R H N HARDY COLLECTION
This collection of negatives, which belonged to R H N Hardy, is now lodged with The Transport
Treasury. Prints can be obtained from: Barry Hoper, Gate House, North Road, Insch,
Aberdeenshire, AB52 6XP.
Mr Hardy was a premium apprentice at Doncaster on the LNER and most of the photographs
include men with whom he worked. Because of this, a comprehensive caption has been written
for each negative so that, when in receipt of the catalogue, a purchaser will have a good idea of
the make-up of each picture. The first 308 negatives, the majority were taken during the War and
for that reason are especially interesting, were taken with a Brownie 620 box camera.
He has done this so that all people who are interested can have access to his treasured collection
as a social history of men working in a world long gone. A hard but remarkable world and one in
which he learned much about the fellowship of men, and the joys and frustrations of life he
shared with real, practical railwaymen.
A ROUGH GUIDE TO THE CONTENTS
RH1-43 Bradford and Ardsley men and engines.
RH44-99
Copley Hill, Leeds men and engines.
RH100-188
Doncaster Plant, Carr loco running shed, artisan staff and breakdown gang. Men
and engines at Doncaster Station north end, Sheffield GC, York, Grantham, Hull,
Grimsby, Mexboro, New England and Lincoln. Met-BO and BO men.
RH189-218
Stratford 70036 and driver at work, 1958. Stratford men and engines, office staff
and workshop staff. Clacton men, SB&CR, Amersham Met&GC 1936-40 and
1943.
RH219-256
Stewarts Lane men and engines. Amersham M&GC 1936-44.
RH257-312
1937 Nottingham and Leicester GC, KX, Met BO-BO, Amersham 1936-40
Ipswich 1950-52 Woodford 1949-50 and 1966.
RH313-321
Aboard TSS Invicta
RH322-422
Miscellaneous railway characters from CM&EE to leading railmen.
RH423-432
Miscellaneous and family/railway scenes.
RH434-540
Visits to SNCF Nord & Est engines and men.
RH 1-43 Bradford and Ardsley Men and Engines
RH1 Eng 4569 class N1 at Wakefield Westgate before working a slow to Bradford via
Batley, early 1944. A saturated engine and a very fair one although nearing her time for
a General. Driver Ted Hailstone and Fireman George Howard of Bradford, a wonderful
pair who could tackle any job with any engine. George was nearly 50 when he was
passed for driving later in 1944, having started late in 1919 after service in France. On
this journey, George went in the train, Ted fired and I drove. Leaving Batley Carr on a
rising gradient, I was notching up and the screw slipped out of my hands into full forward
gear, cracking the back of my hand on the way. This started the boiler priming. My old
mentor was not amused and I got a good rollocking as well as a black hand!
RH2 Ted Hailstone, many years later (1955) when he had moved to Kings Cross. He
retired in 1956 having aged considerably. He had Jim Wilson as his fireman and a
splendid one at that. The engine is the A3 60047 “Donovan” at New England,
Peterboro’.
RH3 Ted Hailstone and RHNH with eng 60047 at New England, Peterboro’. The photo
was taken by John Greenfield, a clerk at Stewarts Lane, Southern Region. John loved the
job and was a true railwayman, dedicated to his work and his advancement. He never
neglected an opportunity to see or learn something new, hence an evening on the GN
main line from Kings Cross.
RH4 George Howard had just been passed for driving and this was his last week with
Ted Hailstone, late in 1944. The old B4, 6100, has brought the 0945 London express
from Bradford to Doncaster with 15 cars from Wakefield, and 12 out of Bradford up the
1-in-45/41 with an N1 for assistance. We had trouble with both injectors going down the
1-in-41 from Drighlington to Batley and were too low in the boiler for comfort but we got
through without further difficulty and waltzed those 15 cars up to Nostell (1-in-150) like
nobody’s business.
RH5 Engine 4593 of Bradford had been most of its life in the West Riding and was a
good engine. It was one of the hottest days that I can remember, in summer 1944, and
Ted Hailstone and I had worked a London express from Wakefield to Exchange. We had
been commandeered at short notice and started with a barely burned through fire of dust,
rather than coal, after I had cleaned it. Ted handled 4593 so delicately that I was able to
maintain steam and water while gradually improving the state of the fire to a blinding
whiteness after which Ted opened out still further and we had all the steam we needed
throughout. He used to say that was my best exhibition of firing against all the odds.
The journey was only 18 miles but, at the end, with the strain and concentration, I had to
sit on a station barrow to cool off and come to my senses. If you could fire a Bradford
express against the odds and maintain steam unwaveringly, you might be considered to
be a fireman. One slight mistake with the shovel and you were finished. Ted Hailstone
is in the cab and, dressed for a hot day, Fireman Harry Cram and Driver John Verr of
Bradford.
RH6 March 1943. My first trip on a Bradford express from Wakefield with Driver
George Stoyles and Fireman George Barker of Bradford was memorable, for I saw what
an old J1 with big 5’ 8” wheels could do. These engines, built in 1908, had been at
Bradford for some years and had worked specials before the war to Skegness,
Cleethorpes, Brid and Scarborough, even expresses from Doncaster with 10 or 11 cars. I
travelled on 3005 from Wakefield to Bradford via Morley and back to Wakefield via
Batley. The photo was taken in the old GC “Loco” at Westgate on the up side after we
had turned for the next leg back to Bradford. On the express, 3005 was truly thrashed
and, as we tore through the short and low Gildersome tunnel, I had never seen so much
fire thrown from a chimney in my life: solid, the thickness of the chimney, hitting the
tunnel roof, rebounding over us, bouncing off engine, tender and carriages, unforgettable.
I was to learn that, with the old GN engines, the more fire they threw the better they
steamed. George Stoyles was a Bronte enthusiast and talked with great enthusiasm on
the subject whenever he could during the journey.
RH7 Bradford Exchange summer 1943. On a Saturday, the top link had a fill in turn,
three trips to Halifax, via Queensbury, the last with a double train on six steel or eight
GN articulated coaches with the C12 or N5. The road was very heavy indeed with
stretches of 1 in 41/42 and the trains stopped at every station. This tested both engine and
crew which I greatly enjoyed. Eng 4018, one of the early C12s, was a good little engine
which would steam and run and was always worked with a full open regulator and short
cut off whenever possible. But the double train on the last round was hard work for a
C12 or a GC N5. Ted’s mate is Maurice Saunders who was passed for driving soon after
and whose place was taken by George Howard. Both were GE men from Colchester, the
only two at Bradford at that time.
