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The human side of the railway...


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4 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

I'm not sure if I've posted this one before, quite possibly but anyway, my brother posted it elsewhere and tagged me in and made me realise it was taken seventeen years ago - we'd just applied the new BR Tips style numbers, data panel and shed sticker on 37 003 at Leeming Bar back in October 2004 and posed for a quick snapshot before taking on a test run to Redmire and back.... I dug out one of my old BR secondman's jacket for the occasion....

 

1949883230_37003MeMickLeemingBarOctober2004.jpg.080a124ae6c762956b1621114ae5613e.jpg

Didn't realise a test run was necessary after applying numbers :)

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43 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

It's the extra weight see, it affects the brake force available!

Ah, I see. I thought perhaps it was to make sure

the signalman could see them as the loco passed him!

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Seeing the above I recall seeing photos online of a driver in the Kent area dressed in wellington boots & a bowler hat on a class 71/HA.. bit of a local character?

 

Back in the 80's there was a Woking/Guildford based driver who had inherited a large country house and whose parents had always dissaproved of his career choice but he simply loved the job...he was jokingly referred to as "Lord Snooty" but was in fact very down to earth (Phil ?)...pointed out to me one day on a 80's cab ride by my Dad (a Basingstoke driver)

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Traincrew are people - just like the rest of us. Some are bland, some characters, some miserable, some positively charismatic.

 

There was a Grove Park driver nicknamed 'packamac' because he seemingly always wore one - years before HVV were mandatory, of course. He lived in smart Chislehurst, drove an Audi 90, a pretty smart car.

 

Then there was the Sevenoaks guard who always had sticking plasters on his fingers, covering the pads. All sorts of stories about why, but none of us ever asked.

 

Then there was driver George. He was very decent, but a big, loud bloke - an RSM in the Territorial Army, too. He eventually got a Depot Manager's job, and was on one occasion chairing an LDC (Local Departmental Committee - formal discussion group with local drivers' reps) meeting when his delivery was so OTT that the staff side had to call the meeting to order! He had a lot of interesting tales to tell of days on the shovel, and I urged him to write them down. No longer with us, of course....

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There were definitely some great characters around in those days - at Old Oak we had Derek 'Fangs' Dyer, a jovial Welshman with very few teeth to his name, always good for a wind up and he gave as good as he got. He was one of those who came across as a bit intimidating at first but once you got to know him he was a real charmer, very generous and he was one of the first to put me in the chair when I arrived at 81A. Old Oak was full of blokes like that, most have gone to the great mess room in the sky now and are much missed.

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12 hours ago, 73c said:

@Oldddudders Do you remember the rather round, Scottish MOM based ( I think ) at London Bridge, covered down to Charlton - Blackheath - Hither Green. There's another 'character'

Sadly no. MOMs rather post-date my immersion in the real railway, although I think two of my most able staff at Dartford (I was SM '79-80) subsequently took such roles, at which I imagine they excelled. I lost touch with day-to-day when Divisions closed in 1984, and I moved to RHQ Waterloo. No 'On-call' was nice after a decade, but I missed some of the other life, too. 

 

It didn't mean the phone never rang at home, though. A number of us were quite rightly mobilised in the wake of the Stoats Nest accident, and on at least one Sunday night Chris Green rang, probably about something in the papers for Network Investment Panel the next day, for which I was secretary. All a long time ago now!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dartford station, early 1962....

 

1051286556_RSMKDARTFORD.jpg.8ccac76938b7ecada7fa16168e91cc95.jpg

 

Shortly after the above photo was taken the two likely lads depicted answered an advert in 'Jazz News', placed by a chap from Cheltenham called Brian Jones who was forming a new R&B group....

 

650736057_RSBRIANSAD020562JAZZNEWS.jpg.fdc0f7605d485bd631a906e718afa5c9.jpg

Edited by Rugd1022
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I know this is sort of the wrong way around,  but I recently had a fantastic phone conversation with a chap who phoned up to place an order for a book.

 

His name is Gordon Carter and he was a second man at Old Oak in the days of the hydraulics, finishing up driving out of Stonebridge Park.

 

He was so funny, full of anecdotes, a wicked sense of humour, and I have the distinct feeling that he would have been a memorable work colleague to say the least.

 

I wondered, given the wealth of experience on here, whether anyone had any memories or pictures of Gordon?  I'm sure they would be worth sharing.

 

One of his comments to me, on the NBL Class 22 locos - "I loved those little locos...good for sleeping" Priceless!

 

As these posts ought to include a picture, here's the late Peter Barnfield's lovely shot of D6315 at Truro on the "Cornishman" on Thursday 18th August 1960. 

 

Simon

 

 

 

 

1-6_D6315_Cornishman.jpg

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22 minutes ago, bude_branch said:

 

Not by much apparently :

 

639px-Blue_Plaque_for_the_Rolling_Stones_at_Dartford_Railway_Station.jpg.d01bd70c083371ac31c9bbf53867009f.jpg

 

See https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-15333771 for more details.

 

 

Slight misnomer - Mick and Keith didn't form the Stones, they joined Brian Jones existing outfit which became the Stones, and the name was chosen by Brian. The line up shifted around a bit in those early days, but Brian took on Bill Wyman because he was the only one who owned his own bass amp!

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1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

It is my distinct impression that steam was almost dead on the South Eastern by 1962, so those two chaps may have been there a little earlier?

Go on Youtube and check out David Bowie's impersonation of Mick Jagger! David was a guest on "Parkinson" :haha:

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1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Slight misnomer - Mick and Keith didn't form the Stones, they joined Brian Jones existing outfit which became the Stones, and the name was chosen by Brian. The line up shifted around a bit in those early days, but Brian took on Bill Wyman because he was the only one who owned his own bass amp!

 

Thank you for that. Brian Jones had been at my school (some years before my time) and was still spoken of with a mixture of awe and mystification by those who had taught him.

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3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

It is my distinct impression that steam was almost dead on the South Eastern by 1962, so those two chaps may have been there a little earlier?

The last pannier tanks, other than some stored ones, left OOC in March 1965. Passenger steam working out of Paddington had ended in 1964.

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14 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

It is my distinct impression that steam was almost dead on the South Eastern by 1962, so those two chaps may have been there a little earlier?

Living in Erith, I would say that it was totally finished for passengers by then. I can remember going on holiday to Birchington steam - hauled in 1958 or 1959 (change at Dartford), but after that, not.

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53 minutes ago, 62613 said:

Living in Erith, I would say that it was totally finished for passengers by then. I can remember going on holiday to Birchington steam - hauled in 1958 or 1959 (change at Dartford), but after that, not.

I think that fits. Kent Coast Electrification Phase 1 was done by mid-1960, so nothing via the Dartford group of lines needed steam any more. I thought the boast was that the SE was the first BR Division to abolish steam, by end-1961, Phase 2 going live from 12th June. I had watched steam on No 1 Boat Train Route at Tonbridge in early 1961, but the juice was already on and CEPs were doing trial trips and crew training. 

 

Tonbridge itself will have had steam incursions from Central after 1961, both from Three Bridges and Redhill, the latter not being converted to diesel until 3.1.1965. 

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