The human side of the railway...

[Bon Accord]

And we supposedly live in better times?

 

Those of a certain age - with all the benefits that has brought - most certainly do. For the young people out there the future is grim.

[Mike 84C]

As one of a certain age I get a little tired of being sniped at because I am allegedly so well off. 

 My wife will probably be the last person drawing benefits from my pension scheme, the world moves on, I do not like some of its moves but we are powerless to stop them. We like railways but as one who has stood shovelling coal into a 9f for 140 miles, cleaned the fire and shovelled two lots of coal forward, better days? I did enjoy it then, I was a teenager, aged fifty plus hmm.

  Your suppositions suggest that children down mines would be ok or maybe we should all live in back to backs with a two holer down the yard.

 I have enjoyed watching this years Olympics, young British athletes proving to themselves, us and the world they are the best in the world, what comes over loud and clear, is there was a price and that was hard work and dedication. I was never an athlete but was prepared to work hard to get where I wanted to be like so many of us of a certain age.

[phil-b259]

As one of a certain age I get a little tired of being sniped at because I am allegedly so well off. 

 My wife will probably be the last person drawing benefits from my pension scheme, the world moves on, I do not like some of its moves but we are powerless to stop them. We like railways but as one who has stood shovelling coal into a 9f for 140 miles, cleaned the fire and shovelled two lots of coal forward, better days? I did enjoy it then, I was a teenager, aged fifty plus hmm.

  Your suppositions suggest that children down mines would be ok or maybe we should all live in back to backs with a two holer down the yard.

 I have enjoyed watching this years Olympics, young British athletes proving to themselves, us and the world they are the best in the world, what comes over loud and clear, is there was a price and that was hard work and dedication. I was never an athlete but was prepared to work hard to get where I wanted to be like so many of us of a certain age.

 

But, with respect, those retiring now are (generally speaking) well off compared to what people entering the workplace now are likely to end up with in retirement. While obviously the personal circumstances of older generations will vary and we should be careful not to definitively say all retired folk are well off - the trends are clear to see. From the ability to afford to purchase your own home, to job security to the amount of pension they will receive todays and tomorrows workers are statistically in a much worse financial position to the 'baby boomer' generation.

 

If we take the Railway Pension scheme - once enough of the 'Safeguarded' employees have retired, I would not be in the least surprised if the 'final salary' pension scheme was closed to new entrants*, with a view to abandoning it as 'too expensive' in favour of inferior money purchase schemes.

 

*Currently to become a member of the NR section of the scheme, you must have proof of having worked in the railway industry for 5 years before you are invited to participate. Whats more if you decline the opportunity to join - thats your chance gone forever - you cannot come back after 7 years say and go "I have changed my mind". Others are in a worse situation however where the 'final salary' section of their company has already been closed to new entrants

Edited August 17, 2016 by phil-b259

[Michael Delamar]

From Facebook.

[The Stationmaster]

Excellent post Michael, he was a legend amongst many others on the S&D. Very happy to relate that by the odd degree of separation or two, there are still some 'old school' footplatemen about today with connections to steam, one of my colleagues down at Reading is soon to retire but I was very chuffed to here from him recently that his lifelong best mate was the fireman on Winston Churchill's funeral train in January '65.

 

That's interesting Nidge as the last of the Southern men from Reading South retired some time ago (well he reckoned he was the last one to have started there on steam) - so was your Reading mate an incomer from elsewhere?  Mind you the gentleman who was the Fireman on Churchill's funeral train - who also retired some years ago and  still very much involved with railways albeit on a smaller scale but still live steam and having worked with him in a later part of his career it was very nice to have a good long chat with him a couple of months back.

[Bon Accord]

As one of a certain age I get a little tired of being sniped at because I am allegedly so well off. 

 My wife will probably be the last person drawing benefits from my pension scheme, the world moves on, I do not like some of its moves but we are powerless to stop them. We like railways but as one who has stood shovelling coal into a 9f for 140 miles, cleaned the fire and shovelled two lots of coal forward, better days? I did enjoy it then, I was a teenager, aged fifty plus hmm.

  Your suppositions suggest that children down mines would be ok or maybe we should all live in back to backs with a two holer down the yard.

 I have enjoyed watching this years Olympics, young British athletes proving to themselves, us and the world they are the best in the world, what comes over loud and clear, is there was a price and that was hard work and dedication. I was never an athlete but was prepared to work hard to get where I wanted to be like so many of us of a certain age.

 

You are very well off, compared to the youngsters starting out today who will (if they're lucky) be retiring in their 70s with a pension which will hopefully - if all goes well - keep them just above the poverty line.

Contrary to popular belief, none of our pension pots actually exist beyond the balance sheet - our contributions are/were being used to pay for those that went before and the younger people will then pay for our own, yet they will see nothing like the same benefits. Final salary pensions with large employer contributions are a thing of the past nearly everywhere and those that remain will not last a decade.

