Three Anoraks

Just paying my blog a fleeting visit. Normal service will be resumed after Easter.

The term 'anorak' caused some confusion last time I used it. In the UK, if not elsewhere, it's applied to individuals, usually male, who have an apparently obsessive interest in something technical or trivial. The classic anoraks are train spotters, people whose idea of a good time is to spend a whole day standing on the end of a windswept station platform, copying down the numbers of every graffiti strewn object that is dragged past their field of view. I used to be one many years ago and I'd hoped I'd been cured.

Alas, if that's the case, why am I here on the bridge at Lower Moor, diverted from my trip to the post office, waiting patiently with these three stalwart gentlemen? And not only that, but engaging them in conversation, talking about the good old days when the line was the haunt of Class 50s.

Notice how well equipped they are - all anoraks relish equipment, having the right gear. And, before you ask, they're not examining the content of the grit bin. They're checking the latest text message from a forward scout further up the line at Honeybourne - more technology.

Eventually a class 47, the last in Anglia livery so they told me, growls its way past heading for Worcester, its presence immortalised in yet another JPEG.

Happy days, and not a real anorak in sight - train spotter fashion has moved on - now the fleece is 'de rigueur' for the discerning trackside spectator.