Goods Guards

[2750Papyrus]

I'm just finishing a D&S GC/CLC brake van kit I bought off EBay and was reminded of a chap I knew from watching football at Maine Road (a friend of a friend) during my Manchester days around 1970.  He was an intelligent  and well educated man but chose the life of a goods guard instead of following a "professional" career.  I think he enjoyed the peace and solitude, though it was obviously about to change for ever.

 

I actually know very little about the life of guards.  There have been many books and articles about footplate, signalling  and engineering staff but i know nothing about the recruitment, duties and daily routine of guards, and goods guards were really seen by the public.  Can members recommend any published sources or, if they worked as guards themselves, possibly record details of their experiences?

 

How were such guards recruited and trained?  What were their duties compared to those of the loco crew?  Did they have to sign for route knowledge?

How did they book on and find details of their shifts etc - did they have regular turns?  What was life like in a brake van?  (Environment, comfort, cooking, needs of nature etc).  Were there lodging turns?

 

I'm sure there are many other questions and there must be a wealth of anecdotes also.  Plse is there anyone out there who can assist?

[The Stationmaster]

How long is a piece of string?  The important feature - as with much on the railway - is to remember that things changed over the years, for example the 1968 Pay & Efficiency Review completely altered the Conciliation Grades structure and job titles and affected the old, long established, Promotion Diagrams (which had shown how you could progress basically on seniority alone in the Conciliation Grades.  Similarly for reasons which are not entirely clear the Guard's role became considerably reduced in status from the mid-1960s onwards which affected recruitment and led to direct recruitment 'off the street' (or even at the prison gates) especially into Goods Guard's posts.

 

I think the main reason for this change was that as all the operating Conciliation Grades were on what might be termed 'regular' shift patterns Guards very definitely weren't and this made the job less attractive.  Equally, and rather perversely, it probably became harder to move from a Goods Guard's job to a Passenger Guard - especially as they were effectively the same grade with no pay differential.  Thus the old promotion path from Shunter to Goods Guard basically vanished and hence the outside recruiting.

 

So consider the job - firstly the shift might start at any hour of the 24 in a day, and of course end similarly.  Secondly some of the work was dirty preparing a freight train was never a clean job but yard staff had, usually, a nice cosy cabin to go to when they finished - the Guard had to work the train possibly with little opportunity to get cleaned up.  The work out on the road was solitary but on a loose coupled train it had to be worked in co-ordination with the Driver so a Guard signed the road (but only as 'acquainted with', not as 'knowledge of' - and, like a number of older style front line managers and supervisors,I learnt at an early age that it was very handy to make sure that I had a Guard's Route Card in my name kept in the office filed in with the Guards' cards ') ).

 

More to come, family requirements call ....

[LMS2968]

Mike has, as always, covered much of it, but perhaps I can add to it. I was a guard from 1973, and by that time there was no such thing as Goods or Passenger Guards, we were all just Guards. Despite that, those based at Lime Street worked passenger trains with the occasional parcels thrown in; we at Edge Hill worked goods, but likewise the odd parcels, usually empty.

 

I simply wrote to the traffic people applying for a post as Guard, and started 1st January 1973. Regular training schools were run, but as the next wasn't due to start for a couple of weeks, I was initially sent out with a regular guard to get the hang of things. I then went to the training school at Manchester Victoria station, but went off sick after a few days so didn't complete. On return, I joined the course at Birkenhead shed. I still have my notebook from that course, and the detail on dealing with cattle trains makes interesting reading!

 

We were required to sign the road and as most of our traffic was unfitted, a good knowledge of the gradient profile was essential. Life in the van could be peaceful, but it rather depended on the temperament of the driver at the front end: most were considerate in taking up the slack in the couplings when starting away or closing up the buffers on braking, but you did get the odd one or two who regarded the power and brake handles as on / off switches. In those circumstances it was often wise to just wedge yourself in a corner and wait for all the noise to stop.

