1 note
Robert Dixon apparently moved house on his retirement. The lines “But though we're severed far and wide / By moorland, stream, and plain,” suggest that he was moving to the upper reaches of the Till in the Cheviot hills.
The Lancashire Derbyshire and East Coast line (LDEC) opened in 1897 a year before this poem was written. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancashire,_Derbyshire_and_East_Coast_Railway
Shunting poles were tested before use and often the job of inspector and head shunter were rolled into one. The Railway companies always wanted the work done quickly and the foreman was the boss’s representative in the marshalling yard.