RH8 Leeds Central. A GC C14, excellent superheated engines whose only fault was the
low pressure of 160psi which was soon 100 if things went wrong. A slow to Castleford
with L-R Hugh Gibson, a premium apprentice a couple of years younger than me, a
splendid railwayman in the making who learned all he could in his spare time. Fireman
George Kirk who came from Colwick to Ardsley and eventually moved to Maldon
(Essex) where he was a driver-in-charge until he died in his early 60s when I was DMS at
Liverpool St. His wife ran the Chelmsford refresh. Driver George Lunn of Ardsley was
a GC man from Wakefield, moving to Ardsley when the shed was closed after the
grouping. George rarely drove and enjoyed firing while his 46 year-old mate took the
opportunity with both hands.
RH9 Queensbury with a Halifax Bradford train standing in the triangular station up in
the hills. The extensive bridge work takes a passenger to any of five other platforms and
there could well be trains from Bradford to Keigthley standing in their respective
platforms to connect. Driver Ted Hailstone, Guard Harry Ovenden of Bradford and the
lady porter. We have the starter off and the advance starter in the distance carries a
distant for Clayton which is at caution until we are on our way. Both Harry and the lady
porter are wearing the oval Railway Service badge issued to all railwaymen in the War.
RH10 The Bradford N1 is 4584, a superheated engine and recently transferred to the
West Riding. She was very rough but is leaving Wakefield all stations to Bradford via
Batley and will face the formidable in 1 in 41 of Batley “’oil” (Hole). She has a
sizeable load and at such stations as Upper Batley and Howden Clough in the middle of
the bank, the fireman had to hold the train with the hand brake until the driver opened the
regulator, then frantically unwinding it. The N1s were marvellous engines and always
got away up the bank. On a Sunday, they took five Buckeyes up from Batley on the
London expresses without assistance.
RH11 March 1945. The bay platform a Wakefield Westgate with the excellent
superheated N1 4603. The snifting valves can be seen behind the chimney. The starter is
off for the down main platform and the Balne Lane yard is on the up side. Driver Harry
Nottingham, originally from Hitchin and his 49 year-old fireman, Dick Lamplow, an old
New England man, another master of the job.
RH12 Fireman George Barker and Driver George Stoyles with the J1 3005 standing at
Balne Lane Jc outside Wakefield waiting for the road on to the up main. We had worked
a slow from Bradford via Batley, my first experience of the virility of a J1 and, until 1948
on the M&GN, my last.
RH13 Bradford Exchange early in 1945. A GC N5, 5901, a good strong engine but with
quite big cylinders. The fire had to be in perfect shape and the firing exact and the boiler
not too full, otherwise there would be trouble. When I took this photo, I had left the
injector at work and when I got back, I had too much water in the boiler and paid the
penalty, much to Harold Binder’s amusement, for I had neither “stee-am nor watter” at
our first stop, St Dunstans. But, by hard work, I made it to Queensbury up the fearful
bank and all was well. The group: George Howard, just passed for driving with his
young fireman, Hughie Cansfied. Harold Binder next to George, a GC man from
Immingham and a very dear friend. He has the City of Bradford coat of arms in his cap.
On the right is his regular mate, Harry Smith, 48 year of age.
RH14 Driver Harry Simpson and Fireman Harry Haigh of Ardsley against 6131, class
C14, in Copley Hill Carriage Sidings.
RH15 The down bay platforms at Westgate in spring 1944. Ardsley fireman Harry
Horrocks on his C14 bound for Leeds Central and 4593 with Driver Arthur Pheasants and
Fireman Charlie Roberts. The former was a remarkable man. Well read, well educated,
a GC man from Staveley, he was also a capable masseur and I believe that he retired
early to practise. He had strong views on enginemanship and Hugh Gibson, a fellow
premium apprentice, learned much from him. I followed Hailstone’s star: you could not
follow both men, so different in outlook and their methods yet right at the top of their
profession. Charlie Roberts had come from Colwick many years before for a regular
firing job.
RH16 1943. The Gresley GE type long travel valve N7s were at Bradford for about
eighteen months and went south much better engines. They could not run the Bradford
expresses as they were shy for steam and D W Harvey was sent from Loco Running HQ
at Gerrards Cross to improve them which he did by altering the design and diameter of
the blast pipe. It is not known whether the remainder of the N7s were altered but, in my
experience, they steamed pretty well. Driver Hailstone was in charge on the trial engines.
He had to stop for a “blow up” at Morley with 2651, which was unaltered, and came
through flying colours with 2649, with the modified blast pipe. Here 2651 was one of
twenty built in 1927 with vacuum and steam brakes, rather than Westinghouse, for work
on the GN section. Fireman George Barker and Driver Rimmer, a spare driver.
RH17 Halifax (Old) Station, late 1944. Ted Hailstone and I have as our guest on N1
4569, a well known schoolmaster from Doncaster Grammar School, Mr “Pip” Appleby.
He enjoyed his day out with us immensely and, in later years, visited me when I was
Divisional Manager at Kings Cross. He was a signals expert and amazed our Chief
Signal Inspector with his practical knowledge of the old GN signalboxes at Finsbury Park
in the evening rush. A truly remarkable student of railway affairs from whom I learned
much.
RH18 June 1944. Leeds Central “Loco”, tight for room as was the whole of the Central
Station. The C14 6131, the Bradford superheated N1, 4598 and the Ardsley N1, 4581.
L-R: Fireman Percy Dimblebey, Driver Frank Butler, both of Bradford, Driver Walt
Lamin of Ardsley and Driver Harry Simpson of Ardsley with his mate, Harry Haigh.
RH19 In June 1945, 4139, an old “B” engine, class J3 with 5’2” wheels, is working a
slow train to Leeds Central via Pudsey. She is climbing the 1 in 41 to Laisterdyke and
we were in the carriage sidings on the B4, 6098, shortly to drop down to Bradford on the
rear of the 12 cars for the 0945 Kings Cross. To the right of the sidings is the up and
down line to the L&Y used by LMS expresses and stopping trains to Low Moor,
Hipperholme, Halifax and points west.
RH20 A time exposure in late 1943. The B4, 6098, new from Gorton Works after a
General, was a formidable engine but today, she is worked to Thorp Arch Factory and
back with the afternoon munitions workers train from Westgate, via Kirkgate,
Normanton, Castleford, Burton Salmon, Church Fenton and Tadcaster. Load 10 coaches,
pretty full but a piece of cake over a level road. Fireman Charlie Owens, a Cockney from
Hornsey and Driver Bill Pearson, once from Wakefield GC and now at Ardsley. He is
almost on the site of his long closed shed.