 

Dexterity with the pole (for coupling and uncoupling) was still very much needed; it was all in the wrist action. Most wagons could be attached or detached without going between, but connecting vacuum bags did require this manoeuvre so they weren't normally coupled unless the train classification specifically called for it. Since we would often have a Class 40 with maybe a thousand tons behind it, this might be considered somewhat adventurous! But it was coupling the bags where you got dirty, although you did get a smoother ride.

 

The pole was also - strictly against the Rules - used as a brake stick to lever down wagon handbrakes. Carrying both a pole and a proper brake stick didn't work, and the stick could not be used to couple up or uncouple. The pole wasn't really up to levering down handbrakes and most developed a definite curvature over time by this misuse!

 

Vans varied considerably. Many had flats on the wheels due to being dragged with the wheels locked or were otherwise rough riding. It was sometimes necessary to clear the stove chimney, yet another unofficial use of the pole!

[Simon Lee]

The environment inside a guards van is best described as basic, a stove, padded cushion of varying thickness to sit on in the ducket. The toilet was overboard on the veranda or remove the access chute of the handbrake column if it was to cold.

 

Any food/drink was kept in your bag,  depending on the ride quality of the van and the skill of the driver it was possible to heat a billy can of water on the stove.

 

It was always interesting to see the reaction of driver and secondmen if they hitched a ride with you, I  like to think it maybe impacted on their techniques when working loose coupled trains.

 

One other quirk of the system under BR was that a goods guard could work passenger trains but not vice versa.

[Rivercider]

One of the contributors on Flickr Arnie Furniss was a goods guard at Guide Bridge from 1977-1989

he took lots of photos while at work and a couple of his albums concentrate on photos from a guards perspective.

On some photos he adds quite a lot of background information about what was going on.

 

Brake Van Compliation,  includes lots of views taken on the Woodhead Route

https://www.flickr.com/photos/deadmans_handle/albums/72157624729539114  

 

Views from the brake van the footplate and the ground

https://www.flickr.com/photos/deadmans_handle/albums/72157623181615328

 

cheers

[jwealleans]

I believe the Great Central Society magazine ran a series of articles by an LNER Goods guard a few years ago comprising his reminiscences of his working life.

[Talltim]

The pole was also - strictly against the Rules - used as a brake stick to lever down wagon handbrakes. Carrying both a pole and a proper brake stick didn't work, and the stick could not be used to couple up or uncouple. The pole wasn't really up to levering down handbrakes and most developed a definite curvature over time by this misuse!

 

Makes you wonder why they didn't introduce a combination tool?

[The Stationmaster]

Picking up where I left off - and others have filled in - recruitment was in many areas a major problem by the '70s because the job was not attractive for many people due to the hours and, in effect, being tied to it when out on the road.  Recruitment was a virtually continuous process - even in South Wales - where jobs weren't easy to find by then.  And there were the 'professional trainees' - - happy to join up for their few weeks in the school working 9 to 5 then not too upset going Road Learning but as soon as that was finished they were the sort who vanished - quickly.  I found it far better to turn down the obviously 'no hopers' and go for those who were a bit older, had a steady attitude, and ideally had a job which had involved rubbish working hours and i don't think i ever lost one of those over several years of trying to recruit in both South Wales and the West Country.

 

The question about food is interesting - by the 1970s there was strong move towards what we then called 'suynchronised diagrams' for traincrew with the Driver, Secondman and Guard all booking on for a turn at the same time.  Integrated traincrew depots helped this idea but as long as you had dissimilar requirements in the Guard and driver jobs it had been, and remained, a bit awkward as the time requirement between booking on and departing with a train could be very different.  Nowadays it is common practice but back in the 1960s it was very unusual as Guards and drivers booked on at different places let alone having different duties and requirements after they had booked on.  For instance at Reading Drivers booked on at the depot, Goods Guards booked on at West Junction Yard, and passenger Guards booked on at the station.

