Railway Fame, Part Two

Yesterday, a ‘new’ train ran on my line. It was a one off service to London, stopping at only three stations before Waterloo. Bournemouth, Southampton and Basingstoke. It sat at each station for fifteen minutes or so to allow staff, new and old, gathered on the platforms a few moments to chat and reflect. The train isn’t new as such. Far from it. But it does boast a shiny new livery. Most importantly, it bears the names of colleagues who have been lost to the virus.

I paused at the end of the above paragraph and started counting up the number of people that I work with who’ve gone down with Covid. It’s dozens. A few were just a bit ill, not much more than a cold. Some called it ‘horrible’. Most of them described the disease as the worst illness they’d ever suffered. Which, to be fair, is how most people would describe a bout of the flu. Several called it the worst couple of weeks of their lives.

The NHS saved several more from having their names added to the train. A close colleague spent a precarious month on a ventilator in the early days of the pandemic. I didn’t think he would make it, but he did. I saw him recently, for the first time since the Before Days. Cheerful as ever, but not the same. There’s a few people who are still ‘not quite right’.

Not everyone could be saved. Simon started working on the railway in the mid 70s. He never worked anywhere else. He was one of the first people I met when I started, and was a huge help in those early days. He was a long serving union rep – helping is what he did, day in and day out. He was a big football fan, so we always had something to chat about. He was a good bloke. The salt of the earth.

He played football and cricket and rode his mountain bike to work. He was fit. But he was gone within a week of falling ill. We’ve gotten used to him not being around. But the place isn’t quite the same. There are reminders of his four decade presence everywhere. His coffee cup. Notices on walls. Entries in log books.

Yet we have been lucky in the U.K. We have been able to afford the restrictions that helped limit the spread of the virus. Many lives have been spared. These have been sad times, but it could have been so much worse.