Tall Tales

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

There use to be a diagram at the Cross, if I remember that went like this, work loco and 5/6 suburban coaches to Hertford, empty coaches to Hitchin, stable in sidings, to down yard, pick up parcels coaches take them to Peterborough parcels depot at New England ( arrive app 2130) leave said depot app 2330 , arrive KX goods yard 0100. Well after leaving Hitchin app 1930/2000 we had to run slow line to Arlsey, where in them days there was still a short 2 road section of track where the old station and level crossing had been, the new bridge had only been opened a short while, the old signal box was still there to and thats were we got stopped to let a couple of express train pass. The driver stopped the engine of the class 31 because we knew we would be there for maybe 15 mins,it was late summer or ealy autumn, light evenings and warm so the windows were open, just sitting there listerning to the birds singing and the engine ticking as it cooled down, then a different type of singing as a train approched, a down express with a Deltic on the front, a pretty fast strech of track there and slowly the track singing faded out, I decieded to get off the loco to strech my legs, still had at least another 10 mins to wait, after a few yards I turned to the west to watch the setting sun and what a view, the mist was rising over the fields the trees were losing there sharpness and the orange/yellow sun giving it a beautiful glow and with approch of another northbound express it was a moment to remember, I then looked down to see a wesel running drunkenly through the rough grass, it had a broken back leg it stopped looked up at me hissed at me and carried on it's drunken way.

Later that night after we had left Peterborough we were put in at Connington south slow line to Huntingdon, to be passed again by an up express, about Abbotts Ripton doing 30mph, no point rushing, we still had'n't been overtaken , when something came over the top of bonnet of our class 40 and slid up the center window and away, this all happened in about 3 seconds and scared the living daylights out of both of us, we guessed it was a large owl on the track and at 30mph was'nt making to much noise, so it did'n't take off till it was to late, the rest of the trip was rather boring.I have more, if you like this one. manna

[Mallard60022]

Encore silverplate.........love these tales.

P

[The Blue Streak]

Great Story, thanks Manna.

 

The thing a lot of people don't ever realise about our Job. Is that quite often the best parts are nothing at all to do with Locomotives or trains at all, it's those things you see or hear when you are out there.

 

I did a book off to Kalgoorlie on one occasion, it has been 40c plus all day and really humid, late in the afternoon a bit of a thunderstorm started to brew. When I came back on duty at 1800 it felt you could have cut through the air with a knife, the humidity was ridiculous . A little later, heading back West on the freighter, I saw the most amazing Sunset I ever have (and I've seen some crackers out there). Not only did the sky literally look like it was on fire, but all the red dirt around was reflecting the sky and had lit up.

 

If that wasn't enough, the thunderstorm hit with vengeance (no rain - just a dry electrical storm). The cool thing was that as the lightning hit the ground (sometimes feeling a bit close for comfort) there were occasions where it was appearing to bunch up and literally run along the ground for quite a way in what can only be described as balls of electricity.

 

It only happened for a short while (and I hadn't been on the booze either ) I've told the story a few times and some people look at Me like I'm mad. However I told it to one old chap who had been a sailor and said he'd seen a similar thing at sea. I kicked myself because I sometimes have My camera with Me, but not on that occasion.

 

I can however supply a picture of a "Run of the Mill" sunset taken out that way a couple of years back. (I've shown it previously on another topic so apologies to those who have already seen it).

 

Edited July 7, 2017 by The Blue Streak

[rockershovel]

There were prototypes for that - http://www.copsewood.org/ng_rly/sailbogie/sailbogie.htm

The Festiniog Railway have a reconstruction (replica?) of just such a sailcar

[sir douglas]

spooner's boat

https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/The_Boat

[Northroader]

As Mike has told you about a runaway down a bank that nobody knew about, let's have a "runaway" going up a bank that became very obvious. Old age memories being what they are, I couldn't say now whether the train engine was a Sulzer or an English Electric, or if the train was merrygorounds or 21ton mins. It was heading up the Rhymney main line one night with empties going to "Ocean", usual nice simple Railway name for a NCB complex for collieries including Ocean colliery, Taff Merthyr (neither on the Taff or near Merthyr) and Deep Navigation, as well as a drift mine and a dump. To get there you turn off at Ystrad Mynach South, and at that time, the divergence for Cwmbargoed was also worked from here, as I understand it, so after leaving Y. M. It was a simple run of around four miles, up a hill of around 1 in 80 which levels out for the last stretch. Dark outside with not much to look at, cosy and warm in the cab with the windows up, rumble, rumble, rumble, chug, chug, chug...

