Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective
Slow Train (Flanders and Swann song)
Song by Flanders and Swann From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Remove ads
"Slow Train" is a song by British duo Flanders and Swann, written in July 1963.[1] It laments the closure of railway stations and lines brought about by the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, and also the passing of a way of life.[2] Written by Swann in F Major, its slow 6/8 rhythm evokes a steam train slowing and finally stopping.
Remove ads
Lyrics
Summarize
Perspective
"Slow Train" takes the form of an elegiac list song of railway stations, which has been likened to a litany.[3] The song is introduced by Michael Flanders in the recording of At the Drop of Another Hat recorded live at the Haymarket Theatre on 2 October 1963 thus:[4]
Unusual song this for us perhaps, as it's really quite a serious song and it was suggested by all those marvellous old local railway stations with their wonderful evocative names, all due to be axed and done away with one-by-one.
Its evocation of quiet, rural stations is highly romanticised and uses imagery such as the presence of a station cat or milk churns on a platform to express a "less hurried way of life" that is about to vanish:[2]
No churns, no porter, no cat on a seat,
At Chorlton-cum-Hardy or Chester-le-Street.
The appeal of "Slow Train" is considered to lie in its list of "achingly bucolic" names of rural halts. The nostalgically poetic tone of Flanders's lyrics has been likened to Edward Thomas's 1914 poem "Adlestrop", which wistfully evokes a fleeting scene of Adlestrop railway station in Gloucestershire.[5]
Although most of the stations mentioned in Flanders's song were earmarked for closure under the Beeching cuts, a number of the stations were ultimately spared closure: Chester-le-Street,Formby, Ambergate and Arram stations all remain open, and Gorton and Openshaw also survives, now renamed Gorton. Selby and Goole stations were not threatened by Beeching, though the line "from Selby to Goole" mentioned in the song was closed to passengers. The other line mentioned, "from St Erth to St Ives" in Cornwall stayed open.[note 1] Some stations referred to in the song have since been re-opened, notably Chorlton-cum-Hardy. It had closed in January 1967, but re-opened in July 2011 as Chorlton tram stop.
Michael Flanders' song treats Formby Four Crosses and Armley Moor Arram as station names, but these stations have never existed; Flanders used an alphabetical list of stations as his reference, and in both cases he mistakenly combined two consecutive names, namely those of Formby, Four Crosses, Armley Moor and Arram. Leon Berger, archivist of the estate of Donald Swann, said that Flanders had taken his list from one published in The Guardian, which was the source of some of the discrepancies between the names in the songs and the historic names of the stations.[6]
Remove ads
Other versions
In 2004, Canadian classical quartet Quartetto Gelato released a themed album called Quartetto Gelato Travels the Orient Express, celebrating the original journey of Orient Express and featuring music from London to Istanbul. The album begins with a rendition of "Slow Train", with the final lines changed to reflect the route of the Orient Express.
A version of "The Slow Train" by the King's Singers is on electronica duo Lemon Jelly's track "'76 aka The Slow Train", combined with a cover of the Albert Hammond song "I'm a Train" also performed by the King's Singers. A live version by Stackridge was included in their 2009 DVD 4x4.[7]
Michael Williams' book On the Slow Train takes its name from the song. It celebrates twelve of the most beautiful and historic journeys in Britain that were saved from the Beeching cuts, including famous routes such as the Settle–Carlisle line and less well-known pleasures, such as the four-hour Lancaster–Carlisle route along the remote Cumbrian coastline.[8]
English punk and folk singer-songwriter Frank Turner included a version of the song on his 2011 compilation album The Second Three Years.
Remove ads
List of stations referred to in the lyrics
Summarize
Perspective
Where appropriate, the correct name of the station is shown in brackets.
- Ten of the 31 stations were open in 2012, with five others on lines still open.
- Trouble House Halt opened in 1959, shortly before Beeching became BR chairman.
- Re-opening of the line through Cheslyn Hay in 1989 included a new Landywood station, half a mile to the south.
- Kirby Muxloe is regularly proposed for re-opening with the freight-only Ivanhoe line remaining between Leicester and Burton; however, a scheme re-appraisal by Scott Wilson in 2009 suggested there was little likelihood of the line reopening to passengers.[13]
- Littleton and Badsey, Chittening Platform and Armley Moor are on lines still open. Chittening and Armley are in the Bristol and Leeds urban areas, and are proposed for re-opening.
Remove ads
See also
Notes
- While St Ives in Cornwall was the one to which Flanders is referring, another station named St. Ives, on the Great Eastern Railway between Cambridge and Huntingdon, was closed in 1970.
- Re-opened in July 2011 as Chorlton, on Manchester Metrolink.
- Both Selby and Goole remain open, but the line between them, referred to in the song, closed in 1964.[12]
References
Bibliography
External links
Wikiwand - on
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Remove ads