RH21 A time exposure about 3pm on a winter afternoon in early 1943 in the Garden
sidings at Doncaster. The day of my first journey out of Bradford with a London express
and I had never known anything like it. We had 12 cars to Wakefield and 16 on to
Doncaster, and 6101 was a very strong old engine. We stood at Bradford Exchange,
actually on the 1 in 45 grade, well off the platform, with an N1 ahead of us. On getting
the right of way, Driver George Cowell (ex Immingham GC) opened the regulator wide
and we set off absolutely flat out. About St Dunstans, George notched up one notch and
thus we climbed up and beyond Laisterdyke. Two great columns of black smoke, steam
pressure maintained on both engines and eventually over the top at Drighlington and a
hair-raising dive down the 1 in 41 to Batley, the speed checked just in time for the curve
over the LNW at the bottom before entering Batley station alongside the LMS. The
fireman was Arthur Hand who was passed for driving not long after. He came from
Neasden, still a Londoner!
RH22 1944. A time exposure on a wet winter day. The bay platform at Westgate.
Bradford engine 4579 (saturated) on a Bradford via Batley train. Passed Fireman Jack
Archer (firing for the day) and George Coulwell.
RH23 1944. A London express in No1 platform at Bradford Exchange. 4567, an old
tub and saturated, with Passed Fireman Maurice Saunders and Driver George Coulwell.
RH24 1945. A remarkable pair. The fireman, Percy Thorpe, is on the gangway. As
always with Ben, he was doing the driving on a C14 en-route to Ranskill Munitions
Factory at Doncaster, taking water. A perfectly matched crew: Benny Faux of Ardsley
was an amazing character. He was, to some extent, a daredevil who enjoyed himself at
work but never talked about it off the job. He knew exactly what he was doing but if he
could shock his comrades, he would do so. He took me under his wing and taught me all
the dodges that management was not supposed to know. I was nearly always the driver
when I went with him and he would leave it all to Percy and me, taking no apparent
interest in what we were doing. But when he had a younger fireman, he was every button
on duty and did his own job. My great mentor, Ted Hailstone, would never have dreamt
of letting me see the seamy side of the job and used to grumble “I can’t think what you
see in the Faux!”
RH25 1944. A Bradford express at Leeds Central with Express Headlights. We stopped
only at Stanningley and the old “B” engine, class J3 4139, went like a rocket. The hard
swearing Driver Billy Baker, an outspoken and amusing character, and Passed Cleaner
Hughie Cansfield. I fired on this journey and had a hell of a job to keep up with the old
gentleman over that heavy road where the easy stretches were 1 in 100 on which we
immediately accelerated without the engine being eased. The J1 and J3 classes had lever
reverse and slide valves so that it was impossible to notch up further without closing the
regulator. So the driver would leave things as they were and the chimney already full of
fire would become absolutely solid with sparks, lumps of coal and fire, for you had to go
hard on an express even with a 3 or 4 coach load.
RH26 1945. 4603, a superheated N1, in No1 on a London express at Bradford. Always
bunker first up the bank but the Ardsley men with their C14s were always head first with
the five buckeye 1706 ex Bradford express via Batley. This was a hell of a job but I
never travelled on it. Ted Hailstone has lost George Howard and his new mate for a short
while was Cyril Goy. Cyril was an educated man and shortly afterwards moved to the
Control at Bawtry. The last time I saw him was at High Wycombe in 1949-50 where he
had been appointed shift Controller. Sadly, he died very young, for he could have gone a
fair way in management.
RH27 1943. 6124 was the only C14 with the full LNER on the tanks but she was an
excellent engine despite not having been through Gorton Works for some years. These
are Ardsley men: Jimmy Ledbetter is the fireman and Archie Wade, the driver. He ran a
dance band.
RH28 June 1944. The C14 6131 in Copley Hill Carriage sidings: Driver Harry
Simpson and Fireman Harry Haigh of Ardsley.
RH29 1944. The old Bradford C12, 4524, spent much of her time working between
Bradford, Halifax and Keigthley. Driver George Hutchinson was a lovely man but
camera shy, the only West Riding engineman I met who did not want his photo taken.
We have taken water at Keigthley in the GN platforms and the fireman, Stan Pilsworth,
very photogenic, poses with pleasure. 4524 clawed her way very well up the bank to
Ingrow, which we believed to be a much heavier road than the Midland Worth Valley
branch which had a poor old Midland tank engine, not given, in our opinion, to heavy
work. We thought nothing of the Midland and the Lanky was just bearable!
RH30 Stan Pilsworth again with his mate, George Hutchinson, peeking out of the cab!
This time, we have an Ivatt/Gresley J2, either 3071 or 3080. They were superheated,
piston valve engines with 5’8” driving wheels and could get over the ground although
they spent more time on freight work. In many ways, they were a tender version of the
N2s which came out after the war in 1920. They had the same blessings and failings as
the N2s, J6s and D1s: incredibly light on water and coal but too shy for steam in the West
Riding unless the fire was very thin indeed. Bradford Exchange: the 1 in 50/45 gradient
is visible; GN tracks on the left with a shunting neck between up and down lines; Lanky
on the right. With a 12 car London job, the engine stood out beyond the overbridge.
Loco sidings left.
RH31 Ted Hailstone and George Howard at Ardsley one summer evening in 1944.
Engine 4602, superheated and still fitted with condensing gear and recently transferred
from Hornsey.
RH32 George Stoyles and George Barker after 3005 had been turned. See previous
photos.
RH33 1943. Driver Frank Bates and Fireman Frank Ward of Bradford No 2 link in the
Prison sidings at Westgate waiting for the Leeds and Bradford express to arrive. At that
time, this particular express was in No 2 which was largely filled with elderly drivers
who did not wish to progress to No 1 and its Doncaster work. George Stoyles was one
and so was Frank Bates. I made yet another blood and thunder trip to Bradford via
Morley. We were allowed 13” to leave Morley after 5 miles up a 1 in 100/132, and 3
more at 1 in 60/70 with a slack through Ardsley. We went like a bat out of hell. LNER
men wore soft-topped, felt caps, very comfortable and, after nationalisation, had to adopt
the LMS shiny-topped pattern. But, in Bradford, there were LMS sheds, and some GN
men, such as Frank Ward scrounged the shiny topped variety.
