Darlo Rail Museum

The Overground

Now arriving on platform GN is the wonderfully weird new Weir from Connoisseur. With demand outstripping supply on the recent Overlook bobble hat (with its The Shining carpet inspired design), CC went with another 'Over' inspired template - this time London's Overground seat pattern motif. Seen by millions everyday, they've turned something fairly nondescript and ugly into something that will bring internet servers down on release and then people forking out treble the RRP on eBay.

This was the first time I've been able to nab one since one of the original Weirs from a few years ago. It helped in part now I'm a forum member of Connoisseur so got first dibs on it. So whilst the world counted down and prayed for luck as the 7pm release approached last Monday, I could sit back, relax and let the train take the strain as mine was already paid for, bagged and steaming towards me...

British Rail Logo - Symbol of Saturday

Welcome to South Bermondsey

 Back in the 60s British Rail wanted to shake off it's steam driven and antiquated image and set out to find a new forward thinking modernist label for itself. In 1965 Gerald Burney came up with this gem that has stood the test of time, outlasting even BR and becoming the overall symbol for today's privatized rail network. Despite lasting nearly 50 years, and counting, in its career the double arrows have often stood for indecision, delays and under investment. But it has also stood for ill intent, excessive drinking, violence and skulduggery, the arrows suddenly taking on a double meaning come Saturday.

 In the 80s most firms used the rail network for travelling en mass first using the Specials and then the 'ordinary'. Several groups even hijacked the BR moniker (much like they did the trains) to provide their own identity. The ICF, the Service Crew et. al used it to good affect and suddenly the arrows took on a more sinister meaning than one for old rolling stock and blocked up bogs.

www.casualco.com

It's the same today though. We all love getting the train. And football is at it's best when you walk under the double arrows in your home town, throw yourself on the vulgarities of the National Rail system, have a few cans and a laugh, and then swagger out into the unknown a few hours later to police escorts, 'away' pubs and a few hundred of your own kind hemmed into the corner of a ground and singing your heart out.

So here's to another 50 years from Burney's symbol and the train chucking us out at the likes of Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester Picc and London Kings Cross en route to fun and games.

Young Wilson at Meadowhall

  

The Navigators

Also known as the Ken Loach film you haven't seen, the 2001 film 'the Navigators' follows a group of track workers as they 'navigate' their way through life after the collapse of British rail in 1995. From the outset a bustling work room full of grizzled Yorkshiremen full of laughter, banter and camaraderie, are told their new company's mission statement - new terms like 'performance-related pay', 'efficiency' and 'unpaid holidays' are mentioned. It's a case of staying on under the new firm were BR agreements with workers and unions are void, take the redundancy cash and begin life as casual agency workers.

The film follows a key handful of these chaps. Loach used lesser known actors, the only 'names' so to speak are Steve Huison (the Full Monty, When Saturday Comes) and Tom Craig (Where the Heart Is - you know the one, he's a Sheff Wed fan in everything he's in), as to keep the authenticity and real life aspect of the film. The lads struggle on at the new firm as one by one their colleagues accept the redundancy package, and before long there is only a couple of them left. Those that stay are appalled by the 'flexible working' and extreme cost cutting at work, the economic problems with family life at home and the changing face of society.

In the end they all take their chance with agency work with varying success. In the end the over the top cost cutting by new railway companies are highlighted, leading to a heart breaking and deeply upsetting scene, that puts the rest of them in a deep moral predicament - do what is right or do what will keep them in work. An appalling situation that shows just how desperate the lads have become.

Hard hitting, sad but full of dry wit, the Navigators is not as important as 'Kes', not as acclaimed as 'Riff-Raff' and not as witty as 'Looking for Eric', but is still a very good piece of British film. Given good reviews, it was given even more kudos later in 2001 when Railtrack was folded by the Labour government, after cost-cutting and shady dealing had led to several high profile accidents, bringing the content in Loach's rail film real topicality, making it a critically acclaimed important piece of film making.