If you wish to understand the future pensions reality for those in their teens or twenties now, then google "Peoples Pension" to look at the new UK standard and then compare with your own. When I do the figures and compare it to my own current employer pension, it would take 4 years of Peoples Pension contributions to match 1 year of my current final salary scheme. That equates to some very stark differences in numbers when you consider them over a working life of decades.

 

"Your suppositions suggest that children down mines would be ok or maybe we should all live in back to backs with a two holer down the yard."

 

Care to explain that one, because it baffles me.

 

As for your comment about working hard, would you care to explain how someone who will spend their life on a zero hours contract (with no pensions provision) which demands employer exclusivity even when they're not required at work (i.e. no wages), whilst trying to balance a crippling two generational mortgage (if they can get one) plus a rising cost of living can work hard enough to accumulate a pension pot - on their own - and still retire in their 50s?

Edited August 17, 2016 by Bon Accord

[Mike 84C]

Bon Accord, I was in two minds to reply to your first post;  which I do not think should have been posted on a group which is  supposed to be for those who enjoy railways.

  I can read in the press regular items aimed at those of a certain generation, who bed block in the NHS, have reaped huge benefits from the increases in the price of housing, who live for far to long and enjoy final salary pensions. 

  As we cannot know what the economic or political future holds for us as a nation or a global population, to state that the future is grim for young people may or may not be correct. My 35 yr old son would probably not agree nor my 24yr old stepdaughter.

  I am fully aware of how  pensions are funded but who could have imagined that interest rates on gov;gilts and all types of saving would have been so low for so long, helping to drive down the worth of pensions? As an aside I worked for a well known global food company. I duly joined the pension fund and payed in my dues but did the company? not often as it was over funded! So I think I payed for my own pension.

  I am totally with you regards zero hours contracts, they should be banned, but young people seem to like them it gives them flexibility or so I read. But the young have not got a monopoly on large mortgage payments or a rising cost of living, I was in just that position in the 1980's but worked three jobs for while to keep a roof over our heads and it is only now my family has flown the nest do I have any money to spare on hobbies.

 And; I worked full time till I was 66 and part time as required till turned 69,this year. So enjoy your current final salary scheme,wish I had one, and enjoy this wonderful hobby.

[Mike 84C]

Unravelled's post 1365 of Clun Castle at Princes Risboro" I have consulted my oracle, who is 91 now! he thinks the driver is Percy Prescott and the fireman is Roy Hedges both form Banbury. I wondered if the chap in greatcoat and beret plus bike clips is Pat Whitehouse who probably owned or nearly owned Clun by then. I seem to remember him in a similar get up when he rode back from Salop with me and Dick Powell when we worked the last steam TRPS special with Clun and he owned it before then.

  Perhaps Station Master could throw a bit of light on it?

[The Stationmaster]

Unravelled's post 1365 of Clun Castle at Princes Risboro" I have consulted my oracle, who is 91 now! he thinks the driver is Percy Prescott and the fireman is Roy Hedges both form Banbury. I wondered if the chap in greatcoat and beret plus bike clips is Pat Whitehouse who probably owned or nearly owned Clun by then. I seem to remember him in a similar get up when he rode back from Salop with me and Dick Powell when we worked the last steam TRPS special with Clun and he owned it before then.

  Perhaps Station Master could throw a bit of light on it?

 

I'm fairly certain that the chap in the black mac and beret is Jack Hancock who would have been a Loco Inspector at that time (and did all the running checking to select the 'Castles' for the ill-fated Plymouth run when 4079 came to grief) - I knew him well only a few years later when he was first our Divisional Chief Footplate Inspector and then our Divisional Traction & Traincrew Supt at Reading.  The chap in the trilby climbing down (or up?) could possibly be Pat Whitehouse - who I knew very well from the mid 1980s until his death so I'm not wholly convinced it is him - but I'm not sure why he would have been getting on (or off) at Risborough unless he'd travelled up from Brum?

 

Interesting that those involved are Banbury men as at one time the turn was worked by Old Oak men and in fact I had been given to understand that the very last booked steam working from Paddington (the same train of course) was driven by Syd Philpin (who Nidge would have known in later years when he was in the time office at Old Oak) having been purposely selected for the job as he was a third generation London Engineman whose grandfather was driving back in broad gauge days.

[stewartingram]

 

The Scotsman effect? Thomas gala, No.1 has run round its train at Yarwell NVR. 13/08/2016.

 

 

The Guard has given the RA at Yarwell.

 

 

Lets not forget the Station Cat at Wansford.

 

 

[Classsix T]

image.jpg

From Facebook.

Super find Michael, that's art right there.

 

C6T.

 

(will anyone wanting the seminar on "pensions - were all doomed" follow the lady holding the white paddle to Wheeltappers where you can grind your axes to your hearts content. And then get that topic locked.)

[talisman56]

Super find Michael, that's art right there.

 

C6T.

 

(will anyone wanting the seminar on "pensions - were all doomed" follow the lady holding the white paddle to Wheeltappers where you can grind your axes to your hearts content. And then get that topic locked.)

 

I'm just wondering what the bloke with the ladder is doing in the bottom left corner...

[keefer]

summat up with the telegraph wires?

