SPEAKER_13 0:01

Hello and welcome to Wild Angles.

SPEAKER_15 0:11

A radio show with a collective view.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

An ordinary everyday.

SPEAKER_15 0:16

Objects and subjects.

SPEAKER_18 0:20

One theme per episode.

SPEAKER_19 0:22

With various reflections, opinions, and ideas.

SPEAKER_18 0:29

And of course, music.

SPEAKER_19 0:45

Today's theme is trains.

SPEAKER_11 0:58

For your own thing, and one from the end of the platform, after the frame before you have the four. After arrival, let's frame the form of 16 service. And this will be the last department on my net statement.

SPEAKER_14 1:22

Train tracks, those metal parallel lines for me not only carry trains, but also carry inspirational thoughts and dreams. When I was a kid, my dad would take me to a small station outside Bristol, where we would watch Intercity 125s tank through at high speed. Their size and power thundered through with a gust of unexpected warm air that I felt on my face as it made its way to its destination. The train was exciting, but I also used to enjoy the in-between times as a ten-year-old looking down the long track, perhaps a couple of miles, waiting to see that first glimpse of that speeding train. Sometimes, whilst looking down the straight track, I would chance upon a fox carefully crossing the lines. Maybe a badger would amble up to the rail and sniff around for worms, and I would pray that a train would not be on its way until this beautiful British badger decided that the gravel wasn't optimum for worm hunting. Way down the line was also a traffic light that seemed to permanently be on green. And without any apparent rhyme or reason, it would turn to red. And this signaled to my dad that a train was on its way. Right, kids, he'd begin. And this meant we had to stand back on the platform to where the brambles and stingers were lingering because these trains did not hang about. I would strain my small neck to peer down the length of line, anticipating a first glimpse of the approaching speeding train, and excitement slowly welling away in my belly. And the first thing you would see was a light, a tiny prick of headlight, and my belly would flip when I saw this. Then I would be able to make out the form of the front of the train through a hazy afternoon heat wobble, and the butterflies would start to take off in my sweet fatted belly. And then for me, the most ecstatic part the lines of the tracks would start to hiss and crackle. This was when I knew there was no turning back. This bad boy was coming for us, and at speed, as the train neared, it got bigger and bigger, and then before I could think too much, it was there in front of us, large and massive. Metal and glass, blue and yellow, loud and dangerous, whizzing past, hard to focus on. My head going back and forth, trying to focus on carriages, but only seeing blurred lines. And then it was gone, disappearing fast, slinking away like a darting snake looking for its hole. The hiss and crackle abating, my heart thumping. As we crept forward out of the bramble and stinging nettle grasp, big smiles on our faces, we were chorus. Did you see that one? That was a fast train. When I first heard the song Auctioneer by REM, which is about Michael Stipe's grandfather getting the train and giving Michael a penny to place on the tracks to make it flat, it felt like a song that captured the energy anticipation of a hurtling train with the fear of chaotic derailment.

