Thundery Thursday

Thundery Thursday 

Under a thundery sky, Reginald peers across to the camera from the footplate of the wheezing old engine which has just arrived on the 6.03am Evercreech Junction to Highbridge goods. 

This train very rarely stops at Catcott these days, but today it’s collecting an empty coal wagon. But there is little coal needed here, for people tend to burn lumps of dried peat in their fires to boil the water, cook and keep warm. Though the crossing keeper has the relative luxury of being given a few lumps of locomotive coal in exchange for a little home produced cider. 

The tractor to the left is standing next to a shed owned by the local peat extraction company. You can’t quite see, but there is a narrow gauge railway which runs from the shed across to the moorland where the peat is extracted, though increasingly these days the peat comes by road behind the tractor. It also mostly departs by road rather than by rail. 

It’s hard to believe, but in less than 10 years from now, the railway will be long gone, for sadly nobody loves the railway anymore apart from the few enthusiasts who travel the line. 

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