Parallel Lines: Or, Journeys on the Railway of Dreams

by Ian Marchant

For 175 years the British have lived with the railway, and for a long while it was a love affair - the grandeur of the Victorian heyday, the glorious age of steam, the romance of Brief Encounter. Then the love affair turned sour - strikes, bad food, delays, disasters...Parallel Lines tells the story of these two railways: the real railway and the railway of our dreams. Travelling all over Britain, Ian Marchant examines the history of the British railway and meets those who still hold the railways close to their hearts - the model railway enthusiasts, the train-spotters and bashers (a hybrid of train-spotting where the individual - usually male - has to travel behind a certain locomotive in order to catalogue it), the steam enthusiasts. He swaps stories with commuters at the far reaches of London suburbia, he travels to deserted railway museums, and smokes cigarettes on remote, windswept stations in the furthest corners of Scotland, turning his characteristic eye for character, humour and surprise to one of the great shared experiences of the British nation.

Genres: Nonfiction, Trains, Transport, Travel, History, Railways

308 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

Ian Marchant wasn't born in Newhaven in East Sussex in 1958, but he often claims that he was because of his deep embarrasment about his real place of birth.

But he really did grow up in Newhaven, and went to school there, and he still sees it as home, even though it quite clearly isn't, given that he lives 250 miles away in Mid-Wales. He didn't graduate in Philosophy from St David's University College, Lampeter in 1979. Or ever. He is currently a Masters student studying church history at Lampeter, though, honest.

He didn't make a living singing in bands in the late 1970's and early 1980's; nor did he become a civil engineer in the late 1980's, as he didn't have any facility for the maths. He was surprised to learn recently that he didn't graduate in the History and Philosophy of Science with a Creative Writing Minor from Lancaster University in 1992. He really did live in a caravan for many years, but he didn't share it with a chicken called Ginger, who was rather an occasional visitor.

He put his 'career' as a 'novelist' on 'hold' when his second novel 'The Battle For Dole Acre', (whose title he can't pronounce),didn't really sell. He decided to write non-fiction instead, because reality is so much less plausible than made up things. Like, there was the time with a pair of twins on duty at a Travelodge in Ely, which no one believes, but which really happened.

He didn't know much about railways or pubs when he started writing his acclaimed travel memoirs 'Parallel Lines: Or, Journeys on the Railway of Dreams' and 'The Longest Crawl: Being an Account of a Journey Through an Intoxicated Landscape or a Child's Treasury of Booze', (though he does now). He did stay awake for months to write his last book 'Something of the Night.

His latest book, 'A Hero for High Times: A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994', has not yet been optioned for a fillum, so get in quick, I would.

He no longer sings in a cheesy cabaret duo called 'Your Dad', because the other half of 'Your Dad' died.

He does still support Brighton and Hove Albion, make radio shows when he's invited, and enjoy a cooked breakfast in Elda's Colombian Coffee House, High Street, Presteigne, Radnorshire.

You can read his blog, which he doesn't update enough, via his website, www.ianmarchant.com

Reviews

[Nigeyb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discover the railway of your dreams - and a new favourite author

One sign of a good book is that you really enjoy it, despite it being about a subject you have little or no interest in. 'Parallel Lines: Or, Journeys on the Railway of Dreams' is just such a book. I have no particular interest in trains or railways and yet this book inspires me to jump on the nearest train, and roam the network.

Part memoir, part travelogue, part love letter to the UK railway system, part railway history, and wholly wonderful. Ian Marchant is the perfect guide. Cynical, witty, endlessly enthusiastic, perceptive, self-deprecating, and highly readable.

Another new-favourite author then. I am eagerly anticipating more books by Ian Marchant. I have 'The Longest Crawl: Being an Account of a Journey Through an Intoxicated Landscape or a Child's Treasury of Booze' lined up next, before I tackle his latest 'A Hero for High Times: A Younger Reader’s Guide to the Beats, Hippies, Freaks, Punks, Ravers, New-Age Travellers and Dog-on-a-Rope Brew Crew Crusties of the British Isles, 1956–1994' (a title and a half eh?). Bring them on.

5/5

[Paul Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't usually rate books, or anything for that matter. Even less often do I actually review them. On this occasion though, I think that this book deserves a few notes on its brilliance. In truth, my enjoyment and feelings having *literally* just finished are more to do with that inherent pleasure that a chance discovery affords me; than perhaps the quality of the writing itself.