RH34 1944. This is an interesting photograph. The background is an Ardsley C14 and
the photo was taken by Benny Faux or his fireman. The young chap on the left is myself
and the little fellow on the right is Willie Hennigan whose father was a driver at St
Margarets who, for a non-railwayman, had had a remarkable experience on most classes
of NB and LNER engines operating round Edinburgh. I lent Willie my outsize cap (used
in the Running Shed) and a spare pair of overalls, and he made a splendid job of firing
that old C14. I did not, for I had an ‘off day’ and I remember Ben said to general
amusement that “I wor warr ner Willie”. And firing an engine is one of the great
levellers when even the most experienced men could come unstuck now and again!
RH35 1943. A Bradford “B” engine 4153 in the bay at Westgate before workin a
stopping train to Bradford via Batley. Driver Arthur Pheasants and Fireman Charlie
Roberts.
RH 36 Summer 1944. With double summer-time, it was possible to take a photo late in
the fine evening. We had worked the 2120 Mail out of Bradford and had unhooked on
arrival, and come forward down the centre road to take water and move up to the Prison
sidings before working the last express back to Bradford. Engine 4547, Driver Ted
Hailstone and Fireman Billy Cartwright, also in No 1 as Harold Hutchinson’s mate.
RH37 Eng 4605, the last N1 to be built. Driver Tommy Stott and Fireman Rodney
Darwen: the latter had come to Bradford from Walton-on-the-Hill shed in Liverpool and
was a man of great influence in the ASLEF. He was a splendid railwayman who later
returned to Liverpool at the L&Y shed at Bank Hall where he ultimately became a
respected Running Foreman. When I arrived in Liverpool in 1968 as Divisional
Manager, I found that he had just retired but we met every six months for dinner at the
Exchange Hotel and I learned a great deal from him, real practical railway and Trade
Union background of much use to me in my job. He died not all that long ago.
RH38 July 1945, and the German was is over and excursion trains have started to go to
the seaside once more. We have taken either eight or twelve packed coaches to
Bridlington for a day trip: our own day being lengthened accordingly. The coaches came
down over Friday night from Kings Cross and return over Sunday night in time for the
Kings Cross suburban services on Monday. The engine is that old Ardsley warrior, class
B4 6100 and on the front gangway at Brid, we have our Bradford guard, Fireman
Redvers Kelly (students of the Boer War will know when he was born) and Driver
Harold Hutchinson, older brother of George in No2 link. We had a really pleasant day
but our journey home was bedevilled with signal checks.
RH39 Late evening at Westgate in June 1945. The 2105 Ranskill Factory and the light
has gone, so a time exposure with the old box camera on the bridge girder. Eng 6124,
Driver Arthur Anforth, a spare man and the regular fireman, Frank Gillman of Ardsley.
RH40 July 1945 and, by now, Maurice Saunders is a driver deputising for Harold
Binder. Harry Smith is now driving and his place taken by Norman Rolls (R). We went
to Halifax and Maurice left us to it (ie fireman and apprentice) knowing that, by now, we
were both experienced. We are in Bradford Loco with the saturated N1 4563.
RH41 Again, the end of the war and it is June 1945. The double headed and very long
train stands at Crowle in Lincolnshire waiting for the road. The train is the combined
Leeds and Bradford portions that had gone to Cleethorpes in the early morning, another
long day for us. We took a GN”A” engine and ran a big end hot. We were given a GC
Atlantic for the return but Immingham were desperately short of power and so this was
one of the four C5 compound Atlantics. Harold knew these engines, being an
experienced GC and ex Tuxford and Immingham man. I think 5364 was returned LE
next day to its home shed. The Leeds engine was the B4 6099, Driver John Smith, and
Harold Binder is on the footplate. The two firemen are Copley Hill’s Syd Watson and
Bradford’s Herbert Brown who suffered from an affliction that allowed him to drop off to
sleep with his eyes open. Unless he was cured, I doubt if he ever became a driver but he
was a very cheerful man when he was with us!
RH42 Probably the only photograph taken at the Thorp Arch factory which was an
enormous wartime munitions works. It was taken in June 1945, in the sidings where the
trains were stabled between arrival and departure. We brought the incoming shift on duty
and went round the factory railway with its four stations. We stabled the train, turned on
the angle, and coupled up once more to our train to go tender first round the factory
picking up the shift going home; run round once more and right away home. On
Saturday and Sunday nights, we had the railway to ourselves and could get home as quick
as it was safe to do. We stopped at Castleford, Normanton and Kirkgate to set down
before roaring up to Westgate in the early hours. But this is the afternoon turn on a
Sunday and we have the best of the very good bunch of B4s, 6101, and she was a clipper.
First of all, we have a factory policeman. While we were at war, the factory police were
everywhere watching to see we did not move away from our engine. Then we have our
guard, with a trilby hat worn for the occasion. He was a lovely man, endlessly helpful,
who was normally a Westgate passenger shunter and he earned their living all right.
Then, in the centre, is Alistair Kerr, still a very great friend, who was Deputy Land
Agent at the County Hall in Wakefield, a vastly knowledgeable student of railway affairs
who knew Benny Faux well and later married his daughter, Elsie. Leaning on the buffer
with his cap over his nose is Ben himself, then his fireman for the day, Fred Wilson, and
finally the Thorp Arch Yard Foreman, Mr Cattermole, whose son was a Darlington
Premium apprentice some years younger than I.
RH43 Lastly, RH and my greatest mentor Ted Hailstone at Ardsley, summer 1944. We
are at Ardsley station in the slow road and we have 4602, superheater, another splendid
engine. The day we met, he said “I’ve taken a liking to you, young man. If you come
with me, I’ll make a fireman out of you and then a driver”. He was as good as his word
and for many, many thousands of miles, I have practised the principles he drilled into me.
He was brought up on the Manchester-Marylebone jobs and, after the first war, fired for
George Bourne on the Sam Fay 428 ‘City of Liverpool’. Bourne was a disciplinarian and
Ted modelled himself on his old driver so that he was not universally popular but to those
who were dedicated to the job, he was a true friend, as he was to his much respected
fireman, George Howard, who did as much driving as Ted himself for he was a splendid
fireman and kept very fit. He taught me much of self-discipline, vital to a railwayman,
and what he expected of a shedmaster, of management. He told me that I had to be a step
ahead of everybody and be a real boss “not like one of the poor tools I’ve known”.