SPEAKER_12 7:35

Hi, it's Mae. When I think of trains, I think of India. I was extremely lucky to travel around India in the mid-90s with my dear friend Dylan. We flew into Mumbai, formerly Bombay, and made our way down to Goa. I mean it we needed a couple of weeks to get over a summer of not doing much in the south of France. Wow, life was so difficult back then. Anyway, while in Goa we formulated a plan. We were gonna start our trip in earnest by making our way up to Varanasi, the holy city on the river Ganges. So we booked a 38 hour train trip. Now trains in India are traditionally extremely crowded and slow, we've open hole toilets. So it was gonna be an adventure. We'd booked bunk beds, so on the on the evening when we aboarded a train, it wasn't so busy, and we actually managed to get our bunk beds to ourselves. Now I wouldn't say we slept, as the train is extremely noisy and they stop every hour or so, and people are getting on and off, and so we're constantly waking up and falling asleep. That said, I kind of came to in the morning, and there must have been at least seven or out uh seven or eight beautiful Indian people politely sitting on the edge of my bunk bed. Opposite me, in the uh bunk bed opposite, there was people there must have been ten people sitting on the edge of that one too. I woke Dylan who folded his bed down and he was on the middle bunk, and we started our day in earnest. Now every time we stopped, which was about every hour, like I said, you'd hear that noise. Chay chai chai chai, and as the train came to a stop, people were jumping on board trying to sell you food, cimosas, barges, uh dooras, uh drinks, whatever. It was incredible. There were smells and colours and noise and bedlam, all with that chance, cha, and then it was sort of quiet down as the train was about to leave, all these people would jump off. Then you'd come to the next sort of thriving ecosystem, the next train station, and it would all start again. It was incredible. Now we got to Varanasi, I wouldn't say we were rested, we were maybe a little bit disorientated, but it would be a wonderful trip. We travelled around India going to to the Taj Mahar, to Rajasthan, back down to Goa, then eventually over to Hampi, but using all modes of transport and it was absolutely incredible. We had one more trip to go, the trip back home. We were flying out of Delhi again, it was another 38 hour trip. We got on this this train and it was particularly crowded. Although we booked bunk beds, there was no chance of grabbing them that evening. So just by chance we sort of clambered up onto these huge luggage racks that went down parallel down the train above the uh above the seats. Now they were so big, and me and Dylan had lost so much weight that we ended up staying up there for a day and a half. We could still look out the window and we were still fed and watered when the train stopped. People still sending us up joy and drinks like that, and it was an incredible way to make our way back home and up to Delhi. Anyway, needless to say, um India was an incredible place. Indian people are incredible people and they're totally beautiful. It changed the way I looked at life and Indian people f that's for sure. So I'd like to thank India for being India. There is nowhere else on the planet quite like it. And more than anything, I'd like to thank Dylan for being a wonderful friend, a wonderful and patient travelling companion, and for basically carrying me and my rucksack around that incredible country. I leave you with Jaho from Slum Dog Millionaire. They sing and dance this in the film in the Mumbai train station. I want you all to sing and dance along too. And whatever you do, please promise you enjoy your next train trip, however long or short it is. Look out of those windows and dream. All the very best. Have a great day. See you soon.

SPEAKER_06 11:40

I'll make you happy all you gotta make you want to say.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

This is an Elizabeth line service to Eddington. The next station is Hi, I'm Scott.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

So trains. I haven't had much time to prepare anything for this episode on trains. Simply because I've travelled down to Cornwall in the UK this weekend, and it was all a bit of a mad rush. All the getting the stuff ready, packing a suitcase, making sure I've checked a list and checked it twice. And uh getting in the car and coming down here. Um and as we're travelling down on the motorway, I'm looking to my right, and I can see a train whizzing past at high speed on a on its way to a probably a very similar destination, and I'm thinking, God, they're gonna get there so much quicker. But then I have that other thought of but it's not gonna stop outside the hotel. That I'm still gonna have to get a bus or a taxi or an Uber or something to get me from the train station to my final destination. And then the thoughts in my head, which is quicker? Get in the car and go direct from place A to B, or get the train quicker to location B, but then have to wait ages to get to C. I've never really calculated that. I mean the train is a fantastic mode of transport. I know that 70% of trains go into and out of London in the UK. And that's where trains really come into place. If you go into London, it's great. It's a relaxed commute. You can sit there, you can work on your laptop, you can read a book, no stresses and strains of traffic jams and all the rest of it. And when you get into London, you get off the train and you're onto another train, the London Underground, to get to get you to your final destination quickly. Within literally seconds usually of where you're where you're heading. But when you're going to somewhere like Cornwall, getting the trains a little bit more of a a military operation. You have to plan where the train station is and where your final destination is. Maybe spend extra money getting from point B to point C. Trains are a great idea, but there's a reason that 70% of trains go into and out of London, and that's really convenient. I like the idea of trains, I like the romanticism of you know some of the train journeys in Scotland and the Flying Scotsman and all the rest of it. I think they're beautiful places, but from a practical point of view, maybe not so much. My song choice this week is Runaway Train by Solar Silent.

SPEAKER_09 16:27

Are you up in the middle of the night? Like the firefly.

