Confessions of a Canton goods guard

[The Pilotman]

Could those wishing to continue the parents vs teachers vs youth of today discussion perhaps go and do so behind the bike sheds please. 😉

[The Johnster]

Turns, some interesting, some unpleasant, some 'shame to take the money' though I never gave any back...

 

7M49, the 03.15 Cardiff Long Dyke-Carlisle, Canal IIRC.  Single-manned 47, me secondmanning off the shed, prep train & brake van, work to Hereford for relief, 'orders' (mostly cushions) home.  Typical class 7, vacuum fitted alsorts at the front and a raft of unfitted 16ton minerals down at my end.  I liked this job, didn't think much of the hours, but it was 'proper' railway work where you felt you were contributing something.  The Hereford road, the Newport, Abergavenny, and Hereford, was considered our 'toughest', and was certainly the most lumpy, and once you'd passed Pontypool Road you were out in the boonies, and it could be blacker than the inside of a cow on cloudy nights or if there was mist hanging in the dips.  Van brake would be needed from Pontypool Rd down to Little Mill, where you would be doing well to completely eliminate the snatch at the bottom no matter how good your driver was, again from the summit at Penllerpenni down to Nant-y-Derry, then Hendre (Llanover) down to Penpergwm river bridge over the Usk.  The owner of the ex-station house at Penpergwm left the light on in his front room, for which we were all grateful on misty dark nights! 

 

Then the big one, Llanvihangel, the Laughing Angel.  You might be put in the loop at Abergavenny but this was basically a contest between 2,650hp of Sulzer and whatever the train weighed, usually over 1,000tons including the 47.  Within the limit for the bank, but speed would fall steadily north of Abergavenny Jc (which wasn't there) and you'd be down to about 15-20mph at the summit.  You could find this in the dark because the refuge siding formation for the banker in steam days was still there, track lifted, but it had a stone retaining wall that reflected the noise of your train; audio navigation.  Brake down to Pandy, and I liked to rub it to keep couplings tight between there and Pontrilas (Philou's layout) but you had to be careful doing this or the shoes would overheat; there were all sorts of small summits between the bridges over the Monnow.  Keep a lookout for Pontrilas distant, if it's on you're going in the loop and deffo rub the brake through the tunnel if it's on.  Plain sailing through Tram Inn (the formation of the Abergavenny and Hereford tramroad is visible paralling the N,A,&H up Llanvihangel bank, with it's formation being used north of it to  and the pub is named for it).  The drop into Hereford starts in a cutting with an overbridge that has no name that I know of, but again the accoustics provided a navigational aid; brake on here.  Next overbridge was a 3-arch red brick viaduct just after Redhill Jc, the formation of the goods avoiding line being plainly visible in daylight (the sun would be up in high summer by now). 

 

Driver should have killed some of the speed by the time you cross the Wye and there is a slight rise to Aylestone Hill and the station, past the hospital and the nurses' flats on the left; these could be interesting on sunny summer afternoons when the girls sunbathed on the roofs or in the grounds.  Report to the TC foreman for orders, sometimes a back working but I can't remember ever getting one to anywhere in Cardiff; Severn Tunnel or Llanwern were more common.  This was because goods trains from the north, especially any part-fitted running over the Settle & Carlisle or the 'Little North Western' (such traffic was banned from the WCML over Shap at this time because the catch points had been removed) were prone to serious delays north of Crewe and their Hereford booked crews would be pinched for something else.

 

Mostly it was the cushions on the first Crewe-Cardiff of the day, off Hereford about 08.30 IIRC, 120s with a 122 Bubble Car for extra power.  This was locked off to passengers, but used by traincrew, who appreciated the ability to move seating cushions around to form beds, card school tables, or breakfast tables. 

 

Card schools brings me to the subject of Black Twos. I have only ever encountered this game on the railway, where it was the most universally played, though Crib was also a feature.  It was, IIRC, as sort of Gin, the object being to be 'out'.  Needed 4 hands, 7 cards each, the black twos counting as any card you liked.  If you were caught with a black 2 in your hand when someone called 'out', you paid double, and quadruple if you had both of them.  We played for a penny a point, using matches as tokens, no credit, and I have seen drivers brawling in the mud outside the messroom at Gloucester over 20p...  It was noisy and devisive, particularly if men from different depots were playing, but it passed the time well enough.  On one occasion, four Canton men at Hereford were so into their game that they continued it in the back cab of a 37 on the empty Albion-Waterston tanks, using panels taken off the rear bulkhead as a table and seats pinched from Hereford messroom, while your intrepid reporter drove the train, effectively flying solo, and at night in the rain.  I did ok.

