Someplace between Slough and Paddington my train passes under a bridge that crosses the rail at an acute angle. The road leading up to the bridge is perched on a steep embankment. Close to the bridge there is a small Victorian building erected on a platform supported by tall and slender steel columns. The building appears to house a shop. The platform, which is so close to the rail that one can see it from below, meets the road, that is, the pavement that lines it on both sides. As the building itself is constructed in dark brick, the fragile structure supporting it attracts my attention whenever my eyes chance upon it through the window. Judging from its architecture, the building has been there for a century or so, but it still appears to me as ever-so-slightly improbable. After a decade of glances, stares, and double takes, I am a bit tired of this silly mind of mine, because it is such a poor judge of basic engineering.