UNIT An Incident At Arkham Halt.

Note: all tracks recorded under the names Academy 23 or UNIT are the property of DNA Records and protected by copyright, regardless of who wrote the works concerned. This is a track from Trains Run On My One Track Mind, our 55th album, recorded in 2025.

Our teachers arranged a trip by train to Arkham Halt. I very nearly lost my mind but it’s hardly my fault.
If you’d seen what I saw then you’d go crazy, too. I turned to Kim but even she did not know what to do.
Arkham Halt is one small platform with a wooden shed where foliage grows rough and wild across the railway bed.
Mr Wilkinson droned on and on about an ancient stone which induced in me an urgent need to be alone.

Silently I sneaked away, returning to the track, if only to avoid the roving eyes of old Miss Black.
I sidled through the hawthorn bush but I could only stare: that wooden shed and railway track were no longer there!
Terrified I scrambled up the bank to speak to Kim. Could I persuade her to believe me? My hopes were slim.
However she came with me out of curiosity and she saw that muddy track where rails and sleepers used to be.

“Minchin, we must tell Miss Black.” was what she said to me. I considered this most ill-advised. I’m sure you would agree.
Indeed when we approached the teacher, she was clearly mean. “Minchin and Miss Norton, where have you two been?”

Of course when Kim explained to her what we plainly saw she waved her hands dismissively, reluctant to hear more.
Instead she handed me a camera. “Go down to the track, take a photograph or two then bring the camera back.”
On returning to the track I saw the rails had gone. A blue clad girl accosted me, so strange to gaze upon.
She said her name was Monica; I think she found me odd. I said my name was Minchin and then prayed to mighty God

for suddenly I realised: the future! This could be how the railway looked ten years from now in 1983.
It would explain the clothes she wore that I found quite absurd and the pop singers she mentioned, none of which I’d heard.
I took a photo of her standing where the shed had been. She took a photo of me standing where no rails were seen.
She did not know a railway used to run along that route but said her mother used a phrase that I could not refute.
“I love education – it’s school I hate.”

Her face reminded me of someone who maybe I knew but anyway I had to leave her. What else could I do?
I gave Miss Black her camera. Her scowl was firmly set while Reed, Eaton and Morgan tried to hide a cigarette.
Warren is the only boy here whose first name I know as Barbara Wilkins calls him John but even so
that’s because she fancies him; it’s easy to see yet I wish she or Kim Norton also fancied me.

Kim says Warren is an arse-hole; he dislikes her, too. They frequently insult each other ‘til the air turns blue.
Anyway, I did not want to listen to their feud so I escaped again, quite careful I was not pursued.
When I ran back to the track, the rails were still not there although I did not see that lovely blue girl anywhere.
Instead a hefty boy on a bicycle trundled by in skimpy shorts with hairy legs, amusement in his eye.

He tried to frighten me with tales of murder on the line, of children crushed by locomotives back in ’69.
He told me of a television documentary that featured railway tragedies of boys like me:
girls and boys who wandered onto railway tracks in a bloody portfolio of fearful facts.
He recited a list of children murdered recently; John Warren was among the names he mentioned to me.

Horrified, I turned and fled, eager to evade any further cause for me to be anxious and afraid.
I saw Warren and he frowned at me but I could hardly tell him what his future would be.
At 4 o’clock all of us returned to the Halt; it was back to normal but that’s hardly my fault.
I tried to speak to Kim but I did not know what to say. Instead she spoke to me and it shattered my day.
“I love education – it’s school I hate.”

You can call me a coward but it’s really not my fault for never again did I return to Arkham Halt.

Andy Martin – Vocal, Church Organ, CS 80, ARP 2600.
Rachel Greenberg – Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Vocal.
Keilan Knight – 5 String Bass Guitar.
Karen Elliot – Drums, Vibraphone, Vocal.

Text & Music – Andy Martin.

You may be interested in these other tracks by UNIT, all of which are available on our Rumble channel.

The Earth Is Finite.
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes.
Osaka Boy.
Barbara’s Bridge.
A Study Of Alkaline Metals.
The 613 Mitzvot.
The Unwanted.
A Song For Eric Cooper.
Amery Hill School.
Realise Your Potential.
1985.
Resonance Rocks Out.
The 4th Horseman.
The Noahide Laws.
Hup Soon Heng.
Eagle.
When We Were Friends.

In addition we have 11 books available in PDF format free on request.