Why all the puzzlement - it's just a list of things happening in Dawley - ( which incidently is where I have lived for the last 30 years and about 200 yards from Dawley Bank! )not to be taken literally, but just to paint a 'background picture'if you like, of everyday occurances. Mineral railways/lines WERE often run as a one man operation - there were an enormous number of small scale industrial workings - many of the coal pits were worked by just two or three men. [And - it really is nothing ot do with fizzy water!] I was also going to point out the geographical error of 'over the valley in Ironbridge'. The nearest 'Institue' is probably in Madeley - the Anstice Memorial Hall - probably the first ever working mens club in the country, or in Coalbrookdale (now the YHA hostel) and I don't think there ever was a Congregational Hall in either Dawley or Dawley Bank - but it doesn't matter - it's the essence of the thing which is important - It's a poem for Gods sake, not a history lesson!!