Silver Blaze: Rail Travel with Holmes

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Canon Story: Silver Blaze
Title: Rail Travel with Holmes (the serialisation of the Private Journal of Dr Watson)
Author:thesmallhobbit
Rating: G

At least we travelled to Winchester without incident.  Why Holmes insisted we change trains at Clapham Junction I know not.  Having to wait on the station for a second train when we could as simply have taken a cab from Waterloo as Victoria merely prolonged the journey.  Surely he could have found an easier way of deflecting Colonel Ross’ question?

Comments

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I must admit I know little of the exotic ways of London, being but a humble and lower class northerner. So I'd never realised before that Holmes was making the journey home more complicated than it needed to be. A truly interesting insight from Watson.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

For the benefit of our northern readers, Paddington Station serves destinations to the west (Gloucester, Tavistock, Exeter etc); Waterloo to the south-west of London (Winchester, Portsmouth etc) and Victoria is to the south (e.g. Sussex).

It may be worth including an entry on railway stations in your excellent discussion series on Modern Life.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent thought... (That's one of the things on my list for May - come up with suggestions for discussion topics as far as Christmas. And... I don't know why I'm telling the Ocelot this ^^")

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

As your marketing agent, we are of course interested in the progress of your community.

[sanguinity]

If it's relevant/helpful/useful to discussions of railways, I have a scan of portions of a 1910-ish Bradshaw. I managed to get my hands on a copy of the facsimile that was published in the... 1960s? and scanned the chunk relevant to a retirement fic I'm working on. I can put the scan on a public drive and give you a link, should you want it for one of your topical link-collections.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

That sounds very interesting. I am sure my esteemed colleague will be in touch with you.

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

That would be great - thank you so much ^^

I suppose you could pm the address for the link to me, or if you prefer you could email me at: scfrankles at aol dot co dot uk

I'm not sure yet which story the railway discussion would be attached to, if the timing is important to you. But I can let you know as soon as I've made a decision.

[sanguinity]

Sent! And timing shouldn't be an issue to me, I don't think.

[debriswoman]

Holmes concentrating on drama rather than logic?

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Mr Holmes was always one who preferred the dramatic.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Huh. Interesting. Does Watson have any possible theory?

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

We understand it was a whim of Holmes. The Colonel remained on the train when Holmes and Watson got off.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Hee, hee. Christ, sometimes I never know if you're being sly or not. Because an American can interpret 'to get off' in a decidedly untrainly fashion.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

On this occasion, madam, we meant merely descend or perhaps more correctly, alight. We are aware of the connotation of 'to get off' and can assure you this was not what was intended.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

BTW: my idea for the porcupine's column is his reactions (puzzlement, outrage, rodential snickering) at the cultural differences he finds in his new home.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

There is a contract for the Porcupine in the post. Should he wish to write his column for the MMI then please ask him to return a signed copy.

[castiron.livejournal.com]

This is much more interesting than "Watson made another [unintentional/deliberate] error in his memoirs."

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Precisely. If the Doctor had had his way they would have stayed on the train to Waterloo.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

There is of course the unsavoury euphemism to describe a man who'd been with a woman and suffered an unfortunate result - his fellows would rudely jest that "he had gone out by Had'Em, and had come back by Clapham."

But perhaps the Clapham station merely served a superb tea - one worth a detour for the two men.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

We understand nothing untoward of that nature had occurred.

And we would remind our readers this is not a recreation of Brief Encounter.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

BWAH, HA, HA! It keeps getting better.

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Well noted, that ocelot! Just perhaps Holmes wanted to check some passenger in a train, or some loiteerer at a station?

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Holmes will no doubt maintain he had good reason, but Watson will continue to believe it was done merely to annoy.

[sanguinity]

Might the good reason have been to annoy? These are not mutually exclusive options.

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

This is entirely possible, although Holmes would not admit to it.