 

And iof course even when synchronised there were still differences - Drivers working single,manned had a break built into their diagram while Guards didn't - even when they had booked on together and were going to book off together!

 

Thus Guards tended to work in a different way as regards food & drink because really their only opportunity for any hot food was when they were at a yard as the brakevan stoves weren't really suitable for anything beyond (occasionally) keeping the van warm (or boiling hot) and equally the only chance of a hot drink was at a cabin on turnround in a yard unless the man carried a vacuum flask (and managed to keep it in one piece - not necessarily as simple as it might sound).

 

One thing worth remembering about brake sticks is that good Guards made sure they had a couple, or more, in the van and ideally had something to break or chop them up - for firewood - although of course they were essential on stop gradients where brakes had to be pinned down or released (far better than using a shunting pole in that situation although you could get more leverage on a pole, as long as it didn't break).

 

On a nice day on a nice road I reckon riding in a freight brake van was one of those hard to beat experiences and a van in good nick gave, in my opinion, a better ride than some of the 14X units of later years.

[russ p]

One of the contributors on Flickr Arnie Furniss was a goods guard at Guide Bridge from 1977-1989

he took lots of photos while at work and a couple of his albums concentrate on photos from a guards perspective.

On some photos he adds quite a lot of background information about what was going on.

 

Brake Van Compliation,  includes lots of views taken on the Woodhead Route

https://www.flickr.com/photos/deadmans_handle/albums/72157624729539114  

 

Views from the brake van the footplate and the ground

https://www.flickr.com/photos/deadmans_handle/albums/72157623181615328

 

cheers

Those pictures are superb, found an old picture of a mate in there

[Nearholmer]

I've a tiny bit of experience of brake vans from supervising engineer's trains (the guard would, almost invariably, ride in the back cab of the loco, in tropical heat, asleep all night, unless we had to divide the train for some reason), and they were horrible - cold, rough-riding, no lighting, and generally filthy.

 

The stoves in the standard BR van seemed to be of a design that would only "draw" if the train was moving at 30mph or above, which meant that they would instantly self-extinguish when the train was stationary or moving slowly for unloading, so that when you went back into the van at the end of the task to "warm up" it somehow felt colder than outside. And, outside, in the middle of the countryside, at two o'clock on a January morning it can feel a tad chilly.

 

Kevin

[Poggy1165]

I'm kicking myself now. In the early to mid 70s I could obviously have got a job like this. Would have been a lot happier than with what I stuck to. Ah, well, too late to worry about it now!

[The Stationmaster]

I've a tiny bit of experience of brake vans from supervising engineer's trains (the guard would, almost invariably, ride in the back cab of the loco, in tropical heat, asleep all night, unless we had to divide the train for some reason), and they were horrible - cold, rough-riding, no lighting, and generally filthy.

 

The stoves in the standard BR van seemed to be of a design that would only "draw" if the train was moving at 30mph or above, which meant that they would instantly self-extinguish when the train was stationary or moving slowly for unloading, so that when you went back into the van at the end of the task to "warm up" it somehow felt colder than outside. And, outside, in the middle of the countryside, at two o'clock on a January morning it can feel a tad chilly.

 

Kevin

 

Think of this  - the 02.15 Acton runs into Reading West Jcn yard one cold March night, bit early for the frost to come up but by daylight the sleepers will look as if snow has fallen.  The Guard - a very large gentleman of colonial origin - alights from the van and makes his way to the cabin while the Head Shunter suggests to me that I might find it amusing to have a quick look in the van.  So I duly look in said van - every single crack is crammed full of newspaper (a common sight on BR Standard vans which were noted for their draughtiness), the stove is glowing red hot (and I don't mean dull red, I mean proper red hot) and the interior temperature of the van must have been well in the 70s (Fahrenheit).