 

More turns later...

Edited April 20, 2023 by The Johnster

[5BarVT]

Didn’t know the derivation of Tram Inn before.  Thank you.

Paul.

[Gopher]

48 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

Didn’t know the derivation of Tram Inn before.  Thank you.

Paul.

The pub is now closed, but the signal box is still there, semaphores now replaced by colour light signals

[Philou]

Here we are chaps and chapesses,

 

The route plan between Newport and Hereford - sorry - no pictures of nurses though.

 

Johnster on the brakes.pdf

 

Cheers,

 

Philip

[The Johnster]

There was a loop on the down (Newportwards) road at Tram Inn, and one would not infrequently find the searchlight  distant on with freight trains even if you weren’t ‘going inside’, as the signalman could set this signal to be ‘approach lit’, meaning the approaching train would close a track circuit from (IIRC) 400 yards out (I’m sure stationmaster Mike will put us right if I’ve misremembered) which would clear the signal, right away Pontrilas…

 

Loops on the Hereford Road were provided at Llantarnam Jc on the down, Abergavenny on the down, Pontrilas in both directions, and Tram Inn on the up. Refuge sidings were available at Abergavenny on the up though I never saw them used, and in both directions at Pontypool Road, with a rather odd arrangement, a hangover from the days  only a few years before when this had been a major junction (at this time the only other remnant of the previous complexity was a single track curving away to the west, accessing the steelworks and the Blaenavon (period spelling) branch from Llantarnam Jc).   You accessed these refuge sidings through facing points off the up and down mains, so you had to run in to the ‘other’ refuge and set back into your own, but could exit the siding direct on to your own road.  This caught out one or two of my colleagues who’d signed the road and shouldn’t have…

 

Another point of interest on the Hereford Road was St.Devereux station, between Pontrilas and Tram Inn.  Actually, not that interesting in my day, when closed stations with the platforms torn up and the station building sold off as a private dwelling with noisy neighbours were ten-a-penny, but ine was regaled with tales of the staff here, who farmed trout in the water tank, long before it was commercially popular elsewhere.  You could buy them, live in a bucket (shades of Aberthaw CEGB), and there were apparently drivers who refused to take water from the columns here in case a fish got stuck in an injector.  Not sure that this ever happened…

[5BarVT]

Obviously must have had Thomas the Tank Engine stories read to them as youngsters!

Paul.

[franciswilliamwebb]

31 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

there were apparently drivers who refused to take water from the columns here in case a fish got stuck in an injector.  Not sure that this ever happened…

 

Well I don't think it was ever an excuse in Reggie Perrin...

[pH]

43 minutes ago, The Johnster said:

… there were apparently drivers who refused to take water from the columns here in case a fish got stuck in an injector.  Not sure that this ever happened…

 

26 minutes ago, 5BarVT said:

Obviously must have had Thomas the Tank Engine stories read to them as youngsters!

Paul.

DL Smith in “Tales of the Glasgow and South Western Railway” says:

 

”Fish of various sorts were quite common in tender tanks. Drivers used to say that they ate up vegetable matter and so kept the sieves clean.”

 

That also implies that fish wouldn’t get past the sieves and into injectors.

[iands]

There is a paragraph in the March 1930 LNER Magazine about workers finding a trout swimming round in the tender of No. 657 (Q5 0-8-0) at Stooperdale boiler shops. Also a photo of said trout once it had been caught. 15oz and 13 & 3/4 inches long apparently.

[uax6]

9 hours ago, The Johnster said:

There was a loop on the down (Newportwards) road at Tram Inn, and one would not infrequently find the searchlight  distant on with freight trains even if you weren’t ‘going inside’, as the signalman could set this signal to be ‘approach lit’, meaning the approaching train would close a track circuit from (IIRC) 400 yards out (I’m sure stationmaster Mike will put us right if I’ve misremembered) which would clear the signal, right away Pontrilas…

 

 

Careful here sir...

