…tells several stories
Yesterday I paid a long awaited visit to a little railway in Wales. I visited it online before I got there, paid for my tickets using the latest chip and pin technology and then sat back to enjoy the slow ride up into the mountains. The locomotive was hissing and belching steam, as they should. Every bit of brass was gleaming and every bit of greased steel was glistening. It whistled noisily at every crossing and took its time to climb up through the gorgeous autumn trees to Devil’s Bridge at the top of the line. Once there, the nostalgia continues, as you can see with this vintage AA phone box:
However, it is the picture below which appeals especially. It could have been taken at almost any time in the 112 years since the railway was opened. It shows an engineer in his boiler suit waiting for the locomotive to turn around before heading back down the mountain. Look a little more carefully though, and you will see that he is checking his smartphone as he does so! I may have altered the color on the photo, but this is not trick photography. We may love a bit of nostalgia, but the chances are we will tell people about it using the latest technology. What would Stephenson have done with today’s technology, I wonder?
CLICK for color version