 

Meanwhile said Guard has made his way to the cabin and turned in both rings on the cooker, plus the oven 'to help warm the place up' and proceeds to gets his breakfast - a couple of slices of bread toasting under the grill and a saucepan with quite a lot of butter melting in it before he empties a tin of Kit-E-Kat into the hot melted butter; it smelt absolutely wonderful and quite put my sandwiches to shame.  So it only goes to show - some Guards could make themselves quite at home in a brakevan and get themselves a hot meal once they got to a yard cabin with suitable facilities.

 

I presume he retired from Acton as a Guard as he never got to Paddington to my knowledge but he might have gone to Southall, his daughter - a smashing lass - was a typist in RHQ at Paddington and, some years later, used to type a lot of my letters in the time I was dealing with some public complaints.  

[LMS2968]

If you knew what you were doing - and I was passed as a fireman on the SVR - you could get the stove glowing bright red and the chimney bordering on yellow. I recall a few occasions when I had to open the rear door to let some of the heat out, and this was in January. On one occasion we had a clear run over many miles and I had to open the leading door for a while too! They certainly got hot enough to boil a tea can, but it wasn't advisable when on the move, but placing the can as close as possible to the stove did give you a head start. Then when you stopped, it was a case of getting the can on quickly before the heat did die down with the lack of induced draught.

 

The BR vans were indeed draughty, but I don't recall the LMS type being much better. It was though much bigger, and so took longer to warm up. The benches were longer though, and you could actually lie down quite comfortably. But yes, with a bit of effort you could make the van quite cosy.

[russ p]

The guards at Tees used to hate the LMS vans and try to avoid them in the winter. They were very draughty,but as it says above they were a fair bit bigger and on the move the stove wasn't really man enough to keep the van warm.

I do however a night shift when I was a secondman near yarm on a p-way train. There was a few crews involved and on the way there we got fish and chips and when we got to the trains there was an LMS van with a lit stove. We all got in there had our chips and sat there all night talking, very sociable. No trains needed moving.

One thing I remember about that night was it was early spring but quite cold and a couple of kids were camping in an adjacent field. When the relief turned up about four in the morning I said to this guard 'those kids in that tent asked us to wake em up at five,they are going on a long bike ride' ( the hadn't of course) Anyway at five off he goes...... Zzziipp, ' Wake up lads!!'. .... Ahhhh blood curdling screams 'who are you??'

Happy times

[The Stationmaster]

GW pattern vans were reputedly some of the warmest being far less prone to draughts than other types but of course being single ended they ended their traffic days in 1965 on safety grounds.  However a bit over 10 years later I looked out of the office window one day to see our returning Bristol East Depot trip complete with a GW pattern van on the back end and obviously in use as smoke was coming from the stove chimney.   A quick call to teh Down yard resulted about 15 minutes later in the Guard presenting himself at the office -

 

'Gerry, what the hell were you doing using that van, you know full well they've been banned for years for traffic use?'

 

'Like this Mike, we went over light engine and I needed a van to work the train back'

 

'So why did you pinch an engineers' van, weren't there any traffic vans at East Depot?'  (Bristol East Depot was by then basically an engineers' yard but some traffic use was still made of it)

 

'You know how it is Mike'

 

'Yes Gerry I know exactly how it is - it's a bl**dy cold day and you fancied a cosy ride back from East Depot so the only van you could find was that one; consider yourself duly b*ll*cked'

 

'Yes guv'nor, sorry guv'nor - can I go now please?'

[Rivercider]

GW pattern vans were reputedly some of the warmest being far less prone to draughts than other types but of course being single ended they ended their traffic days in 1965 on safety grounds.  However a bit over 10 years later I looked out of the office window one day to see our returning Bristol East Depot trip complete with a GW pattern van on the back end and obviously in use as smoke was coming from the stove chimney.  

