Departures

The departure board in Glasgow Central Station is mostly a south of the river suburban map, with Ardrossan and Ayr about as far as the tracks will go. Yes there's Manchester and Carlisle, London and Penzance, but nowhere exotic. Small country, terminuses within an island.

When the Channel Tunnel was first mooted, I had visions of this board being bilingual, with Paris beside Paisley, Brussels beside Bishopton and even Madrid beside Maxwell Park. The dream of an integrated European railway system was of course a pipe-dream - Glasgow to London, then get yourself across that heaving metropolis before boarding the train to Paris, then change in Paris for elsewhere south.

I had a train-set when a child but it was a month's inter-railing when a student that really ignited my geeky train passion. Not transporting as such - I can tell the difference between a DMU and a diesel engine though - more a love of a train journey. I did Milan to Amsterdam overnight, Hamburg to Copenhagen, Luxembourg to Paris, Paris to Brest, Marseille to Milan and had an absolute ball. Mostly overnights, meeting fellow travellers and enjoying the trains as much as the city sights. And of course, marvelling at the European destination boards enticing me with Moscow and Prague, Budapest and Warsaw. Never quite got there, but the departure boards in any train station open up the possibilities.