Introduction.

My years on the railway started out of necessity and ended in bitterness thirty years later. The years between gave a wealth of experience and volumes of memories that I have drawn on for my poetry and prose and I will always be grateful for this.

During a training period in Deeside College I related a lot of these stories to my good friend Matthew Hatfield.  He told me that the times and incidents I remembered always seemed to be in black and white to him "Like an old movie, Derek." Fair comment - but they always seem sepia to me.

All are true stories and my poems show that I can never write in the abstract - I have to experience it all before my writing takes over.

Like any conversation the items in this collection are in no particular order - they just happened this way and will hopefully stay.

On this page I want to thank all the usual culprits; they really do have a lot to answer for. Click on the image below to enter.

                                     Derek Richardson.

                                   Deeside College, 2003.