Mike I can remember previously reading that GW style vans were banned from traffic use. If they were unsafe then why were they permitted to be used on engineers trains some of which could run for quite a distance? From my Bristol TOPS days in 1978-1985 I remember that on busy weekends Bristol East Depot might form up 12 or 14 engineers trains, a number of them only partly fitted, some needing a brake van at both ends. So they might well be needing a dozen brake vans which included various pre-BR vans including GW style ones. Were there any specific speed restrictions or limits on how far a GW style van might run on an engineers train? (I don't remember there being any) Or should they have been crewed by 'ballast train guards' if they existed?

 

Sorry for going a bit off topic, but a goods guard would have got involved with ballast trains,

 

cheers 

[The Stationmaster]

Mike I can remember previously reading that GW style vans were banned from traffic use. If they were unsafe then why were they permitted to be used on engineers trains some of which could run for quite a distance? From my Bristol TOPS days in 1978-1985 I remember that on busy weekends Bristol East Depot might form up 12 or 14 engineers trains, a number of them only partly fitted, some needing a brake van at both ends. So they might well be needing a dozen brake vans which included various pre-BR vans including GW style ones. Were there any specific speed restrictions or limits on how far a GW style van might run on an engineers train? (I don't remember there being any) Or should they have been crewed by 'ballast train guards' if they existed?

 

Sorry for going a bit off topic, but a goods guard would have got involved with ballast trains,

 

cheers 

 

Kevin,

 

They were taken out of use as brakevans and allocated for all sorts of other things - mainly engineers' use but some finished up as fitted head on London Division local working (the morning Acton - Slough trip normally had several during late 1966 when I saw it regularly), they were even branded 'London Division For Use As Fitted Head Only'.

 

The ones that went to the engineers were - as far as I'm aware - not meant to be used as brakevans but were intended for staff accommodation for men working with various machines.  I know a number underwent litte change apart from a coat of paint and number change but that made no difference - they were still prohibited from use as brakevans (the reason being that they had no means of escape from one end in the event of a collision - I think the ban actually followed a collision in which a Guard had been trapped in the van but I can't be sure on that).

 

So the ban meant they could not be used as brakevans on any train (and apart from the one Gerry pinched that day I can't ever recall seeing one being used asa  brakevan after the ban was imposed).   Oddly in South Wales in 1973 one of our old hand Guards asked if I could get hold of some Western vans as he hated the standard BR version but I had to turn him down. 

[Talltim]

It all sounds a bit basic compared to a road caboose

http://www.shorpy.com/node/9733

[LMS2968]

At Edge Hill there was a 'special' van fitted with all sorts of luxuries: carpet on the floor, cupboards, even curtains, I think. It was carefully petted and it was ALWAYs to be worked back to Edge Hill and not given to a guard from anywhere else. It inevitably happened that one day it was purloined by such a guard and, needless to say, that was the last we ever saw of it.

[russ p]

Wasn't another thing with the GW vans that the NUR started to object about the fact that the handbrake was on the verandah with little protection from the weather?

Whilst on the subject of GW vans was there a direction they must face?

[The Stationmaster]

Wasn't another thing with the GW vans that the NUR started to object about the fact that the handbrake was on the verandah with little protection from the weather?

Whilst on the subject of GW vans was there a direction they must face?

 

They could face either way - the only difference it would make would be to put the side lamps further from the end when working verandah leading (and make it difficult for the Guard to remove the tail lamp.  I wouldn't have thought the verandah area too unprotected when working with that end trailing as it was fully roofed and had solid sides up to waist height.

[Nearholmer]

That caboose interior photo is brilliant - notice how the "wall art" ranges from the pretty risqué to the deeply sentimental.

 

I read an article by, I think, Linn Westcott, in an ancient US magazine, describing a period when he worked as a "brakeman" on a branch line, where the caboose had a barber's chair fitted for comfortable riding. It was carefully removed and stored when the caboose went for its annual overhaul at "main shops", then refitted when it returned.

