Wednesday, 8th May, 1941.
Davey, on the other hand, hadn't been in the dormitory for very long at all before being whisked away. He had just arrived with his few belongings in a single trunk when the Matron had taken one look at him and sized him up accurately. "Take this one with you," she snapped. "He'll be trouble. Best drop him off in the country." Apparently he'd taken the space of another British kid who was then cheerfully held back by the Matron who apparently must've liked him.
The two boys have had to stand in the crowded compartment while their Warden sat down and knitted socks for the soldiers, nattering away to several Land Girls dressed in their smart green jumpers. Unfortunately, its not a corridor train so they're stuck in their compartment without a toilet until its time to get off. The Warden seems to think she's on a pleasant holiday and has arranged to stay at a local hotel before heading back on the following train despite, as she admits, there being trains that head back nearly right away. It has been a rather long train trip on a rather crowded train after all. If any of the boys are interested they quickly learn that the train is travelling on the Honeybourne Line which linked Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon that was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1906.
Peregrine Fairweather gets to sit on his trunk while a rather severe looking woman glares around at the Land Girls and the Matron occasionally before going back to read her Enyd Blyton novel. He'd never met the other boys or their woman before. They'd come into the same compartment completely by accident.
The three of them stand on one of two 400 ft (120 m) facing platforms, on the Down platform, in fact, with the station building behind them that is build of red brick on a plinth of blue brick that was situated on the Down platform. A verandah canopy extended from the front of the building to a covered footbridge linking the two platforms. On the Up platform on the opposite side was a passenger waiting shelter and gentleman's lavatory. The goods yard lay on the south-eastern side of the station and comprised cattle pens, a goods shed, weighbridge and 6-ton crane that neither of the children have had a chance to see before. Especially Martian who might as well have been born at the orphanage. A brick-built 31-lever signal box controlled access to the goods yard, while a 50-wagon Up refuge siding led to the rear of the Up platform which wasn't too far away from them. The station had acetylene lamps with the gas hut situated behind the weighhouse but the lights weren't on because it was daytime and even if it were nighttime the black out would keep them off. There was white paint along the edge of the platform.