Five shillings for a journey in time
One of the foundations of my 7 year old self which cost 5/- (shillings) or 60 old pennies is this little book which holds many childhood memories. In particular one illustration is etched into my 'reminiscence bank'. It portrays the apparent length of 'The Canadian' train and its suggestion of epic adventure caught my imagination. I dreamed of riding it but never really believed I could. So it was a surreal moment when last week I sat in one of the observation domes for real as the 20 car train snaked its way across Canada. The long held imaginings reinforced by many YouTube videos of the trip meant it all felt very familiar, yet equally a sort of 'imposter syndrome' kept kicking in - could I really be here? Given that almost all of the trains featured in my little book have been consigned to history or heritage, with only The Canadian remaining a regular working train using the original rolling stock I felt like I was riding in another world and another time.