L. T. C. Rolt (1910–1974)

I've been down a rabbit hole of Victorian/Edwardian ghost story authors, and I scratch my head wondering why Rolt is not better known. This little volume was, for me, that rare find that lures you in immediately and, as you approach the end, makes you sad that there is no more to look forward to. A railway engineer and foremost engineer on canals, and an antique car enthusiast, one would think Rolt was science-oriented and might dismiss the uncanny. As Susan Hill points out in the show more introduction, these stories quickly move from normal circumstances to the creepy with little humor and grim results. He has a talent for brevity without skimping on detail. His stories are very visual; I'm surprised there aren't oodles of film adaptations of these tales.
Last comment: There is a passage in the story "Agony of Flame" that sounds too heartfelt to be just the voice of the character. I suspect this is Rolt himself, "We Saxons don't understand the Irish, you know, and I don't suppose we ever shall. We label their mysticism "Celtic Twilight" and dismiss it jokingly as a sort of childish whimsy. But if you were to find yourself alone in the west of Ireland in circumstances such as I'm describing, maybe the joke would begin to lose its point. Brought up in a more bracing climate we don't give ourselves time to stop and think, but burn out our lives in an elaborate world of our own artifice. But out there, in the loneliness and the soft, relaxing, misty air, self-importance quickly dissolves, life seems ephemeral, and you begin to understand the Celt a little better; his sense of the past; his lack of ambition which we call shiftlessness; the melancholy that never leaves him, even in his joy."
Several of the stories take place in desolate landscape where the land itself is steeped with sinister history and energy. According to Susan Hill, Rolt was a fan of M. R. James and that is apparent. "Cwm Garon" could easily blur into "A View from a Hill".
One does not need to be a railway enthusiast to enjoy these stories. While trains are omnipresent and it is clear that Rolt was intimately familiar with railway operations, the stories are readily accessible to the reader. "The Garside Fell Disaster" might make one more apprehensive about train tunnels, though.
I've got two bookshelves of stories by M. R. James, Bierce, Blackwood, Nesbit, Wharton, etc. I am thrilled that there is a renewed interest in Rolt, that this tidy collection is available; it will sit proudly in my collection. Only wish there was another volume of Rolt spookers to look forward to. show less

When I've read this book before — it's been a favourite since I was about eleven years old — I've been struck, as RobertDay is in his review, by the enterprising, adventurous spirit of the little group of volunteers who decide to try to save a railway from extinction. This is a very important aspect of the book, and it clearly encouraged many readers to go out and do likewise themselves. Rolt deserves a great deal of credit for his work in getting people to think seriously about the show more value of the 18th and 19th century industrial heritage around them.

This time, however, what struck me most was how circumstances conspired to make the Talyllyn in 1950 into "a heritage railway waiting to happen". For a start, there was the line's remarkably unremarkable history: where else could you find a railway that was still operating, 85 years on, with its original equipment over its original route, innocent of any major investment or rebuilding. The Talyllyn should by rights have disappeared after the Bryn Eglwys quarry on which it depended got into difficulties in 1911, but by an extraordinary stroke of good luck, quarry and railway were bought by local MP and businessman Sir Henry Haydn Jones, who was prepared to carry on running them at a loss for the benefit of his local community.

Another important factor was the line's obscurity, which effectively kept it below the radar of officialdom. The neighbouring and very similar Corris Railway made a very successful effort to diversify into bus operations, and as a result found itself taken over by a larger company that had no interest in keeping the railway part of the business going. The Talyllyn, on the other hand, was never of commercial or strategic importance to any outsider, and indeed it seems likely that it was omitted from the 1948 railway nationalisation simply because no-one in Whitehall knew it still existed.

Thus, although what Rolt and his colleagues did in rescuing the line after Sir Haydn's death in 1950 was something unprecedented, they had it easy compared to many of their successors. The line's owners (Sir Haydn's executors) and the local community were well-disposed towards any scheme that would keep it open; further, because it had never officially closed, the enthusiasts were able to continue to operate under the existing legal powers and with the existing (albeit worn out) equipment.

This in contrast to later heritage railway groups (these have proliferated in late-20th century Britain the way non-conformist sects used to...), who often had long battles with railway and planning authorities to get permission to reopen abandoned lines. show less

L.T.C. Rolt wrote only one slim anthology of weird tales, Sleep No More: Railway, Canal & Other Stories of the Supernatural, but he has nevertheless achieved a cult following which often elevates him into the lofty company of M.R. James, the grand master of ghost stories. While one can detect occasional similarities of style and effectiveness, it is a bit of a reach to put them in the same class. And it is indeed the high expectations that leave me somewhat disappointed by Sleep No More. show more Though there are a few stories that are truly top notch with Jamesian qualities, overall it is a decidedly uneven anthology. “Bosworth Summit Pound”, “The Garside Fell Disaster”, and “Music Hath Charms” are very effective ghost stories: expert storytelling with a level of detail that lend an authoritative stamp a la M.R. James. And mention must be made of “World’s End,” a very odd little weird tale that packs a surprisingly powerful punch. But the remainder, not necessarily bad but paying generally lesser dividends, are an assortment of stories in some of the genre’s classic settings such as mysterious valleys, foreboding moors, and inherited manors. And it should also be noted that the subtitle is misleading as it implies multiple stories of railways and canals, but there is actually only one of each: “Garside” and “Bosworth”, respectively. show less

This is a beautiful book, slow moving and incidental like the mode of travel that it depicts. Certain aspects of canal travel have not changed at all; others are unrecognizable. Rolt chronicles his time aboard 'Cressy' in a way that is very moving and lyrical. Thank goodness for this book and its author who helped preserve the waterways of England and Wales so that the present generation can continue to enjoy them.

This book took me back in time not only in England's history and the life show more cycle of its canal heritage but also in my own life, remembering the wonderful, all too short, canal holidays I have enjoyed.

Though many ways of the canals are gone forever, I want to give a shout out to The Lime Kilns pub on Watling Street in Hinckley-Bosworth. The true atmosphere of the canalside inn that Rolt describes was present there on a particularly memorable Midsummer Eve this year. Thanks in part to Tom Rolt, some elements of this indescribably unique mode of travel will endure. show less