"Here is a tramp who stands and gazes ..."

Made a little diversion this morning to see the mural inside Colinton Tunnel. The artist Chris Rutterford designed it and local groups helped with the painting. 

It illustrates Robert Louis Stevenson's poem 'From a Railway Carriage' , quoted above. A good choice of subject for this disused  railway tunnel.  Stevenson had a connection to Colinton - his grandfather was the minister there for a while.

The locomotive on this branch line was known as 'the Balerno Pug' - it was very small, so it could fit round the many tight corners on the line. 

I can just about remember the days of the last steam trains, the smell and the smuts, and the sound of the whistle. It was so much more fun than whizzing along so fast that everything is a blur.