A Lovely Summer Day

It’s a lovely summer day in the land of the inch high at Catcott as the 11.05am Templecombe to Highbridge service trundles over the crossing. The train will pause for a moment to allow Arthritic Arthur to swap his empty milk churn for a full one, of water that is. Though why Arthur doesn’t perform this swap from the comfort of the platform just out of shot to the left I have no idea, for the train is timetabled to stop here at Catcott. 

In olden times very few of the crossing keepers’ cottages on ‘The Branch’ of this remote part of the former Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway had running water, so the supply came in milk churns delivered by rail. This indeed lasted right through to closure in 1966. I discussed this the other day in a post of course, but this photograph has just come to light, so it’s a shame to waste it, and not everyone catches every post I’m sure. 

Ivan Locksmith stands on the weak concrete bridge smoking something no doubt grown in his huge potting shed as he waits for the train to pass. He’s so involved in his own self indulgent narcotic brain fugg of ecstasy, he’s not  noticed his hero Ivo Peters pull up in his famous Bentley. Ivo knows this so jumped out and made a quick ninja like dash to the goods yard with his trusty 16mm Bell & Howell film camera to record the passing train leaving his car on the bridge to aid composition much like Bob Geeza cat has in previous posts. Sadly old loco 43216 is soon to be withdrawn so deserves being captured on celluloid for posterity, especially seeing it’s such a lovely day. 

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