Searchlights could be approach lit AND approach controlled, two subtly different things..

 

Approach lit searchlights were ones that didn't normally display an aspect, an approaching train operating a track circuit approx 1-2 miles on the approach to the signal would turn on the lamp, and the signal would display until the complete train had past it. A very neat way of getting long life out of dry cells in the days before mains electricity was commonplace. Here at Littleport our up distant in the '50's was an approach lit searchlight.

 

Approach controlled on the other hand means that the signalman could set the route for a diverging junction, but to ensure that the train slowed down for that diverging route, the signal wouldn't actually clear until it occupied a track circuit a suitable distance from the signal to ensure that the train had slowed down.

 

Mind you, these days now that the are no searchlights left in the national network (How sad, lovely things!) the phrase approach lit is now used to mean approach controlled too.

 

Andy G

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by uax6

[ianathompson]

28 minutes ago, uax6 said:

Mind you, these days now that the are no searchlights left in the national network

 

Are you sure about that, Andy?

I thought that the crossing signal at Lynn (Tennyson Avenue) had been converted to one before I retired.

 

They use LEDs however and are not traditional searchlights with the vane inside them.

Does this mean that they are something other than searchlights?

 

Ian T

[uax6]

5 minutes ago, ianathompson said:

 

Are you sure about that, Andy?

I thought that the crossing signal at Lynn (Tennyson Avenue) had been converted to one before I retired.

 

They use LEDs however and are not traditional searchlights with the vane inside them.

Does this mean that they are something other than searchlights?

 

Ian T

 

Real searchlights are electro-mechanical with a single lamp and a moving vane inside. Infact they have a highly sophisticated optical arrangement. A single lamp sits in a parabolic reflector (about 3" in diameter), that focuses the light into a beam that passes through the vane (the lenses in which are approx 1" in diameter) and then out to the 5" or so outer lens of the mechanism. The beam then passes through the outer 8" lens of the casing in a straight parallel beam.

 The modern LED heads with a single lens are single aperture heads, and not a searchlight in any way, as the optical arrangement is completely different.

The last Searchlights were the SGE  ones at Clacton.  I'm luck enough to have a Westinghouse one in my garden (which I re-lamped today as it had gone out!)

 

Andy G

Edited April 21, 2023 by uax6

[ianathompson]

Thanks for the explanation.

 

Tommo.

[Michael Hodgson]

The term searchlight only strictly applies to the electro-mechanical jobs, but the LED versions with a single lens (two lenses if double yellow can be shown) are sometimes casually referred to as searchlights to distinguish their style from the multi-lamps we have been more accustomed to until Fibre optic and LED technology came along.

 

As mentioned above the vane mechanism has three coloured lenses; it is effectively a three-position relay.  The red lens is central and the vane fails safe to that positon under gravity.  A positive or negative voltage to the mech moves the yellow or green lens to be in front of the lamp.  One consequence of this is that when the signal steps up  from Y to G because the following signal has advanced from R to Y, the signal has to pass briefly through the central red aspect.  This doesn't apply of course to the modern LED signals.

 

The word Approach in signalling descriptions comes up in quite different contexts and can be a cause of confusion.

 

Approach-lit signals are dark unless there's a train coming; they tended to be used to save batteries in very rural locations where there was no mains electricity supply to the box.  This isn't a problem these days, which is why they are obsolete.

 

Approach Release is quite common.  It means the control circuitry forces a train to reduce speed has before the signal to a diverging lower speed route can be cleared.  The signal may be Approach Released from Red or Approach Released from Yellow depending on the severity of the speed restriction.   The signal only clears when the train is sufficiently close, so signals in rear of that must have been showing caution and the driver is expecting a stop.   It is used to enforce the speed restriction for a diverging route of slower speed.  It would be incorrect to call these Approach lit as the track circuits in rear of the signal are used differently.

 

Approach Locking is very widespread and  is used to prevent the signalman from changing the route at points where an approaching train may have seen a clear signal.  It involves allowing a timer to run after putting the junction signal back to danger before allowing the points to be moved.  Once the timer (typically a couple of minutes)  had finished, any train which might have been approaching would either have seen and stopped short of the red signal or have already reached the signal in which case it is protected by other circutiry.