Whenever I was promoted, he expected me to write to him and always signed his letters
“Yours Ever Forward”. He was a GC man and both the GC and the LNER crests carried
the motto “Forward”. A wonderful man who dedicated himself to my advancement but
he expected me, when on the footplate, to do the job in every detail to the highest
standards.
RH44-99 Copley Hill Men
RH44 1942. John Albert Walker (Pricker Dick) ex-GC from Staveley. A comedian and
given to using the pricker due to his upbringing at Staveley with colliery and heavy
freight jobs with steam suddenly required after an hour’s standing and the way to get it
was to push the fire over with pricker. Not the Copley Hill way of doing things! Driver
John Smith (‘Nookie’), quiet and sound. He was knocked down by a train near
Wakefield in later years. Eng 6100, class B4, in the Garden sidings, Doncaster. Albert is
‘knobbing’ the fire: has the big door open and building up the back end of the grate with
good big lumps of Yorkshire hard coal. Load 12-14 bogies through to Leeds. 1944 exDoncaster from Colchester.
RH45 Garden sidings, 1942, Doncaster. Driver Bob Foster, ex-GC Mexborough and
Wakefield GC, then Ardsley and Copley Hill. A good friend and a grand engineman
who, after the war, was involved in a derailment at Balby, Doncaster. Had the first
“Wath Daisy” as a young driver in 1907/8. Bob had started about 1896/7 on the MS&L.
Fireman Ernest Fearnley – a splendid fireman, ex-GC Mexboro’, liked his hops,
outspoken, a tough contestant and one of the best. He had to come off the footplate, with
eyesight, into the Stores at Copley Hill in the early 1950s. In 1942, Bob put me in his
corner Kirkgate, Eng 3280, GN Atlantic 2130 Mail from Leeds Central. We were
stopped by the signalman at South Elmsall. Ernest called out “Whoa” to stop by the
signalman’s window: however, my brake application was gradual and text book so that
Ernest had to get down to talk to the “Bobby”. On his return, he said: ”Whoa means
whoa, Dick and don’t bloody well forget it”. Good advice, never forgotten. The engine
is 231, one of the three K3s (202 and 203) sent to Leeds before the was for fast train work
over the West Riding and for the Whitemoor Goods, a lodge job in which the engine
worked passenger trains Doncaster-Leeds and return, and partially fitted freight from
Doncaster and return.
RH46 Autumn 1943, Garden Sidings, Doncaster. Eng 231 K3. A Sunday afternoon,
and my mother (Mrs G M Hardy), a wonderful sport who had knocked about in Russia, in
and before the Revolution. She married in 1920, aged 39, my father who was 49 and had
been a tea planter in Ceylon before the Great War when he came home, joined up and
spent much of the war in France. Here she is, very much in wartime clothes, with Driver
Bill Denman and Fireman Jim Edison. All three completely at home in each other’s
company. More of Bill and Jim elsewhere.
RH47 Albert Walker again and Alan Coggon, Doncaster Apprentice, son of an ex-GC
driver from Keadby. Eng 6165, “Valour”, which spent a few months at Leeds back in
1942.
RH48 Copley Hill N1 4566 in the down main platform at Wakefield Westgate. We had
been ‘over the Alps’ from Leeds via Tingley and Batley and were returning the same
way. Driver Ernest Clarke, Secretary of the LDC, and Fireman Stan Hodgson who was a
close friend until he died in 1998. I went to his funeral on the outskirts of Leeds and he
had come to my retirement party at the end of 1982.
RH 49: see RH46.
RH50 The great “Valour” sent to Copley Hill in Autumn 1942, fresh out of Gorton
Works with her nameplate and brasses painted over. She was a very fine engine when
properly handled and, one Sunday, deputised for a Pacific or Green Arrow on the 1015
Leeds-Grantham turn and its return. Load 17 cars and a good day out for the fireman –
me, and not greatly experienced (Driver Alf Cartwright). Here she is in the Garden
Sidings before working the 1944 Leeds (the “Colchester”, a very heavy train). Derek
King (Apprentice), Albert Walker and Driver John Smith. 6164, B3 6165 arrived, she
became the regular engine for the “Colchester” as the Atlantics were having difficulty in
starting from Wakefield with some drivers.
RH51 Garden sidings, Doncaster. Basil de Iongh apprentice who left the LNER
volunteering for flying duties in 1943 and then remained in the RAF, becoming a Group
Captain before retirement. Bill Denman, a truly great engineman, who died aged 59: exGC from Retford who moved to Copley Hill as a driver. He was respected by all, not
only as an engineman but as a man: at home at any level of society, charm, presence,
level headed, always the same and never got flustered or excited. Never carried a watch
and brilliant with a GN Atlantic. Fireman Len Hannal, who was then with Percy Wallis
(“Tha’ knaws”) about to retire: another excellent man who did not get on too well with
Percy’s successor, Jimmy Simpson, another GC man: and Bill’s regular mate, Jim
Edison. Engine 6100, class B4, prior to working the 1944 “Colchester”.
RH52 Driver Jas Smith (Link 2 as was John Smith but no relation). 6165 with the
famous nameplate pointed over. She was built at Gorton in 1920 and, when driven and
fired correctly was a splendid machine which needed full regulator and short cut off
handling with a heavy fire under the firehole door and thin at the front. GN men slide
their blade with the L hand held firm on the shaft. GC men kept their (R) back hand up
so that coal to sides and front took a downwards path from the high firehole door, thus
avoiding hitting the brick arch. The GN method suited GN engines with a lower door
and flatter grate. Jas was a bachelor who lived until well over 90: George Usher was an
excellent GN fireman and master of a GC engine.
RH53 1943 at Leeds Central: eng 4566 class N1. Stan Hodgson firing to Percy Garner
in No2 tankie gang (Link 3). When Percy moved up to No2, Stan got the tall Fred
Holdsworth, ex-GC from Wakefield.
RH54 Eng 4564 at Bradford Exchange one Sunday late in 1943. Stan Hodgson with his
new mate, Fred Holdsworth. Fred took to Gresley engines very well on the fast turns
worked by No 3. He, like me, wore clogs and Stan said to me when I paused from my
labours on the way down to Stanningley: “Fred has made you work today, he had too
much bad beer last night” but he was well enough to have his photograph taken! We
were Leeds-Bradford and back twice that day. An old GN 1st class articulated in the
background.
