2020 - stand not upon the order of your going...
So, here we are - we've made it this far, somehow! But, heavens, has there been a worse year than this in our lifetimes? Last year concluded with a general election and maybe the victors should have been careful about what they wished for! This year then began with storms and floods, with some hapless towns and villages having scarcely recovered from the inundations of only a few years previously. When at last everything had subsided, we took stock, breathed out and hoped that after all this the least we deserved to look forward to was a decent summer... Well, more fool us!
Lockdown descended on us with all the vengeful suddenness of a biblical lightning strike and I admit I didn't cope very well with it. I concede also that I both admired and yet was also mildly irritated by those folk who bounced gleefully into lockdown or furlough and relished the chance afforded to get stuck into "all those things they'd been meaning to do for ages but hadn't got round to". Motivation seemed in short supply as far as I was concerned...For example, I had no need to redecorate my entire premises from the Jenkinson memorial wine cellar to Samantha's attic studio, it nearly all having been done with professional competence over the last few years. Not living in a property with grounds and demesnes beyond a flagged patio furnished with floral tubs during the growing season, I had no scheme to embark on a Gardeners' World transformation with rockery, rustic arbours, water feature and frog pond, a herb bed and a hedgehog shelter, such that the neighbourhood would pay to walk round it. Bereft as I am of significant DIY skills, I thus precluded myself from any civil engineering or constructional projects about the premises, which is generally a situation to be desired by all. I was not seized either by a desire to start learning a foreign language nor to take up a musical instrument not hitherto attempted, nor did I think the time had come to finally read those supposedly great works of literature which thus far I'd let elude me, probably with good reason. Not while I had some decent murder mysteries on my shelves of improving books, anyway... The prospect of joining in with an online fitness regime held no appeal, any more than did beginning a 1,000-piece jigsaw - or even listing the entire photograph collection which would at least have been useful. So what then?
So I did Backtrack instead - and am I glad that I had it to fall back on for the focus and motivation it gave me. I decided that as far as possible I would carry on producing the magazine, not knowing initially where that would lead nor whether it would even be possible and, as I elaborated upon a couple of months ago, it was a policy not without its vicissitudes. However, the encouragement and support of you good readers spurred us all on - myself, the designer, the subscriptions people and, so it seems, contributors. In a year when so many aspects of the writing, researching and publishing world have been so challenging, it really is good to be able to report that nine new authors have made their BTdebuts during the course of the 2020 volume, with several others set to appear early next year - and very welcome they are too.

This month's article 'A Grand Day Out for 8s 3d' takes us back to the time of the 'Day Rover' ticket and details the travels of youthful explorers pushing the boundaries of the area covered by their ticket. I daresay it will strike a chord with many who will have taken advantage of these bargain tickets to cover some 'mileage' in exercises which called for a good knowledge of railway geography, the ability to understand timetables and the energy sometimes to make some sharp connections. I feel that 'our' generation possessed an element of 'street-wiseness' perhaps lacking in present-day youngsters for all their skills with computers, phones and 'devices'. The excitement of exploring abandoned air raid shelters, derelict canal wharves, disused sidings and tunnels, creating a ghost train 'experience' in old coal sheds or making a football or cricket pitch from no more than a back alley and a wall on which goal posts or wickets could be chalked all equipped us for confidently planning and executing a complex railway itinerary. I remember when still at junior school being allowed to take a 'half return' from Bury to Manchester Victoria to meet my father as he arrived there after work to catch the train home, or to ride from Bury to Bolton just for the fun of it. That day I interpreted the timetable as implying that having reached Bolton the train reversed and went back, so I was startled to find it re-starting and carrying forward in the same direction! However, I wasn't really perturbed, dealing with it by alighting at the first stop (Lostock Junction), explaining the situation to the station master and being directed on to the next incoming train which took me straight back to Bury. I only lost about twenty minutes over it and I don't think I ever owned up to what had happened! And a lesson was learnt - always read the timetable footnotes! If I'd done that first I'd have found that my train would have carried me on to Wigan...