[uax6]

Of course not all searchlights could actually show three different aspects.....

If used as a distant signal in semaphore areas (like the approach lit one at Littleport) the vane would carry yellow-red-yellow lenses. If used as a normal signal in non MAS areas the vane would carry green-red-green lenses.

 

Why? Well being electro-magnetic, and working over just two wires, the aspect shown depended on which way round the control wires were terminated on the mechanism. With the positive connection on one side, the vane would move in one direction, with the same connection on the other side, the vane would swing the other way. Therefore for safety in a two aspect signal, only the two aspects to be shown would be provided, so if the wires were reversed it wouldn't matter. BUT the wires shouldn't be miss-connected, as they should go back in the same place as they came off, and the signal would be tested to prove it showed the correct aspect after mechanism exchange (Think about the issues that could arise on three aspect ones if this wasn't the case!).

 

Heres some videos of the 'normal' three aspect DC Westinghouse mech from my signal. The operation of which just needed a voltage of 6v to make the vane move. I wired it to a normal controller and swung it by changing the direction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQiL-mcvQtk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Qf424IiGU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jEvnfGelG0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_89clrWEZuw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tie-TPqEEk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aVlLdDbBIY

 

Then of course you got AC operated mechanisms (these were provided in DC electrified areas to prevent interference). These had a permanent 110v AC on the mechanism (I used a normal 110v site transformer to provide this) and then you swing the vane with another low voltage AC supply, in this case I used the aux supply off a Hornby controller. Again reversing this lower voltage supply swung the vane over the other direction (you can see me changing the wires over in the reflection from the lens):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZP4UNGvrjM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMrCkOG8cLw

 

Notice how you will get a flash of red as the signal steps up, perfectly normal with these beasts!

 

Andy G

 

 

Edited April 22, 2023 by uax6

[Northroader]

There was a loop if you were heading north at Pandy. “Up” and “down” on the North to West could lead to trouble, as the lines changed their designation over at Hereford Barr’s Court.

It sticks in my mind because of a derailment there, a northbound train of engineers flats went into the loop and kept going, the 47 going through the stop blocks and the flats piling up behind like a pack of playing cards. It seems that they had been assumed to be vac brake fitted, the end through pipes being very discoloured. Anyhow, several weekend occupations followed on clearing up. The main road runs parallel with the track here, just a fields width away, with a sort of ribbon development for the village running along it, and two pubs mixed in. I popped into one of the pubs for refreshment, as you do, and when I got back on site, the old perway ganger, a wizened old local, was very interested which pub I’d been in. I told him, and he seemed very happy with my choice, why? Well, the other place had a bit of a reputation as a Sodom and Gomorrah, according to him. Needless, to say, I marked it down for a visit, but never did manage it. I fancy that derailment caused the loop to be taken out of service, the goods sidings over the other side on the signalling plan had been taken out several years earlier.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Northroader

[5BarVT]

17 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Approach-lit signals are dark unless there's a train coming; they tended to be used to save batteries in very rural locations where there was no mains electricity supply to the box.  This isn't a problem these days, which is why they are obsolete.

Or where you didn’t want a red aspect showing when there wasn’t a train there.  ScR highland main line loops and a few others e.g. Craigendoran have approach lit signals.  Although no longer ‘approved’ we obtained permission to put them in on the Larkhall extension (and I think somewhere since that I can’t remember) so that trains not using the loop don’t have to pass an isolated red signal without a friend on the through line and get frightened by it.

Paul.

[Stoke West]

18 hours ago, Michael Hodgson said:

The term searchlight only strictly applies to the electro-mechanical jobs, but the LED versions with a single lens (two lenses if double yellow can be shown) are sometimes casually referred to as searchlights to distinguish their style from the multi-lamps we have been more accustomed to until Fibre optic and LED technology came along.

 

As mentioned above the vane mechanism has three coloured lenses; it is effectively a three-position relay.  The red lens is central and the vane fails safe to that positon under gravity.  A positive or negative voltage to the mech moves the yellow or green lens to be in front of the lamp.  One consequence of this is that when the signal steps up  from Y to G because the following signal has advanced from R to Y, the signal has to pass briefly through the central red aspect.  This doesn't apply of course to the modern LED signals.