RH55 This photograph shows many things. The arrival of “Earl Beatty”, the Caprotti
B3 6164, in its first full week’s work at Copley Hill in the autumn of 1942. She was very
run down and still painted green, a bad sign. To send a run down Caprotti to a shed
where such valve gear was unknown was not very clever and she was substituted
eventually by 6169 “Lord Faringdon” for a short time. 6165/9 were the two engines still
with the Stephenson valve gear as built. The photo shows the age of the firemen in those
days – both were 47. Garden Sidings, Doncaster, Eng 91, K3 is behind 6164 for the 2008
Leeds (ex KX), usually 17-18 cars. Driver Percy Wallis who started every sentence with
“Tha knaws”, as easy as an old shoe but had, along with most of the No 1 link during the
war, run the pre-war London day excursions with the GC B4s. His fireman is Len
Hannal, Driver Jimmy Simpson and then his mate, Len Richmond ex Doncaster GN.
When Percy Wallis retired a month later, Jimmy Simpson moved up but he and Len
Hannal did not always get on too well. The latter had certain views with which Jim did
not agree and he could be very abrupt. He was, however, a splendid engineman and the
kindest of men under his cloak of fierceness. I never asked for a footplate trip before I
had a pass but I was always welcome in the West Riding. Jim would glare at me and say:
“What the bloody ‘ell does tha want?”, and before I opened my mouth: “Come on up then
and work your bloody passage”. He and Len Richmond got on well and he too was an
excellent fireman at the age of 47. Once on 91, coming down to South Elmsall about
65mph, I shut the right hand injector off to let the water down for Doncaster: the left
exhaust injector was not working. Jim turned to me: “What the hell have you shut that
off for? Put the bloody thing on again at once!” I tried and it would not strike the water
being a lifting injector overheated. “Now tha’s done it, Dick, but I’ll show you how to
get it on”. The water valve under the barrel of the injector was left wide open. Jim put
the brake full on and released it at once. The train and engine jerked as was their wont
with those long wartime trains, water rushed up the pipe into the faceplate injector,
cooled it and went the feed. Not the Messrs Gresham and Craven’s book of instruction;
never seen before or since! Jimmy Simpson was ex-GC from Barnsley and, despite his
age, would fight any GN man who said a word out of place about the GC for there was
still a great deal of feeling at GN sheds even after twenty years.
RH56 The Ivatt C12 4014, a Leeds engine, stands at Castleford with the 1723 Leeds
Central to Leeds City, 300 yards down the road. After 70 minutes on foreign Geordie
territory, we would set off quietly for home via Kippax, Castleford, Methley and on to the
main line once more at Lofthouse Junction. The C12s were free-steaming little engines,
with a thin fire; they were fast and would bounce up and down on their bogie springs
when so doing with a short cut off and open regulator. Driver Bill Denman and Fireman
Jim Edison. Given the choice, he would have settled for 4014 every day of the week, for
wild riding Atlantics and K3s tested his nerves sometimes beyond endurance. In 1941,
firing to Fen Lewis, bunker first on the N2 2592 on a Leeds-Bradford express, the engine
left the rails near Bramley and finished up down the embankment. Neither man was
seriously hurt, but Jim’s nerve was affected and he never liked fast running again. Once
he had passed for driving, he never strayed far from home. Bill Denman was an
engineman ‘par excellence’ and had a perfect disposition, liked and respected by all.
RH57 Bob Foster and Wilf Webster on 231 at Wakefield Westgate early in 1945 with
the 1120 slow from Doncaster-Leeds. A very happy combination. Balne Lane Yard on
the upside, the Prison Sidings beyond the signalbox and the road set for the platform
road. This had always been an Atlantic turn but the arrival of the A1s at Copley Hill had
confined the K3s to some of the less arduous work.
RH58 Bob Foster and Ernest Fearnley with old 6100, class B4, in the bay waiting for
Abe Lawrence to bring the cars up the Western platform at Doncaster for the 1737 slow
to Leeds. By the look of the smokebox door, she has been at Bradford on those London
jobs up the 1 in 45 out of Exchange. Shortly after this was taken in 1944, Ernest was
passed for driving after 25 years on the footplate.
RH59 In the down yard at Castleford. The 1723 Leeds to Leeds has set back into the
yard to let something go by on the main line. It is 4020, another of the Copley Hill trio of
C12s, 4010 being the other. With the gently smiling Bill Denman is the Leeds Central
guard and his new mate, a certain Alfie Hudson. Now Alfred was very broad West
Riding and had come from Bradford. He was a natural comedian about whom many
stories were told. He had a stammer and half-closed eyes which made his delivery all the
funnier. As a cleaner at Bradford, he sometimes affected a species of bow tie which was
too much for the Shedmaster, the forthright John Frampton, who roared immortally:
“Come here, you theatrical bastard” which broadside Alfie took in perfectly good part.
To become a regular fireman, fate took “Twinkletoes” to Kings Lynn in furthest Norfolk
and, in time, “Scufter”, his Lynn nickname was rostered with Mr Alderman Raby JP,
dignified, well-spoken, a master of the measured phrase and a Mayor of Kings Lynn who
sometimes wore a trilby hat rather than a uniform cap and, if it was raining, held an
umbrella in one hand whilst helping to tune his engine with the other. No more unlikely
alliance could be imagined as Alfie’s dialect was so broad as to be unintelligible to a
mere Mayor. On one occasion, Raby, on the blind side, was backing an empty cattle
truck into the dock when one of the prospective passengers slipped from the platform.
Shouts of “Whoa” reached Raby’s ears just in time but from Alfie, who saw it all, never a
word. Apostrophised by his driver in no uncertain terms, Alfie replied: “Ah-ah-ah-wor
speechless!” And now, but not to the sorrow of Mr Raby, he is back in the West Riding,
as broad-spoken as ever and with a driver who, with his calm confidence, invariably drew
the best from every fireman who had the good fortune to be rostered with him.
RH60 4556 was one of the Leeds superheated N1s, the other being 4592. For the record,
other superheaters were: 4572 at Ardsley; and 4557, 4584,4598, 4599, 4602, and 4603 at
Bradford - splendid engines and very well liked as were the saturated N1s. The N2s
which left in 1941 after the Bramley derailment were quick in the uptake and strong but
would not steam freely without some unauthorised additions across the blastpipe. There
were no tears shed when the unwanted and top-heavy N2s went away to be foisted on
some other shed. Outside Leeds Central station: Driver Ernest Hine, ex-GC Barnsley
Junction (Penistone), a cheerful, good-hearted man and Fireman Wilf Webster, the elder
of the two brothers, very broad of speech and wearing a splendid pair of clogs.
