasgow Queen Street as it passes by on a ceremonial run.

To discover why we continue to have a fascination with steam locomotives long beyond their usefulness, historian Ruth Goodman was heading to Blythe Bridge in Staffordshire.

This was home to the Foxfield Railway, a steam line that had been run by volunteers since the local colliery which it served closed in 1965.

Every Sunday in the summer, the Foxfield enthusiasts give tourists a taste of what life used to be like in steam’s heyday. But Ruth wanted to experience the full polluted lungful of the Foxfield engine at work, stopping off to collect a wagon of coal and transporting it to nearby Stoke.

Along the way we were given a carriage-load of interesting facts (although the fact that a train won’t move if you leave the brakes on, as discovered by driver Ruth, was something I already knew).

Fellow presenters Peter Ginn and Alex Langlands were full of similar information as they visited the Ffestiniog Railway in west Wales and even narrator Phil Glenister got in on the act.

He informed us that when steam trains were withdrawn from service in 1968, British Rail stopped tidying their embankments. This allowed trees to grow close to the lines, which in turn gave us the problem of leaves on the line.

And that’s when weary resignation began to take root.

Channel 4’s preoccupation with showing off people’s wobbly bits continues with new dating show Naked Attraction.

It’s an obsession that warrants an investigation, but I’m sure there would be a cover-up.