I picked this book off of a library shelf with nothing more that the cover to go on, I hadn't heard of the author before but the prospect of Bill Bryson writing about the railway appealed to me. As someone who is a sucker for anything vaguely nostaligic and/ or about the decadence of post-industrial revolution Britain I was sold on this book from the start.

Marchant's strengths lie in his ability to convey historical information, perhaps more than his own autobiographical detail. Certainly the ethnographic aspects of the book are its weaker elements but if this had simply been a cold history then I don't think that there would have been as much pleasure for me in the time I spent reading it.

I grew up with privatisation already in place, I never knew British Rail, and reading this book makes me question the anecdotal evidence that I have had from other sources (my parents) as to the supposedly appalling quality of service offered by BR.

The nail that Marchant hits is most simply put in the line near the end of the book which laments our shift from passenger to customer. We are not being served, by are rather being moved as a package from one place to another.

Whilst my overly leftist leanings probably added to my agreement with his over-riding argument against privitisation - public transport is not there to make money, except when it is - there is genuinely sense that the author is in love with his subject, and rather than isolating his reader. He draws them in close.

I now also really want to go on a very long train journey, with my notebook, and write about how much I love being a train.

[Nick Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though in many ways this was at times an enjoyable read, I am inclined to judge it slightly harshly by virtue of it having disappointed me. Picking up the book, the blurb promised part-autobiography and part-tribute to the British railway system, and though the book delivered this I was nevertheless left feeling let down.

The book is well-researched and the author is certainly a capable author in the sense of writing with relatively high confidence and quality. The book mixes aspects of history, travel-writing, poetry, humour and social commentary, and there is plenty of interest sprinkled throughout a slightly inconsistent book. I just got irritated with the author and started to dislike him as a person.

The author in my eyes moved from coming over like a intelligent commentator on the much maligned hobby of railway enthusiasts, to eventually seemingly like a moaning and miserable loser undeserving of sympathy or encouragement. Particularly sticking in my craw were tedious periodic moaning about The Beeching Report and railway nationalisation (with little considered justification of both sides of the debate), constant smoking references (smoke if you like, but don't make your book seem like it's all about wanting your next fag break), and forcing your hobby on your friends and disinterested teenage daughters. Though the book was at times interesting, the writer as a person did little to improve people's opinions of train-spotters as anything other than socially inept loners.

[Mesembryanthemum · Rating 4 out of 5]

At 20 pages in, I already love this book. It's charming and funny and well written. Yes, it helps to be interested in trains, but there's more than trains here.

Things I needed to look up:
- St. Pancras station and hotel, London
- Newhaven, UK
- Didcot, UK, and how to get there by rail
- The Bloomsbury group
- Donkey jackets
- The Great Bear (an altered Tube map by Simon Patterson)
- Gang Shows & the Ging Gang Goolie song (like Dirk & Stig's)

And here is Ian's list of favourite train books:
1. Broken Rails by Christian Wolmar
2. The Necropolis Railway by Andrew Martin
3. Platform Souls by Nicholas Whittaker
4. Chronicles of a Garden Railway by W. A. D. Strickland
5. The Victorian Railway by Jack Simmons
6. The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
7. The Railway Traveller's Handy Book by Anon
8. Railway Adventure by L. T. C. Rolt
9. The Railway Children by E. Nesbit
10. Underground to Everywhere by Stephen Halliday
(Search for "1266130" at TheGuardian dot com to see his comments for each book.)

[Julian Schwarzenbach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off as a reasonable travel book about railways (rather than trains, specifically), however, towards the end, Ian seemed to lose some of the spark that was present in the earlier chapters and I found myself skipping paragraphs to get to the end.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the tracks trains travel on, there have always been two parallel lines of railroad experiences - the romantic ideal, based on love of trains, nostalgia, and images from media, and the reality of what you experience when you travel by train - both good and bad. One wouldn’t survive without the other.

Ian Marchand has loved trains as long as he can remember, and still does. In this book, he travels around Great Britain - the place where railroads began - and looks for places and routes where he can experience both of the parallel lines that make up train travel. It’s a bit of history, a bit of memoir, and a bit of travelogue, all tied together. As we join Ian on his journey, we’ll see the many ways trains have manifested themselves in British life - from Thomas the Tank Engine to model train shows, and even odd side tracks like the book and movie “Trainspotting”.