SPEAKER_19 19:27

You're listening to Wild Angles.

SPEAKER_11 19:35

As we are faced with late, as we need to do holding your tickets and later injured my time, and you'll be entitled to everyone take it usually holidays.

SPEAKER_13 19:59

Well, they haven't really played any part in my life. Um I have friends from London, uh get the cube all the time. Friends from Birmingham who jumped on a train to go to the next door. Um I wasn't used to catching training. Because I really hold it. And then just more and more people were doing it as a manager, so I thought I can't do it. I can't do it in front of everybody. So I walked through the carriages and I went to find a member of staff and said, what's going on? You know what's the rule? What's what's the deal with this silent carriage? And he said, Oh, I've never so sorry, sir. The um silent carriages don't run on a weekend. We don't have it on this actual service. Um I was flabbergasted. I was very embarrassed. Goodness knows what they thought of me, and I sheepishly soft off to the under the other end of the train and found hey seat by myself and suffered in silence for the rest of the journey. So my song this week, regular listeners will know if I take any opportunity to uh shoot on KLF on the airway. This song is about transcentral. It is a rather than a place, it is a state of mind, so buckle up. Get ready to get a train to a state of mind. This is KLF with the last train to Transcentral. Over and out.

SPEAKER_11 23:48

Okay, everybody, lie down on the floor and keep calm.

SPEAKER_17 26:00

And when it's half term, I have to go home. It's quite a quite a long journey, a lot of waiting around at various stations, etc. But I find there's often a time where I meet or witness strange, unusual events. One that comes to mind, um, I was taking the train from London Euston to Edinburgh Waverley on the Caledonian sleeper train. My first time travelling kind of alone to go to Scotland. I'd never been to Scotland before. And I was very excited. I was also quite ill, I remember. But anyhow, that was irrelevant. I got on the train at midnight, um, it's a night sleeper train. And this woman uh gets on the train, and she's carrying Scottish lot of bags overflowing with things. And I was at the front of the carriage, and the Caledon sleeper trains, even in the lowest class that exists, are very spacious because it's a sleeper train. And I was at right at the front, so I had about two metres of space in front of me, and she was sat next to me across the aisle, and she piles on all these uh things, and then she starts getting pots and pans out of her bag. She gets bread, toast, well, toast, she wants to make toast, eggs, everything, and then she's going, Where's the kitchen? And she's looking for a kitchen. She's so on board the Caledonian sleeper train, but there was a kitchen, and so she brought all her cooking equipment on this train one trip on the train because she wanted to make herself a meal on the train, which was really unusual. And then she proceeded to spend until 2 a.m. on a speakerphone uh talking to some strange relative. So that's one unusual story from a train. And the second one, I was waiting for a train at in the north of France to go down south. Um, and I had about a two, three hour layover. I went to a cafe in the train station and I enjoy making bracelets out of threads. Um Brazilian star bracelet sometimes. So I'm just sat there making my bracelet. And this lady who barely speaks any French, I think she's watching me after a while. She she asked me, Oh, how do you do that? And um so through broken French and uh her broken English, I explained to her how to do a bracelet. I sat down next to her, and for the next half hour I taught this a completely random lady and she was Flemish how to make a bracelet with strings, and then my train came and had to leave. And she was very, very sweet, and it was one of those moments where that exchange would have completely been missed had I not taken the train, obviously, or if I'd maybe not decided to take out my bracelet and started making it. If I'd maybe just sort of sat there and zoned out or taken my phone out, I would have missed the opportunity to teach a random lady never met a skill. And it was a very, very nice memorable moment. My song of choice is Railroad Ramble by Steve Gunn. It's a song that for me really encompasses that feeling of travel when you're sat in the train looking out the window with a rhythmatic rumble of the rail thing click, click, and quite a hypnotic song, like the same way when you're just staring at the countryside, you kind of go into a sort of a trance.

