Slow orders
seedling · planted 2024-01 · tended 2024-01
A "slow order" is a written warning to a driver: on a given stretch of track, speed not above such a number, from this hour until further notice. The reasons are boring ones: a soft embankment after rain, new ballast, a bridge under repair, children playing on the line at the school stop. The slow orders are the diary of the line.
I have a drawer full of expired ones, and I read them like letters.