The end result they got into the colliery sidings going a bit fast, with the loco coming off the road, wagons in a pile behind, except for one in front of the loco. The thing which does stick in my mind was that there was the neatest pair of grooves from the wheel flanges of said wagon running dead straight and true the full length of the loco roof!

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

Signed on one Sunday morning for an enginneers train, travelled out on a staff train about 2am, we had to releave another crew, near Hadley Wood, the driver of the staff train slowed down just after Barnet and kept a look out for our train, through Hadley Wood tunnel then station all dark and deserted through Hadley Wood north tunnel, nothing! past Ganwick, through Potters Bar, Nothing?? so the driver of the staff train stopped at the north end of Potters Bar tunnel and let us out, so bardic's at the ready, we climbed up the small bank, and into Potters Bar tunnel ( the new one,we were running wrong line ) there we were at 2.30am walking through this pitch black tunnel looking for a train?? well we walked all the way through then back round the Ganwick curve and into Hadley Wood north tunnel and into the station, better walking now, ahh! there's our train, sitting in Hadley Wood south tunnel ??climbed ontothe loco to be greeted by 'Were the bloody hell have you bin,s'pose to have bin 'ere an hour ago' ( old misery guts ) after a short explaination, he and his mate wandered off to Barnet station to catch the staff train back to the 'Cross', us, we had a nice sit for a while and a bite to eat, before we had to move up ( PW men were drilling holes in the roof of the tunnel for the OHL) A long walk in the dark!!

 

manna

[The Stationmaster]

Mention of Cwmbargoed brings to mind a little trip out up there one day and just what the railway work on those inclines could be like.  Coming down it was necessary to pin down wagon brakes and descend in accordance with the Incline Instructions - supposedly the way to run a freight train safely down a steep gradient.  The process is theoretically simple - get the train onto the gradient and then pin down sufficient wagon brakes to hold the train stationary with the loco and brakevan brakes 'off' - meaning also that in order to start the train the loco has to pull against the braking effect of its train.  Thus in theory, certainly at the beginning, the train will only move if the loco is pulling so will therefore stop when the loco ceases to pull and as speed builds up the loco can cease to power but will have enough brake force, possibly with assistance from the brakevan, to bring the train to a stand.  As maximum speed was restricted to 10mph stopping would clearly not present a problem; would it?

 

The reality of course is rather different from the theory.  Coming down from Cwmbargoed the was officially 1 in 40 gradient for virtually all of the 3 miles to Bedlinog and then it eased to 1 in 42 for most of the next 3 miles finally a short stretch of 1 in 200 before  rising towards the junction with the Ocean Colliery line at Nelson and Llancaiach.  Coming down that lot with about 1,000 tons of train behind an EE Type 3 was inevitably subject to the force of gravity and even on a dry rail (and it was a lovely sunny day) brakes were not going to be very effective against 1,000 pushing tons.  The Driver knew me well enough to know that at times I could suffer spells of blindness and deafness so cheerfully explained that in practice it was impossible to hold the train once it got rolling, even with the brakes pinned down on every wagon.  Someone had paid the price of 'rubbing the brake' on a D68XX and had finished up with no brake blocks so the technique was to pin down the lot, give the train a gentle tug to get it moving and shut the controller and not touch the brake until we got to the bottom.  We would know that were doing alright and would stop at the bottom provided we were doing less that 40 mph as we went through the 'S bend' like curves round the site of Bedlinog station.

 

My eyes were taking in a mixture if scenery - yes, not bad once you got going down the bank - and glancing at the speedo; the needle was just below 40 as we passed Bedlinog station site and speed fell off a little as we hit the 1 in 200 then really fell away as we got into the 1 in 300 climb towards the site of Nelson and Llancaiach station and with not much need to brake hard we duly came to a halt in the right place approaching the junction ground frame.  Looking back I couldn't see past the leading wagon for the smoke of burning brake blocks.  Incline working as it really was.

 

Odd to reflect too that afternoon that 11 years previously when I had last passed through Nelson and Llancaich it was a junction station with 3 platform faces but by now it was just a turnout for the Cwmbargoed branch off the line to Ocean and Taff Merthyr and worked by ground frames.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

Short stories today,had a job at KX engine movments I had the afternoon shift, it was a busy one had a couple of specials in (rugby/football)and we were a bit short of traction, anyway 2 class 47's needed to come off the pit and go onto the slip (next road over) but in the order that were already in so my driver said to me you take the front one I'll take the back one, so he dropped his 47 down to the stops and I followed him down at about 2mph with my hand on the brake but his loco had leaked some fuel onto the track, as hard as I tried I could not stop, she picked up her wheels and CLANG, we collided 3pm Saturday afternoon all the spotters on the end of the platform having a wonderful view of the proceedings, as I pulled away three of the buffers fell off with three loud clangs and a loud cheer from the spotters, luckly my driver and the movements foreman had seen what was happening, and did'n't get into to much trouble, but the foreman teased me about being strung up on a semaphore, both 47's had to go to Finsbury Park depot for new buffers.

