Thread title is from Bryan Morgan in The End Of The Line: where he berates himself (too harshly IMO), saying a black cloud of stupidity fell on my mind, for slightly-inadequate research (which research, re the Continent in the early 1950s, was essentially down to him virtually no help from learned gricing journals); and a necessary snap decision in which he made what was with hindsight, the wrong choice. This caused him to miss out on one of Frances big metre-gauge systems, including a part of same (that part, most immediately concerned in the incident which he laments) which closed not long after said incident.
I for sure, in sixty-and-some years of railway enthusiasm, have perpetrated various sins of omission leading to losing-out on desirable things -- which I now regret. Some, to do with choices in which one would have had to be a prophet, to make sure of choosing rightly: others which have to be attributed to sheer cluelessness.
My worst clueless clangers dropped ever, I consider as follows.
First:
I spent the first half of 1966 in Paris, for higher-education purposes. I knew all about the Réseau Breton then essentially all still there and running; I looked with fascination at its timetables; considered making a couple of days expedition there (which would have been affordable, and also possible logistically) to bash the system; and ended up thinking, Nah, I wont do it itll probably still be there in future years. Of all the idiotic things to think, in Western Europe in 1966... it turned out that from early 1967, the RBs metre-gauge was in stages rapidly abandoned, with the Guingamp Carhaix section being converted to standard gauge. I managed to get to the area in summer 67, and experience a bit of the metre-gauge by then freight-only last knockings; but, to have had the whole thing at its five minutes to midnight -- offered to me on a plate, and to have decided, dont think Ill bother, after all what a half-wit.
The only possible mitigating factor: at the time, I was in a brief spell of what I think of as Adrian Mole, Aged Thirteen-and-Three-Quarters Syndrome: with ambitions to be an intellectual, and feeling rather ashamed of my perceivedly-childish railway interest. That idiocy didnt totally stop me from doing any gricing during that spell in France; but looking back, how I wish that Id done a great deal more my Réseau Breton folly, being the worst of such.
Second:
In August 1962, I (aged fourteen) was staying with relatives in Chester. Wishing to bash new track, I travelled solo permission for this duly granted from Chester (Northgate) to Wrexham (Central) and return. Despite having access to exhaustive by-the-month up-to-date info (viz. the Railway Magazine) -- my actually taking that info in, tended to be decidedly spotty. For some reason, I had the impression that as at the time of this trip, the Wrexham (Central) Ellesmere branch had already been closed. In fact, it hadnt yet it closed to passengers w.e.f. 10 / 9 / 1962. With the branchs not-very-frequent service: in my brief spell at Wrexham (Central) my dmu trip there from Chester, was a smart out-and-back there happened to be no Ellesmere train in the station; and I didnt have the nous to take a look at posted-up timetables at the station. (Ellesmere and return added to the itinerary, wouldnt have been a problem vis-à-vis my relatives.) Again, what a little moron; but, hindsight is 20/20, and all that.
Would be interested in confessions from others, about similar clueless gricing missing-out episodes whether in Britain or further afield -- for which you now kick yourselves, as I do for my instances of such.
I for sure, in sixty-and-some years of railway enthusiasm, have perpetrated various sins of omission leading to losing-out on desirable things -- which I now regret. Some, to do with choices in which one would have had to be a prophet, to make sure of choosing rightly: others which have to be attributed to sheer cluelessness.
My worst clueless clangers dropped ever, I consider as follows.
First:
I spent the first half of 1966 in Paris, for higher-education purposes. I knew all about the Réseau Breton then essentially all still there and running; I looked with fascination at its timetables; considered making a couple of days expedition there (which would have been affordable, and also possible logistically) to bash the system; and ended up thinking, Nah, I wont do it itll probably still be there in future years. Of all the idiotic things to think, in Western Europe in 1966... it turned out that from early 1967, the RBs metre-gauge was in stages rapidly abandoned, with the Guingamp Carhaix section being converted to standard gauge. I managed to get to the area in summer 67, and experience a bit of the metre-gauge by then freight-only last knockings; but, to have had the whole thing at its five minutes to midnight -- offered to me on a plate, and to have decided, dont think Ill bother, after all what a half-wit.
The only possible mitigating factor: at the time, I was in a brief spell of what I think of as Adrian Mole, Aged Thirteen-and-Three-Quarters Syndrome: with ambitions to be an intellectual, and feeling rather ashamed of my perceivedly-childish railway interest. That idiocy didnt totally stop me from doing any gricing during that spell in France; but looking back, how I wish that Id done a great deal more my Réseau Breton folly, being the worst of such.
Second:
In August 1962, I (aged fourteen) was staying with relatives in Chester. Wishing to bash new track, I travelled solo permission for this duly granted from Chester (Northgate) to Wrexham (Central) and return. Despite having access to exhaustive by-the-month up-to-date info (viz. the Railway Magazine) -- my actually taking that info in, tended to be decidedly spotty. For some reason, I had the impression that as at the time of this trip, the Wrexham (Central) Ellesmere branch had already been closed. In fact, it hadnt yet it closed to passengers w.e.f. 10 / 9 / 1962. With the branchs not-very-frequent service: in my brief spell at Wrexham (Central) my dmu trip there from Chester, was a smart out-and-back there happened to be no Ellesmere train in the station; and I didnt have the nous to take a look at posted-up timetables at the station. (Ellesmere and return added to the itinerary, wouldnt have been a problem vis-à-vis my relatives.) Again, what a little moron; but, hindsight is 20/20, and all that.
Would be interested in confessions from others, about similar clueless gricing missing-out episodes whether in Britain or further afield -- for which you now kick yourselves, as I do for my instances of such.