caradoc Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Today I worked my last shift on the railway; With outstanding Annual Leave, my actual date of retirement is just after my 57th birthday in September. If anyone is interested, this is how my railway career progressed. I joined BR in October 1978 as a Clerical Officer (CO) Grade 1 at Harlow Town, Eastern Region. While there I was promoted to CO Grade 2. This was in the days of the Cambridge services, some of which actually stopped at Harlow Town, being hauled by classes 31 and 37. I still recall clearly the sound of a diesel accelerating out of Liverpool St, rounding the curve at Bethnal Green and then crossing over to the fast lines. Wonderful ! In October 1980 I moved to a CO2 post at Reading, even then a very busy station which took the second highest passenger receipts on the Western Region, behind only Paddington. I travelled every day from Oxford, which for the earliest shift, with an 0545 start, meant catching the 0445 DMU from Oxford, having cycled to the station. Fun, especially in Winter ! I also often worked a shift with a midnight finish, catching the last train to Oxford; Although, one Saturday night, I boarded a Class 117 DMU which I assumed was the Oxford train, only to find on leaving Didcot that it was an additional train to Swindon, due to engineering work. Stranded in Swindon at 0100 on Sunday ! Luckily the DMU returned to Didcot from where I had to get a taxi home. And I was back out for a shift at 0900 the same day ! While at Reading, I took the BR Safe Working of Trains Courses (I wonder if Mike the Stationmaster was involved in these ?). Thinking I now knew something about the railway, I started applying for jobs in Control (because a friend had moved to Liverpool St Control and it sounded like a great job), and in March 1984 I was appointed as a Controller Grade A in Scottish Region Control at Buchanan House, Glasgow. I discovered on Day 1 of my Control career that I knew almost nothing about railway operating, but thanks to the kindness and dedication of the other Controllers, I started learning and gaining experience. I cannot speak highly enough of the staff in Glasgow Control, who were unstinting in their acceptance of me and the assistance they gave me; I have always remembered that and tried to show the same commitment when I in turn became a more senior Controller. I did not initially intend to stay long in Scotland, but the job was so interesting, the people so friendly, and Glasgow such a great place to live, that I never returned south (Plus I got married and had kids up here !) Over the years, except for a two year hiatus when I was displaced under staff cuts (yes, they happened in BR days too) and worked in Mossend TOPS office, I was gradually promoted through the ranks. Despite the travails of privatisation and the demise of Railtrack, I somehow kept a job and I finished up as a Route Control Manager in Network Rail Scotland Route Control, now based in Springburn. I don't believe there is any job on the railway as interesting and diverse as Controller; Every incident affecting the railway is dealt with to some degree, from the comfort and safety of an office of course, by Control. It has been said that Controllers are experts on nothing, but know something about everything, and this is as true today as it ever was. I would personally say that I enjoyed nearly every moment of my Control career, and there were never two days the same. Finally (if you are still reading !), I would say that despite the problems and faults of the railway, of which railway staff are as aware as anyone, I firmly believe that Britain has a fantastic rail network, which is expanding and carrying more passengers, with a safety record better than most, if not all, of the rest of the world. I know that those I have left behind, from Network Rail, Train Operators and others, are just as dedicated as anybody in the past to providing the best service possible, no matter what obstacles, political, financial or other, they face. Thanks for reading this, and to those still working on the railway, and indeed to everyone in RMWeb, Best Wishes. Matt Monger ('caradoc') Neilston Glasgow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted August 9, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2016 Best of luck in your retirement, well done for getting out so early Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barnaby Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Ditto Russ's comment above and now you have some time to build yourself something "Railway" nice. Enjoy your retirement. Best Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold 4630 Posted August 9, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2016 . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Congratulations Matt on your retirement. I hope that it will be a long and enjoyable one - just as your career appears to have been. Best wishes for the future. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PM47079 Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Hope you enjoy your retirement. I have done 30 years this year so i have got a little way to go before mine. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southernman46 Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Splendid, enjoy your new life .................. I totally agree, having dealt with them on innumerable occasions over the years, Controllers need to have an understanding of just about everything that happens on the railway. In a bizarre co-incidence, today I left Amey having previously worked for them, BR, RT & NR as an Engineer to take up a job in the DLR control for precisely the same reasons as you and with a future eye on heading for rural France in 5-6 years ..................... when the Missus has had enough of working for NR. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted August 9, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2016 I first took the Safe Working of Trains courses in 1967, I last did them (both the Basic and Advanced in 1972/73). By the late 1970s I was doing some training of the stuff and by the mid 1980s (and later) I was involved in writing some of the things which sometime later became subjects in such courses. So over the years I had a little bit to do with them - and way back in the day the £5 you got for a Merit pass (tax free) wasn't a bad little sum. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Just started my 39th year in the signalling grades and I can't really believe how fast those years have gone by! Hope to be joining you in retirement in the next year or two while I still have a few volts left in my battery Wishing you all the best for a long and fulfilling future. Jon F. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob D2 Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Great career Best of luck in retirement Great career Best of luck in retirement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bri.s Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Good luck in retirement and thankful for your story ,I found it interesting and informative Hope you get plenty of modelling time and have a fullfilling retirement Brian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judge Dread Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Mat, now go out and buy a shed, a "man cave" if you haven't already got one. Best of luck in your well earned retirement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
