RMweb Gold The Johnster Posted June 8, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 8, 2019 This was still a feature of the footplate grades in my time at Canton in the 70s. We had secondmen with more than a quarter century's seniority and well into middle age 'waiting' for their jobs, and drivers who had spent time at other sheds to get their jobs sooner and transferred back when a vacancy became available on the dead man's shoes principle. Seniority was all, the ultimate trump card. By and large this had been a matter of choice; you went to London to get your job or stayed at home because of family commitments and waited. Some men met girls in London and never came home. The standard way of doing this in my time was to answer the adverts for jobs at depots on the Southern, which had a high turnover of staff. The work was intense and high pressure and pay low, even with London weighting, so extensive overtime hours were essential both for survival and maintaining the timetable. A variation on this were cleaner and firemen moves to depots with increased work during the war. Places like Banbury, Westbury, Didcot, Severn Tunnel, had massively increased workloads, reaching a peak during the 1944 build up to D day and the support operation for operations following it, and were desperately short staffed. I believe these were compulsory postings, and conditions were a bit rough; unlike London, these places were devoid of lodging accommodation or anything to do off-duty, and the men were housed in railway hostels, effectively barracks. These were, by all accounts, filthy and overcrowded; 'hot bedding' was common and the food awful. And there were very few girls! As these depots were already well enough staffed with drivers, having promoted their own firemen first before recruiting from elsewhere, there was little opportunity for career advancement either, with the result that when an opportunity arose to return home five or six years later, you had made no progress at all, and as you weren't even a passed fireman you didn't even have a chance to extend your road knowledge. You were in a reserved occupation and could not even escape by joining the army. The only up side was that you got as much overtime as you wanted and had nothing to spend the money on, but all in all these men had a pretty miserable time of it and then had to wait, sometimes years, to get back home, and the overtime dried up when hostilities ceased. Canton had a few immigrants as well, refugees from closed depots or where redundancies had hit hard. Valley depots were the usual source, and a number of men from West Wales, but we had one Somerset and Dorset driver from Green Park. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted June 8, 2019 Author Share Posted June 8, 2019 Photo c/o Anthony Gregory, Saltley BOP in the '70s... 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chime Whistle Books Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 17 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said: Photo c/o Anthony Gregory, Saltley BOP in the '70s... Looking at the site now, you would never believe it was once an extremely busy depot! https://www.chimewhistle.co.uk/page/new-products 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted June 8, 2019 Author Share Posted June 8, 2019 Milano, Porta Genova... 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted June 8, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 8, 2019 On 23/05/2019 at 20:42, Oldddudders said: Kindly include a mention from me, too, Mike. John came and covered the Operating Officer job at Beckenham in the early 80s, with Gerry Uzzell stepped up, I think. John seemed to disappear after Privatisation, to the extent that even Bob Breakwell, when I bumped into him on the Welsh Highland a few years back, wasn’t sure what had happened to him. Regrettably John wasn't at this 'meeting' so I will try to remember for the next one. Which is in Exeter so if you happen to be in England towards the end of July Ian as you would qualify for the group if there's room at the inn so to speak - there might be some of the Southern contingent there although they seem to favour the Wokingham and Pompey venues for some reason 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted June 8, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 8, 2019 On 07/06/2019 at 20:17, Oldddudders said: Don't ask me what I heard about the desk in Margate Red Star office, or the cause of its collapse...... Sounds like the desk in the Stationmaster's Office at Blaengwynfi. Or indeed the desk in the AM's office at Margam which happened to be visible from the hump sidings - which used to get quite crowded at lunch times if he'd forgotten to lower the venetian blinds. On 07/06/2019 at 20:35, Mike Storey said: Also worked very much in the opposite way. My brother started at Old Oak and graduated to Second Man, but got promotion pretty quickly to Driver at Cricklewood, in its dying few years prior to BedPan, because so many Drivers had left the depot there (either retired or moved elsewhere) or were tied up in training for the electrics. He decided he would like to stay on the Midland (as he lived nearby) but had forgotten he had put in for a preference move back to Old Oak........ So he had to go back there - there was no choice in the matter such were the rules - when his number came up. If it was not for Eurostar, he may well have spent the next thirty years there. Very different to today's driver market, where you can move to whomsoever is offering the best money and conditions. First Preference moves could be the sword of damocles for some, they had to go home and tell the wife they were moving in a fortnight, to the other end of the country. As I related previously when HSTs were extended to the West of England there was huge leap forward in Seniority Dates, the date for Penzance moved forwards something like 15-20 years overnight while Exeter opened up as well. However at one depot where I was we did operate a clandestine 'lost letter' arrangement in the LDC (involving both staff and management sides) where a letter put in to cancel a First Preference - which I think had to be two weeks before the Vacancy List was published - had 'got lost' so was sent on a couple of weeks late but of course obviously had the correct original date on it. It only happened very rarely but it was useful to pull the occasional rabbit out of the hat for somebody. Incidentally talking of Firemen in their 50s there were footplate men in the more remote parts of Scotland retiring - at normal retirement age - as Secondmen in the 1970s. 