 

The word Approach in signalling descriptions comes up in quite different contexts and can be a cause of confusion.

 

Approach-lit signals are dark unless there's a train coming; they tended to be used to save batteries in very rural locations where there was no mains electricity supply to the box.  This isn't a problem these days, which is why they are obsolete.

 

Approach Release is quite common.  It means the control circuitry forces a train to reduce speed has before the signal to a diverging lower speed route can be cleared.  The signal may be Approach Released from Red or Approach Released from Yellow depending on the severity of the speed restriction.   The signal only clears when the train is sufficiently close, so signals in rear of that must have been showing caution and the driver is expecting a stop.   It is used to enforce the speed restriction for a diverging route of slower speed.  It would be incorrect to call these Approach lit as the track circuits in rear of the signal are used differently.

 

Approach Locking is very widespread and  is used to prevent the signalman from changing the route at points where an approaching train may have seen a clear signal.  It involves allowing a timer to run after putting the junction signal back to danger before allowing the points to be moved.  Once the timer (typically a couple of minutes)  had finished, any train which might have been approaching would either have seen and stopped short of the red signal or have already reached the signal in which case it is protected by other circutiry.

Gloucester 121 is an approach lit signal stands at the end of Haresfield loop , because Up Charfield 98 is immediately after it and is only lit when the road is set into or a train is standing in the loop

[5BarVT]

11 minutes ago, Stoke West said:

Gloucester 121 is an approach lit signal stands at the end of Haresfield loop , because Up Charfield 98 is immediately after it and is only lit when the road is set into or a train is standing in the loop

Is that the one that’s up on an embankment?

If so, it wasn’t always approach lit and back in the days before embankments were tree lined you could see G121, UC98 and (I think) G21 the junction signal for the loop all at the same time.  So at night, as the line curved back and forth, a driver saw a red and two greens dancing about GGR, GRG, RGG etc.  Think it was early 80s when the approach lighting was added after (legitimate) driver complaints.

Paul.

[Stoke West]

3 hours ago, 5BarVT said:

Is that the one that’s up on an embankment?

If so, it wasn’t always approach lit and back in the days before embankments were tree lined you could see G121, UC98 and (I think) G21 the junction signal for the loop all at the same time.  So at night, as the line curved back and forth, a driver saw a red and two greens dancing about GGR, GRG, RGG etc.  Think it was early 80s when the approach lighting was added after (legitimate) driver complaints.

Paul.

Correct  if G121 was  lit , it would show a red infront of what ever UC98 was showing

[The Johnster]

13 hours ago, Northroader said:

There was a loop if you were heading north at Pandy. “Up” and “down” on the North to West could lead to trouble, as the lines changed their designation over at Hereford Barr’s Court.

It sticks in my mind because of a derailment there, a northbound train of engineers flats went into the loop and kept going, the 47 going through the stop blocks and the flats piling up behind like a pack of playing cards. It seems that they had been assumed to be vac brake fitted, the end through pipes being very discoloured. Anyhow, several weekend occupations followed on clearing up. The main road runs parallel with the track here, just a fields width away, with a sort of ribbon development for the village running along it, and two pubs mixed in. I popped into one of the pubs for refreshment, as you do, and when I got back on site, the old perway ganger, a wizened old local, was very interested which pub I’d been in. I told him, and he seemed very happy with my choice, why? Well, the other place had a bit of a reputation as a Sodom and Gomorrah, according to him. Needless, to say, I marked it down for a visit, but never did manage it. I fancy that derailment caused the loop to be taken out of service, the goods sidings over the other side on the signalling plan had been taken out several years earlier.

 

There was nothing left by 1971, just a block post, but I was aware that there had been a loop and small yard as well as the station at one time.  Never saw a plan of it, though, and this is most interesting; tx Northroader!

 

In my very early days, not long after being passed out from the guards' school and on one of my first runs up to Hereford, the driver asked me how many wagons were allowed in the loop at Pandy as a sort of test question to prove my competence (not all of the new guards in those days could have been relied upon to be able to answer this tbh).  I replied that he could have as many as he wanted so long as they were in a heap down the bank in the caravan field, which satisfied him well enough...

