Neither the Beginning Nor the End

I've had it in mind to paint this scene for a long time. In the late 1970's I took some photos from the bottom of Caroline Street, showing the familiar Jarrow skyline with railway lines cutting through the picture. The blue British Railways DMU's always seemed a comforting and regular reminder that the world was still moving this way and that. People, coal, goods, petrol and oil all have all transited through this frame since late Victorian times. Now even the NCB and British Rail logos have rolled into history. But I suspect they still feature somewhere in our collective consciousness...

1978