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The human side of the railway...


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Rugd1022.

 

"What a wonderfull find Terry, thanks for sharing that - it's gone strainght into 'favourites' ;o)"

 

I was on duty that day the item was filed,

 

I was the "box lad" on duty ( "Put the kettle on lad") The other one that I got shouted out was "GATES" .

 

Oh happy days.

 

Terry

Edited by Trainshed Terry
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Rugd,

 

good post, I must find all my my old snaps of people...

 

Heres one to be going on with, taken last year whilst training our chaps up on rerailing and recovery, we had one off in Guide Bridge, so we used it to run the course, theres chaps from, Felixstowe, Southampton, Crewe, Ipswich and some colleagues fro Poland!

 

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There's a lot goes on 'behind the scenes' on the freight side, especially during the night, and these days most establishments are out of bounds so it's nice to be able to share things on here.

 

'Metal' Mickey Jones, now a 75mph fly by night Driver at Lawley Street, checks the fuel gauge at Bardon FP... a filthy job this, the stink stays with you for hours...

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Bardon Hill 'box, a plan is being hatched to despatch the night's trains in the right order...

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Dave Smith aboard 47 816, wishing it was a 56 instead...

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Mr.Harper about to thread his way through Basford Hall Yard en route to Rugby with four 66s in tow, weighing nearly 500tons...

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A quite moment at Rugby Booking On Point...

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Dave 'Top Shunt' Partner pretends he isn't cold at Mantle Lane Sidings... on this occasion, once we'd coupled the loco onto the wagons we had to go down the train knocking the ice off the couplings and brake blocks with a couple of brake sticks, as the wagons hadn't moved for over a week...

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Kev 'The Coat' Moore arrives at Bardon with a smile... he knows he'll be going home soon!

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Edited by Rugd1022
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Thanks Jim... some of the lads have been about a bit so you've probably bumped into a few of them here and there!

 

With forty years on the railway at the time this photo was taken, our man Griff gets a grip on 08 578 at Forders...

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Shunting now done, it's time to retire to the cabin for a brew...

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A quiet moment for Shunter 'Toggy' Parker in Croft Sidings 'box as we wait for the wagons to come out of the quarry on the opposite side of the Nuneaton - Leicester line... it's even quiter here now since Derby PSB took over this part of the route... the box still stands empty, but there's no-one to wave and toot at when we pass by now...

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Top Link Bescot man Tony 'Lulu' Llewellyn with 40 145 about to go onto the back of a wrongly routed oil train...(Tony is helping our very own Phil Bartlett with his book on Bescot)...

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Rugby's Alan 'Budgie' Finch on the trip engine.. sadly Alan had to leave the job (aged only 34) when he was diagnosed with diabetes... a much missed colleague with his Pythonesque sense of humour and approach to life...

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Back to the '60s with this one... a very young Paul 'Jonah' Jones suited and booted on the right, sat outside the old engineman's lodge at Rugby when he was a budding fireman. Life was hard for these blokes but they always seemed to be smiling...

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Paul again, on the Yard Pilot at Northampton several decades later... sadly he passed away not long after retiring from the railway, another much missed character...

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Ben 'Chopper' (don't ask!) Hewitt enjoys some nosh at Stud Farm Quarry...

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Edited by Rugd1022
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Three from the Signalling side, all showing my Grandfather at Proof House and New St.

 

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The first shows Charlie Steele attending to the facing points onto the Grand Junction line towards Vauxhall in 1955. The Birmingham skyline looks remarkably bare at this time

 

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The second shows Charlie at the top steps of Proof House box, with his two assistants sitting below.

 

 

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The third shows Charlie working on a temporary signal on the old Platform 3 during the rebuilding of New St station. Note the old No. 5 box under the bridge, the PSB under construction and the old LNW signal arms just on the right hand edge of the shot. I think the man at the bottom of the post, back to camera, is Maurice Garvey who was his assistant at the time.

 

All photographs C E Steele Collection

 

It's a real privilege for me to be out on our national network doing in 2012 exactly what is pictured in the first photo though without the hammer. I have just installed a new mechanical facing point with mechanical detection and was present last night to cover a tamp and a quick tweak of the detection was required. Super pictures.

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Nice to see the pics of some of the blokes I worked with at Rugby. Eric the shunter was always known as "Noddy" for some reason...Driver Mawbey was with me at Waterloo for a while...

 

I was the first person to be recruited on the footplate at Rugby since before the end of steam in 1974!

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Nice to see the pics of some of the blokes I worked with at Rugby. Eric the shunter was always known as "Noddy" for some reason...Driver Mawbey was with me at Waterloo for a while...

 

I was the first person to be recruited on the footplate at Rugby since before the end of steam in 1974!

 

I was trying to remember Eric's nickname after I'd posted the photo, ta for the reminder! He just used to nod his head when giving Drivers their instructions! If you started back in '74 you'd have started alongside Bob Savage and Phil Cowley no doubt...