I had Bill Hooles fireman as a driver for a couple of days, local ECS etc and we talk about steam trains,most of the stories I can't remember but one, he said that Bill was a bit? heavy handed and that on more than one occasion he had run out of coal at Hitchin and had gone into the tender with a brush and swept it out, and with fingers crossed had just made it to KX, He was a big fellow with a very soft voice, a really nice guy.

 

manna

[The Johnster]

Bill Hoole did some driving on the Ffestiniog in it's early days; you wouldn't have had much room to spare with him in the cab on 'Prince'.  Fortunately the FR's engines are used to being thrashed...

[The Stationmaster]

G'Day Gents

 

Short stories today,had a job at KX engine movments I had the afternoon shift, it was a busy one had a couple of specials in (rugby/football)and we were a bit short of traction, anyway 2 class 47's needed to come off the pit and go onto the slip (next road over) but in the order that were already in so my driver said to me you take the front one I'll take the back one, so he dropped his 47 down to the stops and I followed him down at about 2mph with my hand on the brake but his loco had leaked some fuel onto the track, as hard as I tried I could not stop, she picked up her wheels and CLANG, we collided 3pm Saturday afternoon all the spotters on the end of the platform having a wonderful view of the proceedings, as I pulled away three of the buffers fell off with three loud clangs and a loud cheer from the spotters, luckly my driver and the movements foreman had seen what was happening, and did'n't get into to much trouble, but the foreman teased me about being strung up on a semaphore, both 47's had to go to Finsbury Park depot for new buffers.

I had Bill Hooles fireman as a driver for a couple of days, local ECS etc and we talk about steam trains,most of the stories I can't remember but one, he said that Bill was a bit? heavy handed and that on more than one occasion he had run out of coal at Hitchin and had gone into the tender with a brush and swept it out, and with fingers crossed had just made it to KX, He was a big fellow with a very soft voice, a really nice guy.

 

manna

 

An old friend of mine fired at top Shed for a number of years and Bill Hoole had something of a reputation among the Firemen as being 'rather heavy handed'.  Mind you it apparently wasn't unknown to run into the Cross with nowt but a few sweepings left in the tender on certain classes of LNER pacifics if they had worked up from as far north as Newcastle.

[31A]

Thanks to reading some of these 'tall tales', i dug out "Tales of the Glasgow & South Western Railway" by David L. Smith this afternoon.  There's some tall tales in there ... 

[sir douglas]

Welsh highland garratt 138 has the whistle from A4 Silver King in memory of Bill

 

http://www.festrail.co.uk/content/publish/news/329_printer.shtml

Edited July 9, 2017 by sir douglas

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

Kings Cross had quite a few Freightliner jobs for a large passenger depot, these are some that stick in my mind. Signed on 4am travelled out to Finsbury Pk, use to wait in a small waiting room with about 5 or 6 other crews, every so often the phone would ring and whoever picked up the phone would call out a train number, eg 4A45 etc that crew would go out onto the platform to relieve the incoming crew,you get the picture,most of the trains were for Stratford, with the odd one for Willesden, well we got to go to Willesden, but to get there you have to go onto the North London line, and the first place you can run round is Kingsland, or as we called it Dalston Junc, well we got there at about 0530, the guard use to unhook us then ride with us,to the other end of the train, after we had changed ends we started to run past our train when we all noticed something pouring off our train, it was shooting about 8 feet, onto the other track, as we got closer we could see it was coming out of a barrel, FREE BEER?????--- McEwens export, pouring all over the track, the top had blown off and hence free beer, the driver hit the brakes so quick we nearly ended up with whiplash, in seconds the teacan was empty, I only use to take cordial to work, that got dumped as well, the guard grabbed his bag and pulled out this enormous mug, and leaning out of the cab window, we filled everything we could, including ourselves, by the time we had filled everything the beer stream was starting to wane, so off we went over the points, dolly off, back onto the train, guard hooks up, brake test and away, on the way back from Willesden we had to stop three times, for a leak??? it was daylight by then??
Another night the guard told us that we were carrying a complete hospital for Western Australia, I mean everything that could be used in a hospital.
On another trip to Willesden we were stopped just outside the yard, so I got off the engine to call the signalman, seeing that it was very foggy, I did this straight away, the phone was 30 feet away and the running rails are very close, so I walked in front of our engine till I got to the phone, I then stepped into the six foot to reach the phone, which was only 18 inches high, I'm talking to the signalman when the rails started to sing, within a few seconds this electric loco and coaches, screamed past only inches away, doing what seemed like a 100mph, to me that was a bit to close.??
There was also an evening turn were you took a 47 to Stratford FLT to pick up a 'liner' and take it to Finsbury Pk were another crew would take over, well we picked up the 'liner' ok and were on our way back, when between Hackney Wick and Dalston Junc we went under a bridge when there was an almighty bang on the roof, so we stopped to investigate, some had dropped a large paving slab onto the cab roof and squashed the little round air vent flat, another evening with the same train,same bridge, we had a motorbike frame, with wheels dropped just in front of us, it jammed on the coupling hook and knocked the brake pipe handles to open, so we stopped pretty quick, it took us age's with the guards help to get it off, (luckly no damage) then we got stopped at Dalston Junc box, wanted to know why we took about 25mins to clear the section ( normally 5 mins)

