@Dafydd Was kind enough to send me some railroad items and a beautiful coin. Some books and magazines were included. We do have a lot of generous members here.
@Dafydd is a good 'un, as has been proved around here on multiple occasions. Nice Welsh dragon on that coin, from our resident Welshman.
Merry Christmas @dwhiz I’m glad they turned up in time . I’m no railroad nut but enjoy your steam posts as I have a connection to Brunel. Merry Christmas to all on Cointalk and thank you for sharing your upturns,downturns and experiences in 2025. This is a great place.
Interesting! Did you know that Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson did a song about Brunel on his 2014 Homo Erraticus solo album? (I’m a big Tull/Ian Anderson fan). All along the new straight track we plough the old fields under. Seven good feet and a quarter inch, broad rails to steal the thunder. 100 picks in '36 sent navvies to meet their maker as black Box Tunnel worms its way past the Company undertaker. Hard, cast in iron, that engineer: God bless Isambard! Piston-scraping, furnace-busting, (he) plays the winning card. Rain, Steam, Speed at Maidenhead - Turner's vision wide. Over bridges, girders, hot-driven rivets safely guide passenger wagons from Paddington to Bristol's briny blue. On to break the waves, with a thousand horses, turn the churning screw. Hard, cast in iron, that engineer: God bless Isambard! Piston-scraping, furnace-busting, (he) plays the winning card. But those bonnie lads from way 'oop North, had to have the final laugh: the ripe new age was the standard gauge, four foot, eight and a half. And rolling out across all Europe, across the mad, bad Empire world came the age of steam and the engines roaring, bold brazen Jack unfurled. Arching palaces at Praed Street, stand lofty and serene; home to their maker and his last two miles to sleepy Kensal Green. Hard, cast in iron, that engineer: God bless Isambard! Piston-scraping, furnace-busting, (he) plays the winning card.
Nice gifts. So cool. I enjoyed Tull growing up. I also had the pleasure of listening to Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick side 1 while wigged out on morphine and stuffed into an MRI machine for about 30 minutes. I swear to god I have never hallucinated so magnificently than that occasion. Such wonders of the world.
