Overnight by Dan Richards

Author:Dan Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781838857516
Publisher: Canongate Books
Published: 2025-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

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As the final Yorks are loaded aboard, the lights inside are turned off and the shutters pulled down. Today’s mail trains carry no people beyond the driver – and any writers they might have along for the ride – and the coaches have no windows so the mail rattles south in pitch darkness.

Driver Keith Buckley walks down the length of the train making final checks, having already been round shining a torch at the buffers, pipes, jumper cables, brake pads, springs and wheel sets below, and the pantograph head and carbon brushes above. Now he methodically tugs and rattles the two roller doors on each carriage to make sure they’re properly shuttered and locked. ‘They load everything on and tell me they’re finished but I’ve got to physically check the doors are secure. Then I speak to the person in charge on the platform, tell them I’m happy, let the signaller know “all clear”, and then we’re away.’

The train, a red multiple unit, is bee-faced yellow. A smart train but getting on, having first run in 1995. The cab is a mix of original and updated equipment. Keith’s seat is on the left. The large speedometer is the main instrument before him. To the left of that is the brake pressure gauge; to the right, the yellow-spoked sunflower of the automatic warning system.* Further over on his left-hand side is Keith’s power/brake controller with which he accelerates and stops the train. On his right is a communications panel featuring radio equipment and handsets to speak with signallers. Higher up are power indicators, safety isolation switches and the train protection and warning system.*

Somewhere in the mix is the horn, I imagine. Less good than a whistle but still the stuff of childhood dreams.

I settle into the padded seat to Keith’s right. The door beside me closes with a hiss.

The signal ahead is green. The frosty incline awaits.

‘Off we go,’ says Keith, and the night mail begins her run south.

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