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ruggedpeak Posted June 16, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 16, 2019 A grey day on the Vale of Rheidol Railway some time in the 1980's....probably wishing they'd modernise to diesel!! 8 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gibbo675 Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 7 minutes ago, ruggedpeak said: A grey day on the Vale of Rheidol Railway some time in the 1980's....probably wishing they'd modernise to diesel!! Hi Tony, I'm particularly amused by the fire extinguisher !!! Gibbo. 4 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ruggedpeak Posted June 16, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 16, 2019 Appleby Station (some time in the '80's) when A4 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley visited with the 'Pennine Limited' 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Storey Posted June 16, 2019 Share Posted June 16, 2019 3 hours ago, ruggedpeak said: Appleby Station (some time in the '80's) when A4 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley visited with the 'Pennine Limited' Is that Ray Buckton on the left, earning a living?? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted June 17, 2019 Share Posted June 17, 2019 My (now late) father on the footplate of 4498! Thanks for posting. 2 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ruggedpeak Posted June 17, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2019 (edited) 12 hours ago, jwealleans said: My (now late) father on the footplate of 4498! Thanks for posting. Really pleased to have posted it. The only other people shots of that day are here. I've posted lots of photos of the A4, its support coach and the various Pullmans on my Flickr stream here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/182045006@N07/48081654268/in/dateposted-public/ I note that another special, called the "Boston Target"??? ran the same day through Appleby - does anyone know the date the Pennine Limited and Boston Target ran through Appleby in the 1980's? Edited June 17, 2019 by ruggedpeak 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold martin_wynne Posted June 17, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 17, 2019 Bewdley North. 13-May-2019. Martin. 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike 84C Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 Who is the Driver with the pipe in the Saltley notice board shot? I remember him from my Bescot days but think he was from Tyesley. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted June 18, 2019 Author Share Posted June 18, 2019 3 hours ago, Mike 84C said: Who is the Driver with the pipe in the Saltley notice board shot? I remember him from my Bescot days but think he was from Tyesley. Sorry Mike I don't know. Photo c/o Anthony Gregory, taken by the late Steve Marks, Coalville in the late '70s... 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
73c Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 They seem quite happy that, that one is in the dirt 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike 84C Posted June 18, 2019 Share Posted June 18, 2019 An oops! moment. I remember being with Bennie Bennett on a Type 2 Sulzer which split the 3 way point in the Down local yd at Bescot. I was surprised how much angle we got before the loco stopped! It didnt seem to have done any damage 'cos we drove it down the depot for inspection! The guy in the little loco office Norman John ? gave us a lot of grief, ca'nt remember getting a form 1, but the PW were out repairing the switches bloody pronto. Happy days ! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted June 18, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 18, 2019 I had a derailment on my fifth driving shift, two methonal tanks derailed and went on their sides coming into tees yard. Unlike today where medscreen and God knows who are called , my trip to york was cancelled but I still had to take the engine back to the shed and the foreman said to me ah tanks for the memory, can you fill a report out for tomorrow which I did and that was the last I heard of it. I came in for my next days turn handed in my report and did everything normally 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted June 24, 2019 Author Share Posted June 24, 2019 Photos at Exeter Central and B'ham Snow Hill by Alan F Brookes... 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted July 6, 2019 Author Share Posted July 6, 2019 The human side of the railway, when all the humans have upped and left.... the north end shunter's cabin at Small Heath a few days ago, some years after it was last inhabited... 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium HillsideDepot Posted July 7, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 7, 2019 The Crossing Keeper at Whittlesea (just outside Whittlesey) locks the gate for East Midlands Trains 158806 to pass through (24/06/19) With the train gone the crossing can be re-opened to road traffic Manually worked gates must be a rare species now on NR. 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium uax6 Posted July 8, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 8, 2019 (edited) In the Ely area we have them at Whittlesea, Stonea, Dullingham and here at Littleport... There are more over in the wilds of far East Norfolk for the moment..... Andy G Edited July 8, 2019 by uax6 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
40052 Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 Quite a few still between Knaresborough and Poppleton on the Harrogate - York line. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted July 8, 2019 Author Share Posted July 8, 2019 Preston in 1968 and another one from the booking on point at Saltley in the '70s.... 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted July 13, 2019 Author Share Posted July 13, 2019 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now