[The Johnster]

Characters

 

We've already run into a few of these, so maybe some more would while away a Sunday evening...

 

'Overcoat Joe'

 

Ron Backhouse, old hand driver and all round good bloke.  He'd not quite got the hang of deisels, though, turning up for work in all weathers including on hot sunny days in a massive cloth overcoat, scarf, cloth cap, and motorbike goggles so he could Casey Jones it out of the cab window; 'fresh air never hurt anyone (yeah, right, tell that to Captain Scott) and I can see the signals better like this'.  Of course, not that he ever admitted it, but in his mind's eye he was in charge of a Castle or at least a 56xx...  So you'd be in the cab with him on some freezing night, rocking along nicely at 90mph on a Hymek with the Peterborough Parcels, your own coat on and the collar pulled up, borderline hypothermic with the heating full on... 

 

Then again, it was the other story in the hot summer of '76, he's still wrapped up to the nines, but you've got all the windows open and the doors wedged back to get a bit of a draught on the engine.  That apart, a lovely man, funny, generous, interesting, and a joy to work with.  He was a supreme handler of locomotives, and a safe pair of hands with a brake van, and one of the beer brigade.

 

The coat was something of a mystery, in that nobody ever saw him not wearing it fully buttoned up.  There was a head sticking out of the top, and boots at the bottom, and occasionally a hand would venture forth from a cavernous sleeve, but no neck or any other part of Ron was ever visible (think Smiffy from the Bash Street Kids, only grown up) and the existence of any such parts was assumed rather than a given.  There may have been nobody inside there, or there may have been a whole tribe of them taking it in turns.  The material was questionable as well; he stated it to be warm, comfortable, and waterproof, but what it actually was was not objectively determinable.   You couldn't really see where it finished and the rest of the world started, and rumour was that it was actually many miles thick but extended into another dimension.  Nobody really knew what colour it was, either, except that it wasn't a very colourful colour.  It was dark, but you couldn't be much more precise about it than that.  It might have been dirty and oil-stained, which would have been good waterproofing, but, then again...  It was said that the rain got a few hundred yards in and then just sort of gave up with terminal existential issues and clinical depression.

 

It was an excellent device for him to sleep in, cushioning him from all sorts of odd-shaped hard seats that he'd settled into in various messrooms to 'rest his eyes'; again, the coat sort of morphed into corners and the physical world lost interest.  There were pan-dimensional pockets at indeterminate locations (you couldn't see the openings, but whenever he put his hand in one it was there) from which sandwiches, pies, chocolate, teamakings, and small bottles of rum (to hepl keep the cold out) would be fished from who-knew-where in the space/time continuum

 

We've discussed alcohol on duty, it was a different time and a different culture, though the writing was on the wall, and what would happen was that you'd be in the cab, or walking to the office to get orders after being relieved, with a driver and he'd say something along the lines of 'do you ever go for a beer sometimes, do you llke an occasional quiet pint?'.  The answer was that, actually, I was very fond of a quiet pint and not averse to a few noisy ones either now you come to mention it, and you'd be off up the pub.  One or two tops if you were working back, and not caning it if you were travelling on the cushions, after all you were in uniform and overtly flagrant behaviour gets noticed by passengers.  This was one of the real joys of the job, beer and company, massive fun. 

 

Another in the Ron Backhouse mould was Arthur Deare.  He'd shut the cab window and take his jacket off at least, but very much an old-school railwayman.  He looked absolutely terrifying, a large and muscular gentleman whom nature had battered in the face leaving him with a murderously grim countenance and the impression that he'd enjoy a bit of carnage.  He'd have been at home in one of those big medieval battles, hacking and slaying in the mud with a lopsided grin from ear to there, up to his fetlocks in gore and body parts.  In fact, Arthur was a true gentleman in every sense of the word, a rough diamond, but absolutely a diamond.  One would be travelling home with him on the cushions, and he'd clock some little old lady flinching a little at the horrifying sight of him, and apparently ignore it.  Few minutes later, he'd have offered her a cup of tea and one of his sandwiches and be getting on famously, giving gardening tips or showing her photos of his grandchildren.  It was sort of magic, and brilliant spectator sport.