SPEAKER_04 29:53

See you before we're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_18 31:58

And one of the things, amongst many other things that I really enjoyed were their trains. Very efficient, very comfortable, and very modern. And in my time there I explored I would like to say most of the major towns in the city in the country in the confederation. I would say not necessarily. I would say twenty-five dollars. Maybe you know I should get the ones and buy SP today. You can pay eighty-frank papers for people the whole day and take any forms of transport, which is an amazing, amazing deal. So I definitely made the most of that. Now, on top of amazing Swiss trains, they're always supposed to be arrived on time except any time to speak in the park, but no surprise there. There was a train station close to where I lived called Chantal Train Station. And essentially it was kind of like a an underground tube store similar to what you know we'd have in London, but just significantly bigger. And it was this normal sort of sort of square, and then you had a staircase going down and just it led to this sort of you know, no of a train station that you had no idea that you felt like the whole hill was carved out of the train station. But it was always empty. And I think it was just what amazed me was that it was so pristine and new and you know, in a normal neighbourhood that no one no one used this to commute because it was so central to Geneva. Anyway, a lot of us guys on the exchange we appreciated this train station, and I don't think the uh the girls were very impressed with their obsession, but nevertheless. Um and yeah, it was on the route for the Le Mon Express, which uh connected women municipalities along Lake Geneva. I think even when it Annecy. So if you go to Geneva, take a look at the Champagne train station if uh you are train enthusiasts, and I'm sure you'll greatly enjoy it. Anyway, the song I have chosen is Ocean by Richard Hawley. Um I guess one of his more introspective songs, and something that you should listen to next time you're on the train.

SPEAKER_05 34:41

You lead me down to the ocean. So lead me down by the ocean. You know it's been a long time. You always need me tongue, and all this time is for us. I love you just because you know, you know, right, so why are you still dressed in your morning soon?

SPEAKER_19 37:24

You're listening to Wild Angles.

SPEAKER_15 37:32

Hi, Kev the Poet here, and the theme of trains has coincided with me taking quite a lot of train journeys recently. Just last week. I had to take six different trains in one day for a work appointment, and today I will be taking three more trains. You see, I'm travelling from South Wales where I live up to the Midlands. It's my great friend Dave's 60th birthday bash, so whilst there I'll also visit my mum and visit my oldest school friend all over the next three days. Therefore, I've decided to split my contribution for this episode into two, and the reason is mainly to help me pass the time whilst I'm on the train. So I will be playing what I call train bingo. Basically, what it entails is me listing six things I need to either see or experience whilst on the trains today, and when I see it, I tick it off my virtual bingo card and write a little about my answer. Are you with me? So the six things that I have chosen to look out for today on my three train journeys are a famous building or landmark, something that made me laugh, some someone I'd like to punch, but I won't, someone I fancy, a random act of kindness, and someone famous, or failing that, a famous lookalikey. Fingers crossed, I'm able to tick them all off, so I'll see you on the other side when I shall reveal the results.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

London Blackfriars, City Tensey, Barrington, London St. Pampless International, Finsbury Park, Stephenage, Kitchen, Richworth Garden City, Baldock, Ashwell and Morton, Boyston.

SPEAKER_15 39:14

So here I am in my hotel room in Lichfield. It's quite lovely, but also potentially quite echoey. So apologies if this recording is not the greatest. But we need answers, and answers I have. So let's go through the topics. First of all, I was looking for a famous building or landmark. Easy. Villa Park, the greatest stadium ever built. Something that made me laugh. Well, everyone might not agree with me on this, but it did make me laugh. So there was a wedding party when I was at New Street Station in Birmingham. There's about 10, 11 people there, all dressed beautifully. Now there was a wheelchair involved, and a woman in it was probably at least 95. She was uh asleep. She had a blanket up to her chin, and yet on the top of her head, she had this most incredible wedding hat. I mean, it was beautiful. I reckon they put it on her while she was shit while she was still asleep, but it did make me laugh anyway. Someone I'd like to punch. Um, okay. Controversial. So my first train was huge. Loads of space, loads of empty seats, loads of carriages. Fourteen of them, in fact. So why, oh, why did a mother and her baby sit directly in front of me? Now obviously I didn't punch the mother or the baby, but I was slightly annoyed as he wasn't as he wasn't a quiet baby. So I had to replace my planned podcast listening for music to drown the little bugger out. The pokes, in case you were wondering. Someone I fancy. Now, in hindsight, I really wish I hadn't have selected this, as I ended up looking for someone to fancy. That's a bit creepy. So the award goes to the beautiful lady who gave me a lift to the train station earlier this morning. I did take her a cup of tea in bed beforehand as a thank you. A random act of kindness. Well, this was my highlight. There is a misconception that Britain is in turmoil, a country divided, anger and hatred everywhere. Well, I disagree. And if we spend four hours on trains and you see that is not the case. So many acts of kindness, helping people with suitcases, picking things that people have dropped, smiling and entertaining little children that are not theirs, strangers giving other strangers help with train connections, advice even. It was beautiful to see. Britain is not broken. Fact. Someone famous.