 

manna

[The Blue Streak]

Ah Yes. Stories of societies bottom feeders, vandalising railway equipment and setting traps for rail traffic crews are a becoming more common I'm afraid

 

Quite often in West Australia the various shires or councils have kerbside bulk waste collections, where you can put out items that are generally too big for the bin. These items can be old furniture, fridges, TV’s etc; anyway you all get the idea!

Rail crews hate bulk rubbish time; because it gives the moronic section of the public an unlimited supply of stuff to leave on the railway line. There are 2 or 3 stretches that are notorious for such activities.

 

Some of the more troublesome items are mattresses because the wire innards cause havoc underneath. Fridges and car tyres are a problem, but TV’s and most furniture usually just disintegrate.

Some of the worst items left on the line are Gas cylinders and Fire Extinguishers, rocks and rubble and in one case a stolen car that was deliberately left on the line with its headlights on full beam to dazzle the crew.  The crew hit the emergency brake but the train still hit the car at speed and it was just destroyed. The crew and the emergency services spend some time searching through the wreckage for casualties and it wasn’t until sometime later that it was found to be a cruel and expensive act of vandalism.

 

Other nasty acts by the general public I have heard of are breeze blocks (large concrete building blocks) hung from bridges and overpasses by rope so as to be at windscreen level!!! Bottles, rocks and other lovely stuff tossed at the cab windows. I knew of at least one driver who claimed that he’s had bullets through the cab glass.

 

There’s one section of line that goes from double line to single as you near the coast and trains are often held there to wait for the section to clear. As you come to a halt you (soon learn to) keep the train stretched in order to make it more difficult for the local Yobs to pull the Auto levers thus splitting the train once you start to move off.

There have been instances where crews who have had this happen have been assaulted by a barrage of bottles and rocks when going to investigate.

 

Near misses and accidents with vehicles became so bad for a while that CBH (the grain growers co op) put together a video showing a series of incidents from on board cameras. The near misses get ever closer until the final one involving the vehicle left on track that I described above. ( It occurs at about 1.45 in the below video)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLYNHGPLX2A

Edited July 10, 2017 by The Blue Streak

[The Blue Streak]

Obviously, in the previous video, they couldn't use any footage that involved anyone being seriously hurt or worse.

Also the sound has been removed from the on board footage, probably more because of the Profanity from the crews

 

I recall watching back footage from an incident with a vehicle and although I'd kind of gone into Autopilot and followed all the procedures, I couldn't believe how much I was swearing and the level of anxiety in my voice. My memories of the event were very different to the sound recordings, for the first seconds.

 

I have to say that the Chap in Train Control who was on the radio and later the phone, was awesome. I never found out who it was, but it was his calmness that allowed Me to keep my head and get on with what I needed to do.

Edited July 10, 2017 by The Blue Streak

[The Johnster]

We had a terrible incident in the 70s on the Valleys Lines in which a kerb stone was dropped off Woodville Road Bridge on the Taff Vale main line out of Cardiff and decapitated a Treherbert guard who was riding in the cab of the 116 dmu it hit.  The Railway refused to pay work-related accident compensation to his widow as he could not be proved to have been in the cab in the course of his duties, and the NUR called a one day protest strike covering the Valleys services over it, while most of those of us not working on the Valleys that day donated our day's wages to the relief fund set up for her.  IIRC the railway agreed to pay eventually.  I recall a generous response to this fund from regular Valleys passengers as well.  The perpetrators of this were caught and served jail/borstal time, and the nearest I ever came to hitting a passenger was when one complained to me on the day of the strike that we were just a bunch of lazy b@*stards using any excuse for a day off, after asking me why his connection to Penarth wasn't running.

