Trains

I love trains, ever since I was a kid they have signalled adventure (going to the big city!), and even though I now commute daily on one, I still think they're great, if somewhat short here. I spent 5 years living in Russia, and particularly during the last 4, I spent days on end on trains, long trains, with fascinating people on them. This goods train goes through Stirling daily at 17:15, and always brings with it a wave of nostalgia for long train journeys in Russia, as it is what I regard as a proper length - 20 'carriages'. Though in Russia that is less than half what a goods train would be, it is the length of many of the express or passenger trains I got to places like Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Moscow or Samara, or across the border to Ukraine or Latvia, when I had the additional fun of winding up the border guards who while examining my passport would discuss what on earth a foreigner was doing in third class, not even remotely considering the possibility that I might speak Russian. It just took a polite question like 'so is everything in order then?' in that language to make them jump. he he!