 

just thought to ask, what would be carried by them - simply box to box instruments or phone lines to/from wherever too?

[Chubber]

I'm just wondering what the bloke with the ladder is doing in the bottom left corner...

Glad I'm not the only one!

 

No elfin safety provisions, and I bet he's wearing a collar and tie...

 

Doug

[unravelled]

http://Crossrail works, Abbey Wood Area by David Harvey, on Flickr

 

Crossrail works, Abbey Wood Area by David Harvey, on Flickr

 

Strictly these are Crossrail related works, I guess...

 

Dave

Edited August 20, 2016 by unravelled

[TheSignalEngineer]

I'm just wondering what the bloke with the ladder is doing in the bottom left corner...

 

summat up with the telegraph wires?

 

just thought to ask, what would be carried by them - simply box to box instruments or phone lines to/from wherever too?

The box circuits, blocks, etc between Proof House and New Street No.1 / New Street No.2 were in cables on the Midland side, out of shot to the left. Those wires were fed from a cable which went up the brick pier between the Midland and LNW sides. I think they may have been the telephone trunks between the New Street and Snow Hill exchanges.

The foot of the ladder is certainly foul of the Down London line. I'm not sure who the man in the hat is, but he may have already appeared in post #10 of this thread.

[pH]

 

Carlisle this morning, couple of spotters watch a 37 head into the sidings

 

Out of interest what was the part of the building to the right that sticks out used for in the past?

 

 

Jim, It was Carlisle No 4A signal box which was on the first floor of the building.

 

Howie

 

 

Re the image of Carlisle and it being advised as 4A signal box can anybody confirm if the boarded up platform level window is where the train running board used to be. Kept us all informed of late running overnight services that one, many a rover replanned on seeing 60L come up! simply Headcode and lateness logged I think. Gone by the mid 80's another chink of the railway lost?

 

thanks

 

Nick

 

Obviously, I don't visit this topic very often!

 

Nick, it's quite possible that's where the train information board was. I think the station announcer's office was there in the 1960s, so it would be fairly logical for the board to be close to it. I think there was also some kind of 'control' function there - again logical, since control information would be relevant to train information and announcements.

 

I visited Citadel twice in the same week in summer 1964 and heard interesting 'broadcasts' on both occasions. On the first, at lunchtime on a weekday, we were treated to a description of someone's packed lunch being broadcast over a microphone inadvertently left 'on'.

 

Then, on the Saturday, which was at the end of the Glasgow Fair, Carlisle was dealing with all the returning Fair specials that had to be fitted into the regular service. If possible, these specials would go round the Carlisle goods lines, bypassing Citadel itself. After one station announcement, a microphone was again left 'on'. Passengers then heard one end of a phone conversation with someone in Carlisle questioning the mental abilities of someone at Holbeck shed for providing a driver not passed for the Carlisle goods lines on one of the specials coming over the S&C. Parents' hands were being held over children's ears!

[The Border Reiver]

Obviously, I don't visit this topic very often!

 

Nick, it's quite possible that's where the train information board was. I think the station announcer's office was there in the 1960s, so it would be fairly logical for the board to be close to it. I think there was also some kind of 'control' function there - again logical, since control information would be relevant to train information and announcements.

 

I visited Citadel twice in the same week in summer 1964 and heard interesting 'broadcasts' on both occasions. On the first, at lunchtime on a weekday, we were treated to a description of someone's packed lunch being broadcast over a microphone inadvertently left 'on'.

 

Then, on the Saturday, which was at the end of the Glasgow Fair, Carlisle was dealing with all the returning Fair specials that had to be fitted into the regular service. If possible, these specials would go round the Carlisle goods lines, bypassing Citadel itself. After one station announcement, a microphone was again left 'on'. Passengers then heard one end of a phone conversation with someone in Carlisle questioning the mental abilities of someone at Holbeck shed for providing a driver not passed for the Carlisle goods lines on one of the specials coming over the S&C. Parents' hands were being held over children's ears!

 

Although now based in the power box at the south end of the station, they still leave the microphone on these days as well!

[Rugd1022]

Rugby Central, 1963, a rare colour shot of the station entrance with proud staff...

 

 

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

On the look-out.

 

[Michael Delamar]

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Opening the crossing gates (or closing them depending on your point of view) at Marchwood.

 

[Swindon 123]

An important part of the traincrew ritual during the 1980's was the displaying of the teacan on approaching a locomotive. This excellent example of display was performed by one of my fellow traincrew out at Ferm Park CS. in April 1980.

 

CBR-4-130 by Paul James, on Flickr

 

 

Paul J.

Edited August 22, 2016 by Swindon 123

[Michael Delamar]

[cb900f]

An important part of the traincrew ritual during the 1980's was the displaying of the teacan on approaching a locomotive. This excellent example of display was performed by one of my fellow traincrew out at Ferm Park CS. in April 1980.

 

CBR-4-130 by Paul James, on Flickr

 

 

Paul J.

The BR regulation uniform that we all wore (BR jacket and jeans) and the mashing can, courtesy of the nearest army stores.

 

Happy Days

 

Pete