Category Archives: Uncategorized

This is the sleek new design, unveiled today by Transport for London, of the driverless train for London Underground. This is a perfect expression of an integrated and automated machine-ensemble…see, my post below. The best part of these trains is … Continue reading →

I’ve been working, over the summer, on my book about the safety posters produced by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. This has involved quite a lot of photography, and I now have a large number of high-re … Continue reading →

There was a piece in yesterday’s Guardian, about how European overnight sleeper services are being run down and phased out…that’s sad. You can read the story, here http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/12/europe-night-trains-sleeper-service Basically, these trains are the victims of high-speed train travel, low-cost airfares … Continue reading →

I don’t like to dwell on train crashes, but this one in Switzerland had some dramatic images of a carriage hanging off a cliff. It reminded me of The Italian Job (1969), and of Richard Wilson’s, Bus hanging off the … Continue reading →

The BBC online magazine has a selection of images of trains…great! Here’s the link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-28648113 We live near the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. I’ve posted about it before.

Here’s something we found earlier…it’s a coloured photographic print of the French resort of Juan Les Pins, near Nice, in the South of France. The long landscape format is distinctive of railway carriage prints. carriage prints were, as the name … Continue reading →

There was a most interesting story on the BBC news website. You can catch it, here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28130579 Basically, 300 people died, last year, on the British railway network. But, they had to climb over  a fence, or throw themselves in … Continue reading →

It’s the end of another academic year. Success to all our young people and happy holidays.

I have been thinking about what Peter Wollen was saying about thrills, speed and cinema. You will recall, if you read what I wrote previously, that Wollen describes the psychoanalytical compound of excitement and desire that is evoked by the … Continue reading →

Here’s a text I wrote, back in 2007, about the history of the seaside and the up-and-down railway track of the big dipper…I am a bit of an expert in the cultural history of the English seaside and have taught … Continue reading →