Almost as soon as we rose we saw straight before us a beam of reddish
light moving swiftly northward in the direction of London.
For a few seconds it was shut off, shone out again, and then went out.
I knew it to be from a railway engine, the stoker of which had been
firing up. Moving trains, notwithstanding the pulling down of
carriage-blinds, and the darkening of railway platforms so that persons
break their legs in descending, or getting out at a supposed platform
and falling upon the line, form the best guides for aircraft at night.
By following an express locomotive, which must be stoked at frequent
intervals, and looking out for the coloured signal-lights along the
line, an airman can always reach the London area. I had, when
night-flying at Hendon before the war, often guided myself home by
following an up-express.
So terrific was the roar of my new engine that I could only communicate
with Roseye by signs.