The clip of dinner on a shovel reminds me of a story (true).
My friend was invited on a steam train trip in England in the 1960s by his mate who was one of the drivers. Part of the job of course involved shoveling coal into the boiler and my friend being a healthy young fellow decided to assist. All went well and they shared the task until the driver announced that it was lunch time.
Bob was expecting sandwiches. No. More grand than that.
The driver inserted the shovel head into the furnace, giving it a good burn-off, after all the coal dust didn't add to flavours, being that the shovel was about to become a stove.
My friend Bob was invited to dine on a meal of sausages, eggs and toast, which were spread artfully around the coal shovel and cooked to perfection by his Engineer driver friend, who used the Fire box as the flame for his improvised frypan. Bob said it went down extraordinarily well especially with a couple of bottles of lager which magically appeared as well.
Now as often happens, nature called, and Bob watched, mouth agape as his driver friend laid the shovel on the floor, dropped his trousers, squatted over it, and laid what Bob called "a massive jobbie" onto the shovel that had just cooked their dinner. a piece or two of newspaper appeared from his pockets and he cleaned up the necessary parts and chucked that on the shovel as well.
He then threw the shovel load of prime jobbie and crumpled newsprint into the boiler, turned to Bob with a wink and an evil, knowing smile - "time to get back to work".
Bob says that he declined afternoon tea.
I always think of this tale whenever I see footage of one of those steam trains with the big smoke trail flowing behind.
My friend was invited on a steam train trip in England in the 1960s by his mate who was one of the drivers. Part of the job of course involved shoveling coal into the boiler and my friend being a healthy young fellow decided to assist. All went well and they shared the task until the driver announced that it was lunch time.
Bob was expecting sandwiches. No. More grand than that.
The driver inserted the shovel head into the furnace, giving it a good burn-off, after all the coal dust didn't add to flavours, being that the shovel was about to become a stove.
My friend Bob was invited to dine on a meal of sausages, eggs and toast, which were spread artfully around the coal shovel and cooked to perfection by his Engineer driver friend, who used the Fire box as the flame for his improvised frypan. Bob said it went down extraordinarily well especially with a couple of bottles of lager which magically appeared as well.
Now as often happens, nature called, and Bob watched, mouth agape as his driver friend laid the shovel on the floor, dropped his trousers, squatted over it, and laid what Bob called "a massive jobbie" onto the shovel that had just cooked their dinner. a piece or two of newspaper appeared from his pockets and he cleaned up the necessary parts and chucked that on the shovel as well.
He then threw the shovel load of prime jobbie and crumpled newsprint into the boiler, turned to Bob with a wink and an evil, knowing smile - "time to get back to work".
Bob says that he declined afternoon tea.
I always think of this tale whenever I see footage of one of those steam trains with the big smoke trail flowing behind.
