The Diary Entry
Arthur Cecil Ingram's diary contains remarkably few complaints about being misunderstood.
This entry may explain why.
The surviving page begins with his arrival at an unidentified railway station shortly before eight o'clock in the morning. Arthur does not record where he had travelled from, nor does he appear particularly concerned by where he has arrived.
His attention was instead drawn immediately to the locomotives.
For more than twenty minutes he seems to have done little except watch the movements around the station. There are several observations concerning steam pressure, signalling and what he describes simply as "an unnecessarily complicated method of moving one locomotive past another."
At 08:10 he sat down on Platform 3.
Two minutes later, he apparently started a conversation.
We have only Arthur's account of what followed.
08:12 — Suggested they might dispense with much of the wiring.
Control could be wireless. Locomotives individually addressed. Points and signals automated where useful.
The suggestion does not appear to have been well received.
Arthur records that one railwayman stared at him for several seconds before asking whether he had been drinking.
His answer is underlined twice.
Tea.
Another member of staff apparently explained, with some patience, that locomotives required drivers and that signals required signalmen.
Arthur seems to have considered this.
For now.
At 08:13 the conversation ended.
Nobody listened.
The Box
There is, however, something considerably more difficult to explain than Arthur's prediction.
A photograph found amongst the papers appears to correspond with the diary entry.
Arthur can be seen standing on Platform 3, watching a steam locomotive.
On the table beside him is a cup of tea, his notebook...
...and a small red electronic device.
The lettering on its case is clearly visible.
DCC-EX CSB1.
No mention of the device appears anywhere in the surviving diary entry.
Arthur evidently considered it sufficiently unremarkable not to write about it.
That may be the most remarkable thing about the photograph.
Several Years Later
A loose note was discovered behind the diary page.
It is written in the same hand, but appears to have been added considerably later.
There is no date.
It contains only three lines.
Wireless throttles.
Automated points.
Still drinking tea.
Beneath them Arthur added:
They got there eventually.