Everything has to make way for the train, even love. Stationmaster Hank Waltham has no time for amorous adventures, because the puffing steam train that creaks and grates to a halt three times a day and once at night at “Bridbury Station” always goes first.  Hank lives on his own in the apartment above the left part of the station, and his assistant, Jim Banstead, lives in the right hand part, with his wife Elize, son Harry and daughter Tracy.

These two men are not great talkers. They spend their long days in silence on the platforms and in the station buildings and never neglect their duties. These duties vary from selling tickets and operating the points and signals, to loading and unloading luggage. They send the London mail with the train, receive packages and make coffee for the engine drivers. As an extra service Jim carries the visitor’s heavy valises and travel trunks all the way to the "Hotel Victoria Inn" run by Mickey and Angie Russel, if necessary, and it is not unusual for him to be given a bonus for this service.

One train a week is always very special. Travellers on the "Bronsby Express", going from London to Hull on a Thursday, are the only passengers in the week who have to change at Bridbury and they have to do so just at dinnertime. For three whole hours they wander over the platforms and the station square, have a pint in Bobby Taylor’s "St. George's Pub" and are thus a rare attraction. Especially for them, Mary Sutton of restaurant "Eating Time" prepares a simple, but typical English meal of fish, potatoes and green peas, which she serves on platform two.