 

Things thrown at or dropped on to trains were all too common, and I once had a toilet come through the roof of my brake van at St Julian's, Newport; a known black spot.  Funny enough, I needed a toilet after that!  I red flagged a passing down train and we were looped at Llantarnam Junction, and Control informed.  I volunteered to take the van on if a replacement could be provided for my relief at Hereford, as it was a warm enough evening and, besides being a bit shaken up, I was unhurt bar a few scratches where bits of earthenware shrapnel had attacked me, but Control's instructions were to terminate the train in the down refuge siding at Pontypool Road, hook off, and go light engine back to Canton.  I believe Ebbw Junction men went up the following morning ebv to work it forward, a bit more action than Pontypool Road box had seen in a while!

 

Speaking of toilets, shortly after I started at Canton a new toilet block with half a dozen stalls was built at Canton Carriage Shed in the the space inside the 'Y' of two of the sets of carriage shed roads.  They had, perhaps fortunately,  not yet been plumbed in when, while I was secondmanning a loco off the shed and had a grandstand view, the centre trailer of a 116 coming on shed split the points and demolished the new brick building like sweeping crumbs off a table, leaving a cloud of brick dust and a row of shining white porcelain bowls gleaming in the morning sunshine!  That brightened our day a little.  They were rebuilt in a less exposed location...

 

And then there was the saga of the prototype HST's toilets, with apologies to the South Devon Railway's current embarrassment.  The prototype HST was a largely very successful venture, and a well thought-out and executed design, a credit to her builders, but they'd overlooked one point.  Speeds achieved hitherto on UK railways had not been so great as to render the situation in which, er, waste, yes, let's call it that, could not be simply deposited on to the four foot down a simple pipe, but on the HST, this pipe was angled to avoid depositing 'waste' on the end of the bogie and thus, at one end of the coach, pointing into a 125mph wind, which meant that pulling the flush, which opens the cap at the end of the pipe, meant that the hapless passenger 'got his own back' with a vengeance, and, apparently, ladies sometimes perform this manoeuvre in a sitting posture...

 

Modifications were very rapidly carried out, and the production mk3 design altered.

[The Blue Streak]

Back in the late 80's (just prior to the suburban network being electrified) the Perth Metro area was serviced by a fleet of mostly aging DMU's. These were mostly driven by Westrail employees who had more or less permanently transferred to the Suburbans. (Now part of Transperth)

 

However In peak periods in the Morning and afternoon, some ancient green and cream coaching stock would be pressed into service and hauled by something like a D or A class diesel Loco. These were generally crewed by a Driver and Assistant out of Forrestfield.

 

I happened to be a DA on one of these one afternoon which ran Express from Claisebrook in East Perth to Queens Park and then all stations to Armadale.

 

Anyway, upon arrival at one station I had my head out the window looking for the right of way from the Guard, when a grotty looking Bloke spat at Me as he passed the Loco.

Now I can deal with being punched, kicked or abused, but not being spat at. I cannot think of anything more disgusting.

 

Being a fair bit younger then and fairly fit, I was out of the seat in a heartbeat, out of the cab and off and running down the platform as fast as I could go, leaving the open jawed driver in my wake. Determined to give the spitter a thumping.

I chased the reprobate up the steps and caught up with him half way across the footbridge reaching out and grabbing hold of his jacket flailing behind him. However He then slipped out his jacket and put on a turn of speed which I could not match.

 

So (somewhat knackered) I returned to the train where the guard and driver were in deep discussion and attempted an explanation. The driver was somewhat miffed but luckily the presentation of a very nice Denim jacket (which by some coincidence fitted him) appeased him a little. So we resumed our journey, arriving in Armadale several minutes late and having to offer a please explain to the Stationmaster.

 

 I did some of the last diesel hauled coaching stock workings prior to the EMU's coming into service and somehow the headboard ended up on my shed wall (it's not like it was needed again)

 

Edited July 11, 2017 by The Blue Streak

[manna]

G'day Gents

 

 Palace Gates, In North London use to shunt there after the station was demolished, there was a Charringtons coal depot there, we use to pick up a 08 and a shunter at Bounds Green and shunt around in the yard to get over to Palace Gates, the platforms were still there, but the tracks were full of hopper wagons that we had to swop over with the empties, that usually took a couple of hours then it was over to the Rowntrees sidings by Wood Green tunnel mouth, that took another hour or so, but we often came away with a box of sweets, then it was back to Bounds Green for a bit more shunting, then pass back to KX, I picked up a brass door handle on the floor there once, was told it belonged to a ' Midland' grounded coach that had been burnt a couple of years before,(still have it)One day at Palace Gates, it was very cold, even with all the heaters on and the stove, we couldn't keep warm, after we'd shunted a couple of hopper wagons into place the shunter went to open the chute's on the wagons.....nothing, it was that cold that the coal had frozen solid.