SPEAKER_14 41:32

Hmm.

SPEAKER_15 41:32

I could lie here, couldn't I? Could say I saw Madonna. Um I did think I saw Richard Osman at Cheltenham Spa, but it was really just a tour blow with glasses. Disappointing not. So there you have it, my train bingo is over, and I hope you enjoyed it too. I didn't take everything off my list, but enjoyed the game, and it did help pass the time, and especially the amount of kindness on show was wonderful to see. Therefore, my song choice this week is treat people with kindness by Harry Styles. He waved at me once when I taught my daughter to see One Direction when she was nine. I think he was waving at me. Might not have been. To be honest, it probably wasn't. There was 80,000 people there. Anyway, over to you, Harry.

SPEAKER_08 43:28

I just keep on dancing.

SPEAKER_16 43:32

I've been alive for two billion sixty-five million seconds and counting. For only about two of those seconds have I had any idea what it might feel like to be, say, Indiana Jones. So today I'd like to talk about those two seconds. Half a lifetime ago in nineteen ninety three, myself and my partner embarked on a seven week trip to Indonesia not a suitcase and hotel type trip, more A backpack and basic one. And our backpacks were indeed absolutely laden with everything we might need for the entire fifty days. I invite you to retain this fact, as it will become significant later. We'd made our way by bus from the chaos of Jakarta to the beach of paradise of Panganderan to jog Jakarta, full of culture and history. I'm a small fellow, I only stand at five foot five, so in Jakarta I had enjoyed being the tallest person out of the sixteen of us crammed into a lift. It was such a novel perspective to see the tops of every everyone's heads from such a wild angle. See what I did there? I referenced the title of the show in an attempt to appear clever. Television was only just establishing itself in Indonesia back then, and English was not widely spoken. People would sometimes call out Gary Lineker or Manchester United or Hey Mister, where are you going? To which we learned the answer was Jalan, Jalan, just walking. Now we were at the railway station in Georgia Carta with our guide who embellished her limited English with the phrase I'm a little bit crazy. But she was certainly no more than a little bit crazy. So-called guides often latched on to foreign travellers at tourist hubs, offering help, guidance, local knowledge, and generally charming company in exchange for a few rupiah. We're about to depart to Surabaya on the east coast from where we will be heading onwards towards Lombok and Bali. My partner had already got on the train, although it was a good few minutes before it was due to depart. Here my memory is a little foggy, but for some reason, rather than getting straight onto the train, I'd headed back onto the platform when suddenly a hissing and clanking signal to me that the brakes were off and the train was starting to move out of the station. Uh oh this was before the days of mobile phones, so it would be a matter of uh luck and telepathy to become reunited with my companion. And meantime we would each have to face the stress of uh navigating an unfamiliar country alone. And so I find my legs carrying me at speed towards the accelerating train. A sudden hot wave of adrenaline, then I find myself leaping through the air as time slows and seems almost to be passing frame by frame. Despite the huge backpack, for a moment I'm weightless and I'm gripping the handhold next to the open carriage door, then feeling my feet plant on the floor, and then I'm stumbling into the security of the carriage. Google is very clear that it is incredibly dangerous and often fatal to attempt to jump onto a moving train, and that you should never do it. And so I feel quite justified in claiming that for two seconds I knew what it might feel like to be Indiana Jones. I've gone highbrow with my choice of music this week because someone had already bags the KLF. It provides the soundtrack to brief encounter in which two married strangers meet by chance at a railway station and fall in love, full of drama, passion, and romance. Here is the opening of Rackmanov's second piano concerto. Take it away, say again.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

