four track railway so trains were not infrequent. Progress, however, was much faster but we were soon to find it, in its way, to be somewhat more hazardous than being on a road. Each overbridge had to be approached with caution in case it was guarded. We went forward, one at a time, using whatever cover was available, until the last minute before having to quietly make our way under. We developed a series of whistles; one simulating an owl meant all was clear. We managed about three miles an hour for a while and never saw a soul. Then we came to a bridge with obvious guards on it, silhouetted against a sky reflecting the lights of Nuneaton. There was nothing for it but to leave the tracks and cross a field to one side to approach, and quietly cross the road away from the bridge, and then regain the track several hundred yards further on. But we got it wrong. We chose the side where there was a canal or river which thwarted our plan, so we had to retrace our steps and go past the guards from the other side. Time was lost.
We came to a small station. No one was about. It was closed for the night so, somewhat daringly and brazenly, we walked along the platform and continued on. We came to a junction and a large area of sidings as we approached Nuneaton. Making our way, necessarily across some tracks, I tripped and stumbled over some signal wires. The noise I made was heard by someone who shouted at us. We didn't know who, but took no chances and decided to run towards a line of trucks in what we thought was a siding. I stopped under the trucks while Ginger went on out of the other side of them and waited for me in the shadow of a large coal dump. In moments the trucks over me started to move. There was no way out without risking being guillotined by the wheels, so I lay between the rails, but to one side because the coupling chains were coming perilously close above me. I have never lain so flat in my life. The clatter of the trucks as the engine took up the slack was enormous. Worse, I didn't know whether the engine was pushing or pulling the train and dreaded it going over me. About 20 trucks passed over at increasing speed, the ground moving under me as each heavy truck passed, all the while realising that the sound of the engine was getting closer. It was backing the trucks in some shunting manoeuvre or other. Then, unnervingly, it tooted when it was almost over me. I was first sprayed with hot water from some pipe or other, then the hellish hot ashpan separating the firebox from my head passed over, followed by all the mechanism and steam as the rest of the engine nearly machined me to death. The steam was my saviour because, before it could disperse in the damp air I rolled over the top of the rail nearest Ginger, and into a hollow between pairs of rails, and stayed there, flat, until the train was a hundred yards or more away. Only then did I crawl to him by the coal stack. He said he wouldn't have been surprised if I was a 'goner'.
After a few minutes to recover, we headed, in the shadows and taking care to avoid signal wires, to the edge of the goods yard, picked up the main line again and cautiously continued towards Nuneaton station. On nearing it we could see that there were too many people about for us to climb a platform ramp, walk along through the waiting passengers, and disappear off the other end. That would be too risky. On pausing to consider which way to avoid the station, we heard a low whistle as though someone was trying to attract our attention. We risked a reply. The whistle was there twice this time. We replied twice. The we saw someone crawling in our direction from not far away. We waited, prepared to do a runner, and then just made out someone whom we recognised. He made another whistling noise and his mate duly crept over and joined us.
We agreed to split up and make our individual ways through the streets by the station and to try and meet again, using our quiet whistle codes, on (if possible) the left side of the tracks a couple of hundred yards further on, or in the nearest available shadows beyond. It sounded OK. 243