Harborne, Birmingham: Our Local Express…
The Harborne Express seems exceptionally sluggish,
Despite the ass, the manpower and the steam;
The coerced donkey pulls at the front of the train,
Whilst women make up the shoving team…
A flag is raised to warn of the danger of speed,
At which the signals laugh like a carrion crow;
The signal man snorts and dozes inside his box
And the driver’s copper kettle boils on the go…
The furnace is gusted by a pair of billows,
The stoker pushes down on a punting pole;
Chaps reading newspapers sit unruffled and still
But the exertions of the pushers are taking their toll…
Fellows’ pipe-smoke is surely more powerful
Than the steam from the engine’s funnel;
The coal fuel still fills the stoker’s tender
But the readers will be compromised in a tunnel…
A lounging rail worker sucks on his pipe,
Yet he probably doesn’t have a ticket;
The Harborne ‘Express’ is so painfully sedate,
That the crew plays a slow game of cricket…
Pete Ray
Another Cynicus postcard which was actually posted in 1906, being sarcastic about the speed of the Harborne train in Birmingham…
This image is from the Maxam published book, written by Mary B Harding: ‘Comic and Novelty Postcards of Birmingham’…
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