 

Matt - Budgie came to Rugby directly from Reading I think and became a Tranman / Guard before getting his Drivers job. Griff will know for certain, I'll ask him when I see him later in the week.

 

A couple more before I shoot off to work (paid hobby more like, I know only too well how lucky I am.... best job at the depot is mine all week.... sunny Oxford!)...

 

Griff and Ian Moss concoct a plan at Forders Sidings... just like Rugby, the cabin they're in has now gone...

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Gordon Mawby with star pupils Jon Harper, Lee Stacey (now at Ferrybridge) and 'Bommber' Harris, and ex-Nuneaton man Tom Blackburn. Tom came to Rugby around '88 to look after the old Road Learning School at the station then came down the yard as the regular jocko driver when he was green carded. A true gentleman and very generous with it, he always insisted on paying for the fish and chips on Thursday mornings and ended up giving me countless railway books from his collection, and wouldn't take any money for them despite my many attempts to do so. He started at Nuneaton Shed in 1956 and used to tell me all about the Leamington and Banbury trips they did on Super Ds etc. A real old school railwayman, when there was deep snow on the ground at Rugby Yard one Winter he came in an hour early (on his moped) to sweep the snow from the walking route!

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Rugd1022,

Four Stonebridge Park drivers, don't know if they were still there the same time as you.

 

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Vince Evans, Danny Pearce

 

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Johnie Lowthers, mate in south link and deputy foreman, he did smile occasionally. Jack Powell ?

 

Tom

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When you say the human side of the railway, it only appears to be only one half of the human race...

Someone up-thread commented on the basic nature of the cabs and it occured to me too. While I don't think that everything needs to be 'prettied up', it appears there was not much thought for ergonomics, which can make a place like a cab a much safer place and not much thought of cleaning either.

Anyway, not my photos, but some I thought of immediaty I saw the thread title

St Pancras 1980-81 By Nick Sarebi

Edited by Talltim
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What a great thread, especially to an 'outsider'!

 

No matter how much we think we know, we can only ever be on the outside looking in.

 

Its the daily grind that we can never appreciate, everything that goes on 24/7 to keep the railways running.

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Great set of photos Tom.... the second chap down (Danny Pearce?) does look familiar... when I started at Stonebridge Pk in early '83 a lot of the top link men were of about that age, I was only there a short time before moving to Old Oak so sadly didn't get to know the entire compliment at the depot. Old hands I do recall at the time are Joe The Greek, Reg King, Dennis 'Breakaway' the Guard, another old boy who's name escapes me (Ron something?) who was a real character, he always came to work in dungerees and no shirt but had a spotted cravat tied round his neck... wish I could remember his name now. There was a very short stumpy foremen called George something, feared by many but had a heart of gold.

 

If you've anymore photos Tom please keep posting them!

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post-1654-0-47070400-1344849665_thumb.jpg

 

 

Me on the Waterloo & City Line circa 1983,the end of the line, a rare shot taken in the depot. picture by Pekka Sisskonen

 

 

 

There used to be a Euston driver known as "Slow Line" Jones as his initials were S.L.!! Lived at Northampton. There were some witty nicknames around!

Edited by roythebus
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When you say the human side of the railway, it only appears to be only one half of the human race...

Someone up-thread commented on the basic nature of the cabs and it occured to me too. While I don't think that everything needs to be 'prettied up', it appears there was not much thought for ergonomics, which can make a place like a cab a much safer place and not much thought of cleaning either.

Anyway, not my photos, but some I thought of immediaty I saw the thread title

St Pancras 1980-81 By Nick Sarebi

 

Superb link TT... somethng to peruse when I get home from work tonight! Our roster clerk (Cobbler of this fine parish) has some similar pics of Northampton staff, I'll see if I can purloin them and put them on here ;-)

 

Work beckons....

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There used to be a Euston driver known as "Slow Line" Jones as his initials were S.L.!! Lived at Northampton. There were some witty nicknames around!

 

When I was a shift Traffic Assistant at Taunton in the early 1980s, my regular shunter on the station was Les Willmott, who used to drive in from Wiveliscombe in his Moggy 1000. He was a lovely old Zummerset country boy, but he never hurried anywhere! No matter how 'urgent' the shunt or whatever, old Les would amble along in his own time! I have fond memories of going over to East Yard each night, to open the ground frame, whilst Les prepared a road in the main yard for the vacuum-fitted Presflos off the down vac-fitted freight that usually called each night from Severn Tunnel, en-route to Exeter and points west.

 

Then, one day Les was 'seen' doing his 'other job', which was as a security guard for Securicor (quite a few railwaymen had 'other jobs', there were in fact several working for Securicor in the town alone), and he was actually seen running, beetling in and out of each shop or bank, hastening the cash to the security of his van! But when he return to the railway for his next shift, it was back to 'ambling' again!

 

Happy days!

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