 

K

[The Johnster]

As a freight guard at Canton from 1970 to 77, and one of those referred to earlier in this correspondence as being recruited 'off the street', much of this is familiar to me.  I actually wanted to do the job as close to properly as I could manage, but the truth is that the quality of the new staff was not high, and those of us that were a bit interested had to prove ourselves to the drivers before we were properly accepted.  

 

The job was what you made it, but conditions were pretty basic even by 1970s standards, never mind nowadays when they would not be tolerated by anyone.  The overall conditions had been, presumably, acceptable in Victorian times and nothing had been done in many places since then to improve them,  The pay wasn't brilliant, either, but with shift allowance and a mileage bonus it was better than being in an office or a shop, and much more interesting.  The standard van, from what I could tell identical to the LNER 20 tonner except that the LNER one had a better stove, was a) not particularly effective as a brake van (drivers would tell me that the GW Toads gave a much more powerful brake), though I can't confirm this from personal experience, b) prone to unsteady riding, in my view because the concrete ballast weights were outboard of the axles, making the van 'hunt', and c) draughty, because they were poorly build out of planking to start with and then the poor ride 'worked' the structure so that draught came in everywhere.  Yesterday's paper and some spit were essential to seal the gaps, and because the stove wouldn't draw at low speeds, it was a pain picking a train up from Radyr and having to spend the first hour or so negotiating the North Curve and Cardiff Central station, for example.  If you were on top of the job, you'd start feeling a bit of warmth from the stove about half way to Newport, by which time you'd just about found all the draughts and sealed them with newspaper.  There were some vans fitted with roller bearings and coil springs which rode much better.

 

In the good old days, about which I was told much but never experienced, i.e 2 years before and pre 1968, guards booked on at freight yards and vans were allocated to the yards and to individual jobs from them.  That meant that they were generally kept clean and in good order; by 1970 they were anything but and mostly filthy beyond description, though some jobs still had vans allocated to them, such as the Canton Sidings-Calvert bricks which had a van attached from Lawrence Hill, Bristol, which used to be kept reasonably decent.  This was my only regular brake van job over the Box Tunnel route, not to mention being a day turn, and I used to rather enjoy it.

 

The riding was sometimes bad enough to knock the oil lamps out, not a big issue on the side lamps because you could see what had happened and re-light them, but the tail lamp, the main point of having lamp brackets on the thing in the first place, was out of sight.

I actually preferred the LMS vans, with the ballast located under the van body and giving a better ride; they were less draughty and although they took longer to warm up, a much nicer place to work once the stove had taken the chill off.  I once rode from Cardiff to Hereford on a frosty winter's morning in an SECR pillbox van which claimed on it's builder's plate to have been built (using the term in it's loosest sense) at Ashford in 1913, an experience I am happy to have never repeated.  Despite the diminutive cabin, it was impossible to get warm, there was ice on the inside of the windows, and we were stopped at every box because the lights had been knocked out by the rocking; I used an entire box of Swan Vestas that trip.  You could report it to C & W til you were blue in the face, nothing was ever done about it.

 

Having suffered the deprivations of the vans, you then had to use mess rooms which were variable in quality at whatever depot you'd ended up at; electricity was still considered a newfangled tool of satan in some places.  A typical job at Canton would be to book on, find your driver and secondman if you had one, and, while they prepped the loco, make a can of tea for everyone.  They you would act secondman if necessary (the single manning agreement allowed this for up to 15 miles from your home depot outward bound, and an unlimited distance homeward) to whatever yard you were picking your train up from, finishing the tea on the way, and 'prepare' your train.  At some yards, this was a formality and you could rely on the yard's own staff to have put everything in order for you.  At Radyr and Llantrisant they would even lay the fire in the stove.  But there were places where you had do everything yourself, including 'obtaining' the coal for the stove, enough for the train's whole journey, a real problem at Margam where the messrooms  were all-electric; you could have too much modernity...