Went to Holloway carriage siding one day, we got off the loco to talk to the yard foreman about something, he had this small hut in the middle of the yard, well we went in the door to be met by another door, but this door was, fantastic!! highly polished(spotless) mahogany with polished brass door handle, but, the top half of this door was glass, not any old glass, but acid etched (frosted) glass with GNR etched into the center, I could'n't believe it, I just stood there,this beautiful door was in this grubby old hut in the middle of railway yard, I've often wondered what happened to that beautiful door, when they shut the yard.???
manna

[The Johnster]

Christmas eve 1973, and I'm 2 o'clock pm spare at Canton, with a driver and secondman.  We are all expecting to be sent home early, thinking in terms of about 6 o'clock, because the railway is more or less all bedded down for the holiday by then and surely nobody's going to want us, are they,  We chill, chat, drink tea, play cards, and the dull winter afternoon slips away un-notiiced.  Then, about 5 o'clock, the phone rings, and the foreman asks for me, just me...

 

Of I trot to the booking on lobby, and he's very apologetic, but... there's a Margam driver coming down from Hereford with a train of empty acetic acid (vinegar) tanks ultimately bound for Briton Ferry, to be taken into BP Baglan Bay plant, but they're not gonna get there tonight.  The Hereford guard has to abandon ship at Cardiff to catch his last cushions home, and the train is to run to Margam Sorting via the down through road at the back of the hump, and loco to Margam shed.  How am I going to get home?  I am given the number of a well-known Cardiff taxi firm and an account number to quote, and assured that whatever time I ring it, and wherever I am, a car will come and get me, even in the small wee hours when only Santa is supposed to be about.  This particular foreman is a particularly well liked and decent chap, and I am not too bothered at having to do this job, especially as he's asked so nicely...

 

About 30 minutes later the train pulls up on the down main at Cardiff Central, the foreman having given me a lift up in his car, the Hereford guard dives off to catch his cushions, and the Margam driver motions me to join him in the front cab whee he has a brew of coffee on the go.  I phone the panel to say the train's had it's relief, the road clears, I climb aboard the 47, and we are away for a totally clear and completely uneventful run down to Margam; the driver is a friendly and chatty sort, and I'm beginning to enjoy the adventure.  The shunters have all gone home at Sorting, and all except the signal lights are out, which is very unusual and a bit eerie, so I hook the loco off and leave the load and preparation form clipped to the label holder on the front tank; i imagine the tail lamp will burn itself out over the holiday but I can live with that!  I secondman the loco onto the shed, also dark and deserted,, and the driver suggests that, in the spirit of the season, I might like to join him for a beer or two.  This sounds like a good enough idea, and well in keeping with the general conviviality of the day so far, so we get into his car and set off, for, as it turned out, the Steelworks' Staff Club which is, when we get there at about half seven, in full swing and has booked Max Boyce for the evening.  I am not allowed to put my hand in my pocket as the Margam driver, his brother who works in the Steelworks, and some other bloke who I never quite got the hang of but was clearly a mate of both of them, kept ensuring that glass after glass of xmas cheer was presented to me.  There was a stripper before Max came on, and a tolerable warm up band.  Matters passed in this very pleasant way until, unable to continue and becoming hors de combat,  I phoned my taxi, full of doubt that anyone was going to drive 30 miles to pick me up at what was now 2 am on xmas morning.  But sure enough, he turned up about 35 minutes later, and took me home; I remember little of the journey as I slept though most of it, but I got the impression that my driver was not being particularly fussy about how fast he was going; this was before the M4 was built between Newport and Port Talbot and before the introduction of the 60mph speed limit as a result of the 'fuel crisis' the following year.  

 

Sometimes, I love Karma!

Edited July 11, 2017 by The Johnster

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

Had a similar episode at Leeds when a Manchester guard blew in sick at Leeds one night, I was asked to work his train back to Man Vic, getting in at about midnight, I also asked about how I was to get back to Leeds, as I'd already done eight hours, Taxi, I was told, and so it worked out, longest Taxi ride I ever had........ Until I bought a Taxi. LOL.

