A fantastic vision

I went over to Newport in South Wales on Friday, doggy-sat for the evening, and came home the following day. I went by train which I always enjoy, the journey there involved a change at Bristol Temple Meads, and the journey home was direct. I was able to sit by the window, which I always like, but this journey is a particular favourite, also it’s very easy and not too long (actually I don’t believe there is such a thing as a too long train journey!) I spent the day with daughter before she went off for a get together with her best friend, and dog and I watched the football. I’m not really a football fan at all, but I couldn’t work their remote for the TV so I was stuck, but the dog seemed content. I retired early and continued to read “The Pigeon Tunnel” by John le Carré which I wrote about yesterday.

It was a great train journey, both there and home, once we had passed through the tunnel under the River Severn, the train ran along the coast of Gloucestershire, then across the border into Wales (didn’t need a passport) and smoothly along the historic track to Newport, and if I’d stayed on, would have taken me to the Welsh capital of Cardiff.

Apologies that the following image taken on Weston station (1841/61/84) isn’t central. I still haven’t mastered the updated (and supposedly improved) commands to organise my page as I wish.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Wales_Main_Line#/media/File:South_Wales_Main_Line.png

I was surprised to find that in fact this railway line is very old – linking back to the first railways there were, and the first railway which ran to our town of Weston-super-Mare. Of course I shouldn’t be surprised because I knew that our little town had holiday makers brought here from 1841, and many still arrive here today by train for their vacation. Before the railways, passengers and traders had to either catch ferries across the River Severn to get to South Wales, or travel by road up to Gloucestershire and then across the English/Welsh border. The ferry continued to run until 1886, by which time, of course rail travel for passengers and goods was well established. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the great engineer, had himself surveyed and planned a route which, however, did not happen for financial reasons.

Eventually, of course, his vision was completed – or should I say his visions, because he was a genius on so many different projects. Travelling by train, where you have no need to concentrate on where you’re going, but only to listen out for announcements of where you might alight, you can properly appreciate the history of your transport, and the fantastic vision of people like Brunel, and the skill of the engineers and workmen who constructed it. On a railway line like the one between Bristol and South Wales you can sit by the window and as the amazing views (even in the rain) flash past, you can marvel at the vision, the planing,, the endeavour and the sheer muscle power of those who constructed it.

On my two journeys, I was lucky to see it all bathed in glorious sunshine which reflected off the Bristol Channel, with the hills of Somerset across the water.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_and_South_Wales_Union_Railway#References