 

Harry Hitchens, 'Arry 'Itchins', another rather abrupt and apparently aggressive type, short, wiry, loud, and fast, but another pussycat and a gentleman.  Bit of a gambler, Black 2s in work and the geegees, and if he'd disappeared in office hours he was down at the bookies.  Ran to booked time, and hated having any time lost down to his ticket.  If he ran late, he made up time exactly to the recovery times allowed, no more no less, matter of pride, apropos which he was always immaculately turned out, collar and tie, and a fresh buttonhole, even if he was just working a coal train.  Sadly killed shortly after I left the job, on a 46 working the 08.35 Cardiff-Newcastle, which collided with a skip lorry on a farm crossing between Bullo Pill and Awre Jc.  He'd stuck to his post, typical of him to try to get the best braking possible and warn those in the train as best he could before the impact, not hidden in the engine room.

 

I can't say this without it sounding trite and mawkish, but it is a simple truth that it was both a privilege, an honour, and a pleasure to know and work with people like these, and others we will meet in due course.  The taught me a lot, not just about the job, but about being the most decent human being you can be as well, and I owe them an immense debt.  They really don't make 'em like that any more!

 

     

[The Johnster]

The Calvert Bricks

 

Midday book on, loco off shed over to Canton Sidings, Hymek until they were withdrawn then a 37, single manned.  The wagons, vacuum fitted 'pipe' opens, were empty but had worked in overnight with brick; the London Brick Company used Canton Sidings as their road distribution depot for South Wales, the bricks being manufactured at Calvert, North Oxfordshire, on a stub of the GCR.  Prep train, perform brake continuity, light tail lamp and put it on the rear wagon lamp bracket, ring for the road.  Exit from Canton Sidings was by No.1 goods, a long permissive block loop running from Leckwith Road bridge to Cardiff East.  The train ran at 50mph, and picked up more traffic at Bristol Lawrence Hill yard.

 

The shunting was interesting here, as the train moved into the yard onto the through siding that led on to the Midland formation and ultimately through to Temple Meads, while the 03 pilot attached the remainder of the train to the rear.  This included a vacuum-piped brake van, used because the final part of the train's journey required it to be propelled along some three miles of the GC formation into Calvert Brickworks.  This made it my only regular fully fitted brake van job.  With the train now complete and the van attached in rear, the next move was to propel back out of Lawrence Hill wrong road until the loco cleared the dummy that would enable it to cross to the Down Filton Main.  With 50 Tubes equal to 60 SLU for length, the van would be not far off the U Filton Relief platform at Stapleton Road when the train came to a stand. 

 

The line here is on a gentle right hand curve, and the length of the train meant that it was impossible to exchange the 'tip' with the driver until the van was approaching the up GWML from Doctor Day's at Bristol East Depot, a mile or so away.  For this reason the Lawrence Hill shunters would observe that we were on the van and inform the driver as he set back out of the yard.  We were relieved at Swindon by an Oxford crew (who took the train the rest of the way), and came home on the cushions.  I liked this job, it was easy, one kept one's hands clean, and there was plenty of interest in it. 

 

On one very pleasant summer afternoon in 1974, we were passed at Chippenham by the APT-E gas turbine set, which looked a bit like the recorder I'd played at school but bigger and coming at me at more than 100mph...  Two days later in the same week, I was sitting on a barrow on Swindon platform with my driver and another Canton traincrew partaking of tea and enjoying the sunshine while we were waiting for our cushions, when an odd shape with bright headlights showed up through the haze on the Down Main, screamed through the station at 125mph or so, and then gave another scream as it departed westwards, leaving a cloud of settling dust behind it.  I have never seen a train moving like that before, none of us had; it was of course the prototype HST running trials on the WR.  It was an impressive display, best I'd seen since a Merchant Navy at 'about' 25mph less ripping through Eastleigh seven years earlier. 

 

We sat in stunned silence for a few seconds, and then the other Canton driver, character called Jack Setherton, commented 'well, they'll be home in time for tea at that rate', which I thought was a brilliant response. 