 

manna

[manna]

G'Day Gents

 

Another night we had to travel passenger to Doncaster and bring a freightliner back to Finsbury Park, everything was going well, the freightliner was on time, but a very cold night but clear,she rolled in on time stopping on the up main, so we had to jump down to get to our train,as we were swopping crews the other driver said ' she's a cold un! ' we climbed up to be greeted by a class 47 with a red hot cab, we took off our coats and hung them up, got settled and gave a 'toot' the signal went green and the driver gave it some power,we soon got up to speed, but it did'n't take long to feel a cooling in the cab, By Retford we both had our coats back on, but it just kept getting colder, just before Grantham we went into fog, it just got thicker and thicker, hardly saw Peterborough, we were both sitting there hunched up hands in pockets trying to keep warm, about Huntingdon I lent forward to wipe the windscreen, on touching the glass I realise that the window was coated with ice?? I switched on the demister, within a couple of mins the window was clear and we could see for miles, there was no fog it was just our breath that got on the windows,the icy weather did the rest. when we got to New Southgate they put us on the goods road, because our relief was'n't at Finsbury Park, sat there for nearly an hour, the cab warmed up when we were standing still.
 

One of the perks of working ECS was you could often walk through the empty train and pick up books or newspapers etc that were left behind, one day my driver had checked out an over night train, he came flying back to the engine with something wrapped in newspaper, it was a monster Salmon about 4 feet long, found it under a bunk in a sleeper, next thing you know he's gone again, the Guard come's wandering up 'all ready to go are we!' 'Naw sorry mate waitin' for me driver' '' wanted to get away early today' 'He won't be long' with that I see my driver come dashing across the trunking and under the box and up onto the loco, I explained that the guard wanted to get away, soon as that signal come off we were away, we must have been in Hornsey CS in 15 mins, we had a happy guard?? Crazy thing was my driver had walked the same way To his car, again no one said a word?
Have found all sorts of things on trains, cameras, suitcase's, coats etc
Had some ECS from Moorgate one day, and had to take it to Finsbury Park CS, once there, (via Hornsey flyover) we had to push our train half way to Harringay on a siding with a pit, it was there so that a fitter could get underneath and check the brakes, a loco crew were required to put the brakes on and off, the driver said to me to go and take a walk, see you at 1200 (it was only 0930 ) so I went for a walk up the old branch to Highgate, through the tunnels, a very interesting morning.

 

manna

[The Johnster]

Worked a per way inspection special once consisting of a 37, Hawksworth brake 3rd mess coach, and the railway's new toy, a bogie bolster which had a cherry picker attached.  This ingenious device was to be used for inspecting the stonework beneath the arches of Porthkerry Viaduct, as it was jointed to be able to make this manoeuvre.  I was asked if I had tbe bottle to have a go, and was over the side off the parapet immediately (my loco crew were less keen).  One of those occasions when I really regretted not having a camera with!  Good fun.

 

Also worked the inspection saloon over the Vale of Glamorgan to Margam and back mainline propelling on one occasion, normally Ebbw Jc work as the saloon lived at Godfrey Road but for some reason it was Canton's turn that day: 37 again.   The officials stopped for lunch at Llandough down loop, a nice quiet shady spot in those days where you have a view of the boats moored on the river (you still can, but I wouldn't call it quiet or shady nowadays with the continual roar of traffic on the ugly concrete viaduct overhead.  Inspection saloons have their own dedicated stewards and well kitted out kitchens, and we had a very acceptable braised lamb's liver in a red wine jus,accompanied by colcannon potatoes, with a strawberry compote for pudding, washed down with a bottle of Mackeson each and sat at a proper dining table with a linen cloth and silverplate cutlery, the loco crew included of course.  It was a lovely day and extremely pleasant work; sometimes it was a shame to take the money, not that I ever offered to give any back...

[manna]

