In which The Author goes trainspotting
Last night’s dream took me back to a location I’ve visited a few times recently, although it’s never exactly the same on each occasion. It’s not the railway station that I mentioned in Where I Go in My Dreams (Part 1), but they share some common features.
It’s a high cliff face which seems to have been excavated from the mountain that flanks it on either side. I’m guessing it’s man-made, because it forms a sort of refuge between two railway tunnels penetrating into the mountain. Sometimes there’s a platform where passengers can alight, but there doesn’t seem to be any way of reaching it from ground level. (At least, if there is I haven’t found it yet.)
Last night it had evolved into quite a busy interchange, and freight trains were thundering across the ledge between the tunnel mouths. It seemed to operate on two levels, with a fairly complex interchange near the platform. At one point a passenger train drew up and loads of people got off – although where they were going remains a mystery to me.
I was with a man and a woman (unknown), and they seemed to think that the train was heading to Birmingham. I tried photographing the trains as they went through the gap between tunnels, but the vibration made it impossible to hold the camera steady.
We were there because they were looking for a suitable location for a bondage photo shoot. I’d told them I knew just the place. At the foot of the cliff was a heavy steel door, painted black. For no obvious reason I had the key (I seem to remember I’d borrowed it from a friend), and I unlocked it to reveal an enormous empty room, lit with fluorescent strips. They agreed it would be the perfect place for their photography project.
(Possible external factors: A few days ago I was talking to Simeon about the entrance to the Merthyr Tunnel in Cwmbach, which has been disused since the mid-1960s, It’s now secured by two huge steel doors painted with anti-climb paint and held in place by a heavy combination lock)
An Autobiography in Random Chapters 