RH61 Garden Sidings, Doncaster. Jim Edison left Bill Denman and moved into the top
link. Here is 6100 in 1944 behind the North signalbox at Doncaster station, before
returning with the 1737 Leeds. Arthur Moss, his mate, suffered cruelly with arthritis of
the spine but he was a grand chap though he was sometimes in great pain at work. Arthur
did not run hard downhill, which pleased Jim, but he had to work harder uphill than he
did with Bill Denman. Arthur has his hand on the regulator handle and behind is the
barrel of the lifting faceplate injector, the type referred to in RH55.
RH62 Len Hannal and Percy Wallis with K3 202 in the Garden Sidings prior to working
the 2008 Doncaster-Leeds in summer 1942.
RH63 Bob Foster and myself in the Garden Sidings. Summer 1941, soon after we had
met. I gradually accumulated a couple of sets of old enginemen’s overalls and a cast-off
cap but here in early days - for I was only 17 – just jacket and cap. I filled out a great
deal with hard physical work in the next year or two, and those muscles are still in good
shape.
RH64 A Sunday afternoon in 1944 behind the North signalbox. A Doncaster V2 in
place of a K3. Johnny Jeffs (R) and Syd Watson. Johnny was Chairman of the LDC, I
think: a very good engineman and very kind to me but hot-tempered so I was told but I
had no experience of LDCs in those days. I was to find that the fiery man was often a
100%er and both Johnny and his colleague, Ernest Clarke were straight and to the point.
Syd Watson was also splendid value.
RH65 Grantham with 2554 Woolwinder Sunday Summer 1944 and now a 220 lbs
boiler, class A3 but still RH drive. More of Alf Cartwright later, but why his mate, Percy
Hudson, should be wearing his wife’s hat is beyond me! Leeds men went through to
Grantham every day once the Pacifics had been allocated to Copley Hill in 1944 in some
numbers: this improved the quality of the Leeds Men’s work and improved their route
knowledge once more. Once the war was over, they started to go through to London
again.
RH66 3280 class C1 GN Atlantic had been at Copley Hill since 1932 as had 4433, the
last to be superheated in 1927 but, of course, both were piston valve engines. Probably
taken in Sep/Oct 1944. Percy Garner is now in Link 2 with Eddie Thompson (C) and
Percy Hudson has walked across for a chat and a photograph.
RH67 A nice study in the Garden Sidings in late 1941 of a fellow apprentice Derek King
(who died some years ago), and Fireman Percy Carline, ex-Immingham and to be passed
for driving shortly.
RH68 While we stood at Westgate with the 1520 ex Leeds, waiting for the Bradford
portion to be attached, there was time to photograph the white-haired fireman, Jack
Westwood, now in the top link with Driver Fenley (Fen) Lewis, said to be difficult and
dour but kindness itself to me. Indeed, he invited me more than once to his home in
Leeds. An ex-GC man from Wakefield, it was he who was driving the N2, 2592 on a
Leeds express at Bramley. Unscathed, he took duty as normal next day. That was the
end of the top heavy N2s in the West Riding: no tears were shed on that one. The engine
on the 1520 is a Green Arrow.
RH69 Old 91 in Sep 1941. She was a grand engine. She had a GN tender and rode very
rough but would she go! In the cab, Fireman Jack Foster and Driver Jim Heald with
whom I ONLY TRAVELLED ONCE WHEN HIS FIREMAN WAS Ben Adams, already
a passed fireman and deputising at short notice. Ben had been the fireman on the KitsonStill steam/diesel locomotive in 1927/8. On the ground, Fireman Eddie Thompson and
Driver Thernie Marsden. Garden Sidings, Doncaster.
RH 70 Fireman Alf Woollard and Driver Bob Foster, spring 1944.
RH71 A Sunday, 1400, early 1944. Garden Sidings, Doncaster. Fred Holdsworth and
RH, now growing out of his overalls. K3 231.
RH72 1942. 6164, the first B3 to come and run down at that. Men found their own way
about the Caprotti system but guided by a notice in the cab saying they must always run
with the regulator wide open – necessary with steam operated poppet valves. Fireman
Albert Walker, Driver John Smith (rarely wearing a uniform cap) and Derek King.
RH73 Leeds Central with a Lanky man on a Midland Compound, 1185 in the
background and keeping an eye on us LNER tykes. Driver Herbert Pollard, now a passed
fireman and who had fired for Burridge on 4460 on the Pullman jobs before 1937 when
the Pacifics, 2553/5 arrived for the Queen of Scots. Herbert had a quiet voice and was
known as the “Whispering Baritone”. Tim Paley and Stan Hodgson both in the second
tankie gang, no 3 Link. Tim is eating an apple and Stan smoking a rare pipe. Stan was
the man who started it all for me in the West Riding that night he invited me on to the
footplate of 6100, B4 at Wakefield to ride to Doncaster with him and Bob Foster. He had
started at the end of Dec 1922 and was, in 1941, still a “Young Hand”. But he was an
extrovert and asked me, a scruffy boy of 17 looking into the cab at Wakefield Kirkgate,
who I was and where I was going and he and Bob put me through my first lesson in
preparation and disposal in the early hours in the Garden Sidings before returning to
Leeds.
RH74 Stan Hodgson and Fred Holsworth in the Garden Sidings, K3 231 early 1944.
The signals in the background were – I think – L-R: Goods Road; down main to Western
Platform; down man in main line platform; down main all the way, centre road.
RH75 “Valour” 6165, class B3, autumn 1942, Garden Sidings – Balby Bridge Jc just
behind the engine; triangle to Garden Sidings and also round Hexthrope St James and to
Sheffield-Doncaster lines. Derek King, John Smith and Albert Walker.
RH76 Another character enters the stage! Harry White, “Perfectus” or “The Perfect
Driver”; had a considerable idea of his own excellent ability and much of it was leg-pull.
With an Atlantic on the Colchester, he usually had the coupling slacked back to get a
good jerk start at Wakefield on the 1 in 100. Loved to cut a dash when driving, feet up
on the firebox front of a Pacific, arms folded, nonchalant, watching with eyebrows lifted
and quizzical smile, the efforts of lesser mortals – to wit me – when working hard with a
rough low pressure Pacific and a load of 18-20 coaches. Those old A1s could time the
heavy trains with their big cylinders even when down to 140psi or so whilst an A3 or,
even more, an A4 would be struggling if short of steam. A smashing chap, great fun and
put up with my activities. Here he is taking his ease in a compartment one summer
evening and having his supper before working the Colchester.