 

Train prepping meant checking that doors and loads were properly secure, couplings correctly in position, a brake test, and ensuring the van had lamps properly trimmed and in working condition, putting them on the brackets, lighting them if it was dark or a tunnel of over 400 yards was on your route, or during fog or falling snow, and that your van had aboard it a brake stick, shunting pole, and two pairs of track circuit clips.  There was usually a milk bottle full of paraffin for the lamps as well; I cannot remember now if this was a requisite according to the rules.  Used sparingly, it sometimes came in very handy if you were having trouble getting the stove going...  GW toads had carried a first aid kit as well, and the guards had to have first aid training to hold the post; this had all gone by the board by my time!  Then you would walk back up the other side of the train checking that, and go to the shunter's cabin to tell the yard foreman that you were satisfied and ready to go, assuming you were, signing the train preparation sheet, load sheet, and the driver's slip, which detailed the load, brake force, length of the train and maximum allowed speed of the stock and was your authority to him to proceed.  You would then go back on to the loco and give it to him, and he would then tap the horn to alert the yard staff that he was about to move off, and draw up to the yard exit signal.  This would usually clear before he'd got there, and before you had walked back to the van, so he would not pick up beyond a walking pace until you'd climbed onto the van and 'given the tip'; signalled that you were there and the train was complete, theoretically with a green flag but usually with the newspaper you were about to draughtproof the van with, or your handlamp at night of course.  He would return the signal, either in like fashion or with a tap on the locos's rear horn, and you'd be away!

 

Your job was now to repeat the 'tip' if needed over speed restrictions or starting from any stop en route, show the correct sidelamps when you were in loops or on relief lines (the one nearest the fast running line had to show white to the rear as well as forward instead of the normal red; they had removable shades to achieve this), and apply the handbrake when the train was slowing or travelling downhill.  This is the reason you had to sign for your route familiarity; obviously you had to know where the downhill banks were, even if it was dark and foggy, and where to take the brake off at the bottom as well.  This was because the trains were 'loose coupled', and  there were gaps between the buffer heads of adjoining wagons.  Get it wrong and, as well as failing to control the train's speed, you would have a violent 'snatch' as the loco picked up power at the bottom of the bank.  As well as being a danger to you unless you were braced in the seat, which had shoulder pads for protection, you stood a good chance of breaking a coupling and being left behind, in which case you were in for a long walk as you went back to the next box to protect your train.  And, when it was dark and foggy, it wasn't as easy as it sounds and you had to keep your wits about you!

 

What happened next was dependent on the working,  You might work the train to it's destination, in which case you would take the lamps in and blow them out, hand the load slip to the yard foreman, and climb back onto the loco to run to the shed.  Or you would, more usually with the long distance main line work we had at Canton, be relieved by a crew from another depot who would take the train on.  You'd then make your way to the depot's signing on point for orders, or information about your return working if you had one.  The driver was entitled to a 20 minute break between his 3rd and 5th hour, and it'd be about that by now, and since you and the secondman couldn't go anywhere without him, you had your break with him.  At this point tradition demanded it was time for the driver to make the tea, and I would usually try to get some food eaten at this time as well.  

 

Of course, by 1970, not all the work was loose coupled trains with brake vans; there was an amount of 'back cab' work, fully fitted trains in which you rode in the back cab of the loco and on which you were spared the terrors of the vans but might have your spine battered by a bad riding loco, particularly Class 25 which were diabolical at any sort of speed, and the 'Westerns' which were dreadful at around 60 mph but lovely at any other speed.  On single manned jobs with such trains, most drivers preferred you to ride with them, on the basis that safety was improved if someone else was observing and confirming the signals, and for sociability, and inevitably, back cab work became more common and brake van work less so over time.  I would have to agree with a comment above, though, that on a sunny afternoon with a good riding van when you were out on the rear balcony to stay cool, there was no better way of earning a living and it was possible to overlook SECR vans and freezing mornings...