 

This job was in the second-to-bottom link, as I'd moved up one in late 1972.  This extended my route knowledge to include Danygraig Freigthliner, Didcot, Worcester Shrub Hill via Gloucester or Hereford, Highbridge, and Carmarthen.  In time I also signed Birmingham NS and Reading.

 

The Danygraig was to allow working of the Edinburgh-Danygraig FLT from Pengam, usually a 52, and a feature of the job was that one usually had to wait a little while to be accepted into Danygraig Freightliner.  One of my colleagues, Bob Jeffreys, was working this train when it was robbed of a couple of aluminium ingots (worth about £60,000 each in those days) while waiting for the calling-on signal into Danygraig Freightliner.  He was unable to do much about the situation; the area is rough scrub and wasteland with plenty of cover, and the miscreants had turned up mob-handed with a large container-capable forklift truck, and simply undone the locking catches and helped themselves; the ingots were towards the rear of the train and out of sight from the loco.  One had to admire the cheek of it!  They dumped the first ingot in the scrub and calmly went back for the second, disabling the train by opening the red brake cock on the rear wagon so somebody had basic railway knowledge.  They then considerately closed the cock (we think they were hoping that the traincrew would not notice the theft at all, but Bob had spotted the brake dial on the loco and seen the top of the forklift), and retired to the bushes to load the ingots onto a couple of pre-arranged artics and drove the forklift back to wherever they'd borrowed it from!  Took about three minutes.

 

There was another Freightliner robbery story, but I couldn't verify the truth of it; the Royal Mint at Llantrisant used to send out containers of new coins for circulation, by road to Pengam where they were loaded onto trains.  One of these containers (they were ordinary containers in Freightliner livery, hiding in plain sight) full of £2million worth of 50p coins allegedly went walkabout from the Pengam-Stratford train while it was somewhere on the North London section; somebody had a pretty greedy gas meter to feed... 

 

This sort of stuff was kept out of the media as BR did not want customers being aware of how poor security was.  A similar thing was rumoured to happen in Royal Mail; apparently Hatton Garden and Birmingham jewellers were (and possibly still are) in the habit of posting any items that they have to deal with on Friday afternoons after the vaults are sealed for the weekend as registered mail for delivery to their own address on Monday.  This can easily be collectively several hundred million high-value items in the mail over a weekend, and some of it goes missing.  It is cheaper for the jewellers to pay the very high postage than it is for them to pay for temporary secure storage of the sort that would be required, and Royal Mail finds it profitable overall despite having to recompense the customer for any losses.  We live in a wicked old world...

[Rivercider]

Although the brick traffic had finished before I started work in the Bristol Area Freight Centre in 1978 Lawrence Hill Yard in Bristol was still busy. The brick siding was taken over by Ketton Cement traffic in about 1980 when they transferred their Bristol area depot to there from Portishead (where they had been the last regular freight customer.

I have a few photos which should help to explain the geography of Lawrence Hill.

 

A general view of Lawrence Hill Yard, taken from the Midland Railway bridge that spanned the north end of the yard. The brick siding with tarmaced hard standing can be seen on the middle right, the cement silo belonged to Ketton cement. The siding curving to the right is the one that connected to the former Midland Route into Bristol. 28/9/83

 

 

Lawrence Hill yard pilot 08949 is on the siding that connected the yard with the former Midland route, it will propel the 18 molasses tanks from Kings Lynn down to Distillers Co. depot at Avonside wharf, for this reason there is another  brake van at the other end on which the shunters will ride. Bristol area trip loco 47104 stands on the brick siding 28/9/83.

 

The Lawrence Hill pilot duty had been a class  03 until 1980, thereafter a class 08 was cleared to shunt at AVonside Wharf. Here is 03382 locally known as Noddy, (03121  was the other regular loco). The black girder bridge at the north end of the station formerly carried the Midland Railway into Bristol from the north,  6/5/80

 

Looking north off the Midland Railway bridge towards Stapleton Road. The connection from Lawrence Hill Yard can be seen above 31273 which has just arrived with a special working from Taunton East Yard to Lawrence Hill with empty cement presflos which are returning to Aberthaw and will be attached to the afternoon service for Severn Tunnel Junction, 22//4/81,

 

cheers

Edited May 4, 2023 by Rivercider
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