There’ll be a few bits of British English and references to UK politics that may stymie American readers, but the love for trains will come through loud and clear. Ian does his best to share the stories he picks up in his travels and examine the basis for his love of trains, but manages to (mostly) avoid getting so deep into the minutiae of trains that he bores the person who isn’t a die-hard train fanatic. The book doesn’t turn a blind eye to the negatives Ian encounters on his journeys, nor Ian’s quirks and hang ups, which may turn off some readers. But overall, “Parallel Lines” is a great journey, and you won’t regret buying a ticket to ride.

[Rick Boardman · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're all trainspotters at heart. Even thought we don't write down numbers.

[Luke Farnish · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't normally review books but as there are so few reviews of this, I feel it right that I contribute.

First and foremost, I really liked the book. Honestly, there were points reading it where I considered giving it five stars (although there were points too where I considered giving it only three). There are two main reasons I have not given the book 5 stars.

The first and more minor reason is the book rarely stays still. I don't like it when a book does not stay focused on the task at hand and moves back and forth, making huge tangents all the time. It's not to say I don't like a witty or thoughtful tangent, far from it. But I do like these to stay relevant. I'm having the same issue with a few other books. The reason it annoys me here and in another book I'm reading; Life by Richard Fortey, is that both of these books are trying to be all things to all people. And this is where I ought to note the thing that annoyed me most about the book.

The most annoying element of the whole book is the blurb. It doesn't lie, that would be unfair. But it does omit much of the content of the book. Yes, everything on the blurb occurs, but so too do many other things that are not even close to what the blurb describes. Much of the book is autobiographical (as one would expect from travel writing) and the bits that aren't are historical. However, much of the autobiographical elements are not really to do with the railways at all. Chapter 7 is the greatest example of this. I don't wish to add spoilers, but the title of the chapter is 'Trainspotting at Edinburgh Waverley'. Marchant does not mean trainspotting the activity, but trainspotting the film. Again, I shall not spoil the content of this chapter, but trains essentially don't feature, aspects of both the book (and film, but Marchant says he has not seen it, and for good reasons too) and it's content are the talking point for this section. Honestly, this was one of my favorite chapters, it was a roller-coaster of emotions about Marchant's experiences that left me feeling a little more aware of certain parts of the world that one never sees (or, hopes to never see).

As I say, I enjoyed the whole thing, it just wasn't quite what I thought it would be. Not that that is an issue, but based on the blurb, and that I first heard about the book through the 'All the Stations' YouTube series, I was really surprised by its content. The only part of the content mentioned on the show was Marchant saying the North London Line (now part of the Overground) could be great with some care. I was not expecting so much non-railway personal-life information.

If I have not said it enough, I will say it one more time. I really enjoyed this book. I found Marchant funny and relatable, the whole tone something like a mates down the pub vibe. His history sections were simple and interesting, his travel sections very relatable. I also enjoyed the fact we share very similar views on a lot of things, I suspect this made me enjoy the book more. I just wish someone would give it a new, updated blurb if there is ever a new printing. (I should note, I read the 2004 version and I think there was a printing since, I'm unsure if the blurb has changed).

Easy 4/5

[Falcon Blackwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this immediately after "Platform Souls" by by Nicholas Whittaker- in some ways, the books are similar. Whittakers book keeps fairly steadily to it's remit, the story of life through the eyes of a railway enthusiast or "spotter", that much vilified group of folk only maginally less hated than paedophiles and bus spotters.
Both books are very entertaining and bring up some really interesting points. While I enjoyed Whittaker's book hugely, Marchant takes up some issues that I feel were left unexplored by "Platform Souls".
He explores the concept of "cool" and why train buffs aren't, through an examination of their habits, clothes and belief systems. He concludes that they are misplaced romantics, whereas ordinary folk, not blessed with a predeliction to railways are simply "cool". It's a gross misunderstanding, but it did get me thinking. I'm an enthusiast myself and I'm certainly not cool. The thing is, a lot of train buffs are pedants. So are quarry and mining enthusiasts, vintage car nuts, sailing ship buffs etc etc etc. I don't think you can generalise. It's all part of the human condition.
My inner rivet counter was awakened when I saw that Marchant had spelled Machynlleth
wrongly, followed by Aberystwyth, Penrhyndeudraeth and Dduallt. Welsh words, I know, and difficult- but there's no excuse really. That's what editors are for, surely?
The chapter on the Welsh narrow gauge railways was interesting and entertaining despite these howlers although nobody round here calls the Ffestiniog Railway the "Fessy".
The book does dodge about a bit, rather like a Robert Macfarlane for railways, but there is some fascinating stuff if you can put up with the author's obsession with smoking and the lame references to his girl friend, children or his or ex-wife, which simply show him up as a bit of an arsehole.
But the bottom line is- did I learn anything from this book? I'm a lifelong sad train nerd with no friends or a life, and so much of what was within these covers was knowledge to me. But there was also much that informed me and entertained, allowing me to ride over the spelling errors and unneccesary personal details like a passage over a bit of rough track.
There are also some choice nuggets in the book, such as the reference to and exploration of "Chronicles of a Garden Railway", a classic of the oeuvre if ever there was one, from which Marchant astutely pieces together the family story of Bill Strickland, the author. The description of Rolt and his involvement in the fledgeling Talyllyn Railway is also enlightening, especially as I thought I knew everything about that period.
In short, grab a copy of this book if you have a leaning towards railways, you are sure to enjoy it. I would have given it 5 stars but for the smoking and the Welsh spelling- I know, just like a gricer.