caradoc Posted August 9, 2016 Author Share Posted August 9, 2016 Thanks for all your supportive replies. Stationmaster, I am sure that having taken both Safe Working of Trains Courses was a major factor in me getting my first Control job, although having taken the time to visit Glasgow Control a week before the interview also played a part. Before applying for Glasgow, I was interviewed for East Croydon Control but was unsuccesfull.....A lucky escape or what ? (Sorry SR devotees). I may now have time to finally finish a layout..... Matt Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Brinkly Posted August 9, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2016 I really enjoyed reading your post Matt. Enjoy your retirement, I hope you achieve lots of modelling! Kind regards, Nick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted August 9, 2016 Share Posted August 9, 2016 Congratulations from me too Matt. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted August 9, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 9, 2016 Thanks for all your supportive replies. Stationmaster, I am sure that having taken both Safe Working of Trains Courses was a major factor in me getting my first Control job, although having taken the time to visit Glasgow Control a week before the interview also played a part. Before applying for Glasgow, I was interviewed for East Croydon Control but was unsuccesfull.....A lucky escape or what ? (Sorry SR devotees). I may now have time to finally finish a layout..... Matt Popping in for a look round before an interview can pay dividends, particularly if you're a 'stranger' to the place you're going to be interviewed for. east Croydon might well have been a lucky escape although I did collect a few Central Division folk once I got involved with the Southern in the final years of my career and they seemed as human as anyone else off the Southern (not that folk off the South Western side would necessarily admit that; the South Eastern were a law unto themselves judging by some I came across). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted August 10, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 10, 2016 I may now have time to finally finish a layout..... Matt Oh,the optimism of youth! If you're anything like most of the retirees on here you'll have less personal time, you'll wonder how you ever fitted work in. Mike. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bescotbeast Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Congratulations on your Retirement Caradoc, another old BR man leaves the railway. I myself did the first part of the Safe Working of Trains course back in 1999 and had to go up to Manchester for an exam, I also did the same as you for interviews here on the railway, that of looking a place over to get an idea what I was applying for. Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted August 10, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 10, 2016 Congratulations on surviving the upheavals of recent years. I left full time railway employment at the end of 2003 after 37 1/2 years. The main thing is to stay active, I worked part time in the industry on and off for another 10 years and together with grandchildren, gardening, cycling, photography, etc, etc, plus a bit of railway modelling, my to-do list doesn't seem to get any shorter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb900f Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 Congratulations on your retirement Matt, live long and prosper. I only managed 32 yrs but left at 53 (thanks to Brass 2 ). The old drivers would consider with that amount of service that the ink on my application form was still wet. Like Signal Engineer I've worked part time in the industry since but I couldn't work in it full time now, I would end with a form 1. I'm sure the TOCs will breathe a huge sigh of relief when the last ex BR member of staff leaves. Pete Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Mallard60022 Posted August 10, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 10, 2016 Matt that is so thoughtful of you to share your 'leaving'. I'm sure you have mixed feelings about your career (as most of us do regardless of the nature of that career), however it does seem as if you have enjoyed the majority of your time in the biggest 'industry' in the country. Congratulations and I hope it doesn't take too long for you not to 'twitch' too often when using the system when things are not quite going to plan for your ex colleagues. I am sure the railway life is very, very different now from when I almost joined in the mid 60s. That old picture of the 'public service' is very 'sepia' indeed and yet the thing still continues to work most of the time despite a lot of the top level decisions from various levels of 'management' and especially some of the 'Privateers'. Good luck, good modelling and have a bloody good time lad. You will miss the camaraderie and that rather special 'Scottish' friendliness in the railway family. ATB Phil @ 36E Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ELTEL Posted August 10, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 10, 2016 Congratulations on you wel earned retirement. Great story. Although not in the railway industry I also retired just prior to my 57th birthday at the end of 2006 I also had been a one company man (Thorn EMI in its many variants) and did various jobs in my career from TV engineer at the birth of colour TV to Training Manager through Branch Manager, Project Manager, and various sales roles. Your work life sounds like it was busy and demanding as mine was wthth the normal marriage kids to keep you on your toes. The one piece of advice I would give you on your retirement is keep both active in body and mind, and you may even finish that layout. Terry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted August 10, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 10, 2016 Congratulations on your retirement Matt, live long and prosper. I only managed 32 yrs but left at 53 (thanks to Brass 2 ). The old drivers would consider with that amount of service that the ink on my application form was still wet. Like Signal Engineer I've worked part time in the industry since but I couldn't work in it full time now, I would end with a form 1. I'm sure the TOCs will breathe a huge sigh of relief when the last ex BR member of staff leaves. Pete I've no doubt many of the newcomers in the TOCs are more than happy to see the back of ex-BR folk and the same can probably be said of NR - unfortunate but there it is. I managed 34 years leaving at the grand old age of 52 having been given redundancy (and it was following various health troubles so i was quite happy to end several years of 12 hour days although I had a great job). Like SE I remained closely in touch through various work with another company in the industry which increasingly convinced me I probably left at the best time judging by some of what I have seen since (and continue to hear about). However back in the 1960s and early '70s I can well remember older men telling me that 'the job had gone to pot' or 'it never used to be like this' . So perhaps we can all look back over the years and see some bright spots in what we knew of 'the old railway' before it got mucked up by our successors - who clearly don't know as much as we knew, haven't got as wide a breadth experience as we had, and are probably a bunch of rank amateurs (some of that is actually true of course ) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Fitness Posted August 10, 2016 Share Posted August 10, 2016 I'm sure the TOCs (and Network Rail!!) will breathe a huge sigh of relief when the last ex BR member of staff leaves. Pete My addition! Not sure they appreciate people old enough to remember how things "should" be done! JF Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted August 10, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted August 10, 2016 I learned a lot from the men of 'the old railway'. We were very much in transition in the West Midlands when I started, with the tail end of the electrification works still being done, New Street station still a building site and only Coventry, New Street, Wolverhampton and Walsall, plus Snow Hill station area being Multiple Aspect Signalling. I even managed to work with a few Pre-Grouping men from the LNW, Midland, L&Y, GWR and even met one who joined the Cambrian at Oswestry in 1922. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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