Well, we just got married, in fact, and for our honeymoon, we decided to go into railing because we were both just under 25 and we qualify for the kind of student student prize tickets. The condition was that you had to start the journey outside of the UK. So we flew to Nice and started it there, and it was it was just a lovely journey in lovely weather, beautiful, and we got right down to the the border of France and Spain, stopping at several places on the way, but um we're just enjoying it, and then we get to um f uh Figueir, which is in the border between France and Spain, and the inspector comes along and basically throws us off the train, says you're not allowed to be on this train, you haven't got a reservation. It's like, oh no. So we were there like sort of the little as hobo on the platform, looking like two orphans, just waiting and not even knowing when the next train was going to come. We didn't have a massive plan for our trip, we sort of had a loose plan. That was part of the adventure, really. And yeah, it was a bit sort of humiliating to be thrown off the train. So apparently all the glitters is not gold because this ticket that we thought just covered us for everything. No, you still had to reserve TGVs, uh the high-speed trains, and uh pay a little extra for your reservation, but we didn't know this, so we kind of learnt the hard way. Anyway, we eventually got some train and got down to Barcelona and so forth. And then we went on to Morocco, which was lovely. We had to catch a boat over to Morocco. Except, bearing in mind this was our honeymoon, I must have picked up a stomach bug, so that was very unromantic. Um and then when I was finally over that, we uh got the the ferry back over and we went to Italy, we had a lovely time in Corfu, so sun again, brilliant, happy, um, not feeling ill, beautiful waters in Corfu. And then we went on to Greece, and that was the year it was so hot, there'd been forest fires, so walking around the Acropolis when everyone else, even the cats, were indoors. Going through the Bulgarian countryside was really beautiful. It was like it was so kind of oldie world y, like as if it was 50 years behind. There were people, you know, working the fields by hand, um, there was some with a plough being pulled by a yak. It was it was just lovely. Um it was when we stopped in Romania, I think we were at Bucharest, and we were starving, we had nothing to eat, and we were on this really kind of rickety train. The toilet was disgusting. It was a hole that just opened straight onto the track, and it was a vial. I won't go into details, but you can imagine. So we pull into the station and my husband uh heroically jumps off the train, runs down the platform to the pizza kiosk. But during that time, unfortunately, this band of I don't know, local guys they'd come up to my train window and they were trying to push all manner of gold watches, necklaces through the window and saying, you know, you must buy. I was like, oh no. But I thought, well, at least they can't get in. And with that, two of them came on the train and they were almost forcing me to buy this jewelry and these watches, and I was getting a bit scared and felt really intimidated because I just didn't know if they were gonna pick up our luggage and run off with it or what. But with that, a guardian angel comes in, a huge sort of six-foot strapping woman, the train guard, she looks so scary. I mean, these guys just fled. So I was like, Thank you. Anyway, with that, my husband comes back, thankfully, with a pizza, and this this this lady went. Anyway, a bit later we'd eaten the pizza and the the guard comes along and we're like, um excuse me. Really, really ultra politely because she was so scary looking. Um so what can we do with the um uh pizza box? Where can where can we put it? We c we can't find them in. Give it on me. Pulls down the window and just chucks it out into the nearest field. And we're like, Oh, thank you. No, normally it's sort of being w whatever do you think you're doing? You can't litter the countryside like that. But believe me, there was no messing with this lady. Anyway, that's my story of the train, and with that my song is I Saw You Blink by Stormway.

SPEAKER_10 54:12

I caught the sun on my way home my way home. I caught the sun on my way home. Well I got lost everything in the later.

SPEAKER_19 55:45

Music was by Johnny Rose. This has been a go beyond production.