Railways Symbols

Like most ageing men, I see plenty evidence of national decline. In fairness, people my age have viewed their world through these spectacles even since Adam was escorted off the premises. I went down to London last fortnight, not knowing if my train reservations would be fully honoured on account of rail strikes and ‘essential engineering works’. The quality of our railways is epitomised by the badges/motifs of the various railway companies which operate the network. Northern, our local firm, as an ‘N’ for its symbol. Great. Avanti has a red triangle. Cross Country has an X. Although Grand Central and the Heathrow Express have more thoughtful and beautiful designs, the bar is set rather low. Contrast these with the Victorian and mid-twentieth-century companies’ symbols, above and below:

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Co.

The South Eastern and Chatham

Ffestiniog Railway

Even Pullman carriages

Symbols are naturally inferior to that to which they point, yet they also highlight the decline in standards. Parliament, the Police, the Courts, the Church, the roads, the state of industry, schools, universities, family life, and so on. H.F. Lyte's hymn  Abide with Me sums it up perfectly:

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

The more this old world declines and shrinks, the more I long for that which neither diminishes nor dims.