[Adeptus Fringilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a mixture of personal travel writing and industrial history. This book is at times laugh out loud funny and at times goes into serious railway history. It shows that Ian is a industrial historian by trade. This is one of those groundbreaking books about railways that should be read by anybody who is interested in the railways.
Bearing in mind that this book was written in 2003, I think some of his jokes would now be classed as inappropriate. It's also a shame that he smokes weed.
At the time of writing this, he has been diagnosed with cancer and I wish him well.

[Kentishman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was recommended in one of the Geoff Marshall "All the Stations" videos on YouTube. It is unlike any other book I have read about the railways in the UK. I liked the social observation that ran through the book. I've read much of the historical stuff before by authors such as Christian Wolmar, but I liked the way this information was introduced.

[David Moth · Rating 5 out of 5]

an excellent read. thoroughly recommend this book

[Phillip Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some time ago I asked a friend (who's passionate about the Railways) to recommend a good book on the topic. They gave me the standard 'Try Christian Woolmer' line and after reading a few lines of said authors works I couldn't get into it. Then I found Ian Marchant's Parallel Lines and Wow.

In short this is a brilliant and Nostalgic book about the UK Railways and what they mean (or should) to the British public, the Author himself, the Histories and the role they played in changing the UK for the better. This is niche writing at its best, because its not just about Britain and its railways, its about the social impacts the railways have had on the author and people like you and I but also the effects of privatisation.

Yes it is a personal memoir because the trains have always been there in the Authors life (but then I realised I had had a similar experience as well) and I could easily relate to my own. Its also about British History as well, the state of the Railways, a fair discussion about the need to re nationalise the Railways (which I agree) - why should the Railways be treated differently to the road network.

Its also very informative about the Histories and Progresses (or lack of) of the UK Railways and I think would serve well as a first hand go to book about the Subject. I was interested to hear about Rolt for example. The author is very passionate about the subject and that's a good thing.

This book blew me away, it was one of the funniest things I've ever read, particularly the Gonzo trip to Wales (I'm not a smoker or even as experimental as the Author may have been) but I found it all fun. This book works well because in my opinion it speaks from the Heart its a very human book and I think a lot could relate to. I'm just very surprised that this book is not more well know.

Part Personal Memoir, Part Travelogue, Part Railway History. Part case for renationalization.

Go and read it!

Finished on the Island of Bornholm - a joint best book of the Year (and there have been lots) with Mark Boyle's The Way Home.

[Ian Russell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given this book as a present after someone had recommended it to the giver as being Bryson-esque. I have no more interest in railways than the next man - to be pedantic, this is a book about railways, not trains, though trains do feature, naturally, like a book on marmalade would undoubtedly feature a bit of toast. Rails equal Parallel Lines (the permanent way).
I could see the comparison with Bryson, Ian Marchant is an easy read, Bryson-lite (maybe that's a bit unfair), slightly less worldly, a very British affair, entertaining, undemanding, a good choice for taking on a plane - or a train even! - why didn't I think of that?

[Dagezi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A companion to a brief sojourn on UK trains recently. Other reviewers have called this Bryson-lite, but I completely disagree. (Of course Bryson strikes me as a glib schmuck who is occasionally laugh out loud funny). Marchant on the other hand makes a passionate case for, in no particular order, smoking, leftist politics and the permanent way. And it's funny, really funny in places, but it's not cheap funny. It helps if one likes trains, but with that caveat, this is a terrific book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good collection of adventures riding the rails in Britain and Ireland. Last couple of chapters are mostly memoir-ish filler; I kinda skimmed through those after losing interest, but recommend the book.