G'Day Gents
I've always had a soft spot for Ferme Park (Hornsey) yard, as a kid, we would often walk, or if we had a couple of pennys, take the train to Hornsey, where we would stand on the station, watching the trains go by(till we got kicked out) or went up onto the large open topped footbridge that went across a far bit of the yard, and always offered a wonderful view of said yard, we would always try and climb up and sit on the parapet, with our legs hanging over the edge (and a 25ft drop under them) waiting for a steam loco to go underneath, no wonder our knees were always dirty, from this vantage point we could see everything, we loved to see the up express's come through Wood Green and along the long straight, with the waterworks and Ally Pally in the background, then you would hear a screaming whistle behind you, just in time to turn round to see a V2 disappearing behind the station buildings for a few seconds before coming back into view only to be hidden again behind the up express, hauled by an A4, probably Lord Faringdon (again) Never did get the number of that V2?? a yard that always seemed to have a million wagons in it and was always topped up by the endless WD hauled coal trains clanking under you, Fast forward 15 years, a huge empty yard, miles of rusty track,no steamers to watch,but I worked in the area, we hauled our empty coaches through part of it, shunted loco's over the flyover, stabled engine's in Hornsey shed, but now I'd heard a couple of stories about it.
The first one go'es back to the very early days of the GNR, and before Ferme Park was built, if you look at the lay of the land you will notice that much of the yard is on an embankment and part in a cutting (Harringay end), There was just after leaving Hornsey station in the up direction a viaduct so I was told, by an old driver. I took this story with a bucket of salt, until I was reading about the New River, which runs alongside Ferme Park, that once upon a time it use to flow into a lake in Hornsey, which the GNR had built a viaduct over?? (OLD DRIVERS STORY COMING BACK TO ME) and that the river was diverted to it's present course because the railway wanted to build a marshalling yard for there coal traffic, hairs now standing up on the back of my neck!!! delving deeper into the story, there was a bit stating that the viaduct was still there, though buried, and that there was inspection plates around the area of the viaduct to allow for a visual inspection.??? 
The other story is totally different,someone had the bright idea of relabeling a whiskey wagon, now whiskey had been coming through Ferme Park for years without a problem, but a couple of shunters had thought of putting the whiskey wagon on to the cripple siding and sending on an empty wagon, which is what happened, and in there own sweet time they emptied the whiskey wagon, well, as you can imagine the receiver was a bit miffed about the empty wagon, so they called the law, who also called in Customs&Excise (all that lovely tax that was due)in around about way, they worked it out that it must be of Ferme Parks doing? so they raided the place, shut the whole yard down, they were finding whiskey everywhere, in drains, in toilet cisterns, water buts, up chimneys etc etc and slowly everything went back to normal! but there's a post script to this story, in the 70's when they were bulldozing everything to make it into a new electric depot, the contractors kept digging up bottles of 20 year old whiskey, lucky s***. 
manna

EDGWARE GN, Steam in the 

[The Blue Streak]

Another story I heard from an old Shunter, was from back in the late '60s when the Standard Gauge line finally went through from Kalgoorlie to the Perth.

 It was only Standard gauge to Northam and Dual gauge from there to the coast.

 

Many of the older yards and town sidings along the route were bypassed altogether or had new Yards and stations built. These new and improved bigger yards were generally fitted with Humps.

 

Now Hump shunting is where the coupler is opened or chopper lifted at a point in the rake of wagons and the wagons are propelled to the hump with no air or vacuum through, strings pulled and "kicked off", the wagon or wagons then shoots down the other side of the hump and various members of the shunting crew stand at the points and the wagons go down the desired road until the last man pulls the wagon up on the handbrake when in the right road and in its rightful spot , usually being slowed enough to couple up to wagons in the road already.

It's pretty much banned outright nowadays, but back in the day a good crew could split up a decent sized train into various roads for different destinations in very rapid time.

 

So - this new Yard comes into service with a nice hump and is to be officially opened by our old mate "The Commissioner of Railways" (Yes the very same bloke from our first story who got on the turps with some Drivers and went on a unscheduled joyride when his coach took off).

 

In the days leading up to the official opening the shunt crew practiced and practiced on the hump, in order that they could put on a fine display for the Commissioner. The Junior Driver in the shunter, got the speed at "kick off" just right, in order to be quite speedy but slow enough to allow the last man to  pull the wagons up on the handbrake,(which was more like a lever you could drop and then jump on).

 

Anyway the big day for the grand opening arrived, but the young driver who'd done all the practice was taken off the duty at the last minute, in order that a more senior driver should take part in this auspicious occasion !!!

 

The Commissioner,other dignitaries, senior railway staff and every man and his dog was there and the ribbon cut. After which time every body took a seat to watch the Hump Shunt display and be amazed by the speed at which a train could be disassembled.

 

So the Driver began to propel the rake to the hump, but not having been involved in the practice sessions was going far too quickly when he hit the independent brake, the shunt crew got it down the right road OK, but there was no way that it was going to be slowed down enough and the last man got well clear and had to watch helplessly as the wagons ploughed into a rake already parked in the road and literally blew apart turning at least 3 wagons into a pile of twisted metal and matchwood.

 

There was much finger pointing and "discussion" between the driver, head shunter, yard master and senior staff. But the Commissioner himself seemed not to bat so much as an eyelid (at least in front of the assembled group), grunted that it was all very impressive but obviously needed some fine tuning and that perhaps it was time for "drinks".

 

Edit to add pictures of similiar wagons to those in the story

Edited July 13, 2017 by The Blue Streak