Paddington

where Brunel planned
you'd buy your ticket to New York,
board a new wide train
(with legroom, imagine that!)
on new wide tracks,
then speed (HSzero - of course he got there
first) through English countryside
to a terminus in Wales,
change onto a
(First) Great Western steamship
and go west.

Half his dreams went west,
voted out by parliament, and now
half the station's painted orange
which is why this picture's black and white,
though nothing really is.




For those the train and ship never reached:
HS = high speed. A putative HS2 (London northwards) is being hotly disputed at the moment. HS1 is the Eurostar line from London to the channel tunnel.
Brunel's railway was the Great Western. It's now run by a company called 'First' so is known as First Great Western.

Orange station blipped here by Alberta, just a few hours before me.