DavidB-AU Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PZtZ0cCJU8 If we examine the film more carefully we see a really worrying thing. They aren't wearing high visibility jackets! Ah, the days before 'elf and safety went mad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linesman Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Fascinating stuff David. A good reminder that sleepers were often cut short or oddly spaced to accommodate obstacles near the trackbed. What on Earth is that accent the narrator has? I've never heard anything like it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
signalmaintainer Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 Fascinating stuff. And all accomplished without GPS, hard hats, gloves, eye protection and other PPE. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisf Posted March 8, 2011 Share Posted March 8, 2011 This one is also available to buy. It's on volume 3 of the BFI set of British Transport Films, "Running a Railway". Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold john new Posted March 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2011 Ah, the days before 'elf and safety went mad plus And all accomplished without GPS, hard hats, gloves, eye protection and other PPE Everyone is entitled to their own opinions on this but in our family my great-grandfather and both my grandfathers suffered from significant industrial injuries and ill health as a result of working in appalling conditions before the H&S Act was conceived. Result is I'm getting somewhat fed up with reading these flippant remarks about elf & safety. Whilst concurring that because the lawyers have created a blame culture H&S is often ridiculously over applied today we shouldn't forget that it was because workers got badly injured, contracted series illnesses just from going to work and deaths were common that this formal legislation had to be introduced in the first place. To see what our working conditions would revert to without H&S watch the repeat of the recent IRT series where they went to India! I would rather have a culture where we can keep a sensible attitude to site safety but do something to curb the lawyers ability to screw money out of ambulance chasing than return to the former cavalier attitude to injury and death. Unfortunately as it is lawyers that write the laws they are unlikely to regulate themselves and too many politicians are also lawyers. Later edit - Sorry if the above reads as a rant but I think it did need stating. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted March 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2011 Fascinating stuff David. A good reminder that sleepers were often cut short or oddly spaced to accommodate obstacles near the trackbed. What on Earth is that accent the narrator has? I've never heard anything like it. The accent is presumably meant to be a sort of West Country/Gloucestershire burr as the job is taking place in the Golden Valley and presumably the Drawing Office is either Bristol or Gloucester (I'm far from sure where the CCE DOs were sited back then). Where is the pre-assembly depot, not enough there for me to readily identify the site but I think there might have been one at Quedgeley at that time? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2011 The accent is presumably meant to be a sort of West Country/Gloucestershire burr as the job is taking place in the Golden Valley and presumably the Drawing Office is either Bristol or Gloucester (I'm far from sure where the CCE DOs were sited back then). Where is the pre-assembly depot, not enough there for me to readily identify the site but I think there might have been one at Quedgeley at that time? Did the WR in the '50s not have Districts? Certainly on SR one could, well into the '80s if not much later, see boundary markers between District Engineers' patches, long after they'd become Divisional and broadly co-terminous with the traffic side. I assumed that the control of a local renewals job like this would be at that level? The only flaw with this lovely piece of film is the brass-band, which does not strike me as a local feature! Being from the South East, of course the accent is utterly convincing to me! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold The Stationmaster Posted March 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2011 Did the WR in the '50s not have Districts? Certainly on SR one could, well into the '80s if not much later, see boundary markers between District Engineers' patches, long after they'd become Divisional and broadly co-terminous with the traffic side. I assumed that the control of a local renewals job like this would be at that level? The only flaw with this lovely piece of film is the brass-band, which does not strike me as a local feature! Being from the South East, of course the accent is utterly convincing to me! Yes, still Districts back then Ian. I'm not entirely sure where the Engineer's boundary was up there although the Traffic District boundary was at Coates (c. 1500 yards beyond Kemble) and they were probably co-terminus. But what I don't know if design was District or Chief office based at that time - the reason I say that being that some of the relaying work was under direct chief office control with their personnel doing the job in conjunction with the District people (well that's what a PerWay supervisor told me some years after this was filmed, he had been a supervisor on a CCE relaying gang at sometime). But whichever the man with the notebook was seemingly being voiced as a sort of 'local'. All great stuff whatever the organisation was. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Metr0Land Posted March 8, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 8, 2011 I just love the way they tested the track long before the Network measurment train and such-like. A bloke with some shaky equipment on the floor of a service train! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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