RH77 Aug 1941. New Found friends and all ex-GC men and all posing for a 17 year old
boy and, although they did not know it, for posterity. Fireman Percy Carline who fired
for Driver Blanchard who retired shortly, Jack Burgon who fired for Polly Hadman who
retired at the same time and Bob Foster who had started about 1897, Queen Victoria’s
Jubilee Year. Percy and Jack had started in 1919 so had 22 years’ firing when the
photograph was taken. Jack had another year before he was passed though Percy was
passed shortly afterwards. All men of the highest quality. Jack Burgon, who was very
knowledgeable technically, was killed in 1956. A defect had developed on his engine
and he leaned out to either see or listen and hit his head on a bridge near Newark.
RH78 Driver Jas Smith and Fireman George Usher on Eng 202 at Doncaster station
waiting for the 1257 Doncaster-Leeds, a heavy London train. The print shows the
footplate fittings of a left hand drive K3 fitted with the steam and vacuum combination
brake. L-R Vacuum brake ejector and application handle, vertical reversing screw, steam
brake valve and application handle, faceplate injector, steam valve shut and water handle
fallen open to position it would be when steam is applied, gauge glasses, F class exhaust
injector. Centre below feeder and tea bottle, GN/LNER firehole door with fire made up
and trap door open where it will remain until Lofthouse is passed to run the fire down for
the downhill stretch to Leeds. No more coal added after Lofthouse. Boiler level lowered
to allow space to keep the engine quiet downhill.
RH 79 K3 231, no longer clean; always a good engine. Garden Sidings 1943. Fireman
Eddie Thompson, Driver Threnie Marsden.
RH80 Doncaster station 1944. 4481 is now a Copley Hill engine and not a very good
machine at the time, probably why it was sent to Leeds but it only stayed a few months.
Early 1944. Driver Ernest Brown who distinguished himself on the Pullmans in the ‘50s:
then in the second tankie gang(No 3), a delightful man, always the same, happy outlook
and at peace with the world. His stoker, RH, was by now a few months past 20 years of
age.
RH81 Fireman George Usher and Driver Jas Smith Eng 202. Waiting for the 1257
London at Doncaster.
RH82 This is Holbeck on a spring evening in 1942 with the 2130 Kings Cross ex Leeds
Central and taken while they were loading the mail which had no doubt come down the
NE section which used the Low Level. The load from Wakefield will be up to 17 bogies,
a fair load for an Atlantic. L-R: Donald Douglas, a boyhood friend having a clandestine
footplate trip on a Saturday evening. Bob Foster, driver and Ernest Fearnley, fireman.
This is the journey when I was driving from Kirkgate and, instead of stopping exactly by
South Elmsall box as directed by the signalman and his red light, I went a yard past so
that Ernest had to get down to speak to the signal man. He came back and gave me a
bollocking: “Whoa means whoa, Dick, and don’t bloody well forget it in future”. I never
have.
RH83 Doncaster station behind the North Box waiting for a down London on a Sunday
afternoon in 1944. 4481, St Simon, for a short time, a Leeds engine and no loss when she
went away. Arthur Webster, in clogs, the younger brother of Wilfred, also a clog man
with Driver Ernest Brown, glad to be on a Pacific if only on a Sunday.
RH84 Garden Sidings, Doncaster. Thernie Marsden and Eddie Thompson. A wellmatched pair. Thernie was a good engineman but his mate did the oiling underneath (NB
waistcoat and trousers or rather lack of overalls!). He was also a good companion rather
given to romancing and his tales, very seriously propagated, became longer for the
telling. He fired for a Driver Mitchell who was frequently incapacitated on a temporary
basis whereupon Thernie had to both drive and fire the engine across the West Riding to
Leeds. Eddie was also very competent and by no means hampered by his build.
RH85 One of the three Copley Hill N5s, 5533, 5535 or 5547. These were good little
engines if correctly fired and driven with a sloping fire and thin at the front of a sloping
grate. We were Leeds Central-Bradford via Pudsey. Fireman Horace Pound, quiet,
serious and always friendly and Passed Fireman Harry Bradshaw, once Bob Foster’s
mate and. Once you know him, splendid company. He lived in a back to back house in
Wortley and I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with the family in that little house. He
was ex-GER Doncaster, redundant when the shed was closed after the Grouping and
came to Leeds as a fireman. One’s life is arranged in a mysterious way. Harry was at
first reserved and the night I joined Bob Foster on 6100 at Kirkgate, Harry had asked for
the night off and his replacement was Stan Hodgson, the extrovert and that night I was
invited to ride on 6100 by the fireman! My life could have been very different had Stan
not been there to introduce me to the West Riding.
RH86 With 3300, class C1, in my early days, summer 1941. Three out of the four cloth
caps rather than uniform which is how I was given somebody’s spare! L-R: Driver Alf
Cartwright, a dead pan humorist (more of him later); his fireman, Percy Hudson (both
near the top of the No2 tankie link); Driver Arthur Scott (Scotty) who finished in Aug
1941, one of the very old school and his fireman, Len Clark, shortly to be passed for
driving and younger brother of the fiery Ernest Clarke (“Dick” he said one day “You
keep turning up like a ……. bad penny; come on up!”)
RH87 The best of the three wonderful Copley Hill Atlantics, 3300, still green in the
Garden Sidings, Aug 1941. Percy Hudson and Alf Cartwright and a splendid pair. Alf
used to enjoy firing and was only about 54 and was a splendid driver though Percy used
to mutter that he spent more time gossiping than oiling the engine. A very droll humorist
who usually wore a celluloid collar which was washed each day under the tap as good as
new next day. One day in 1943, Alf and I set off for Castleford on 3190, the first N1,
with the long tanks, which had been a Leeds for many years. Percy was in the train. We
stopped at Holbeck and then at Beeston whereupon the stationmaster appeared and gave
me a rollocking for stopping. Alf had misread or not read his staff book and we were
Holbeck and fast to Ardsley. I felt quite unable to cope with the stationmaster so Alf
shambled across, looked down at the very fierce but very short stationmaster and drawled
in his broad accent: “Well, it’s a long time since we saw you, so we thought we would
call to see how you were goin’ on and its been right good to see you”. The stationmaster
bid us farewell in lurid tones and no doubt reported the incident! (Nothing was ever
heard at Copley Hill). Percy was always at Copley Hill, Alf a GC man from Staveley.
RH88 The late summer of 1942 not long before Jack Burgon went up to pass for driving
early in 1943. A splendid portrait of both men, Jack Burgon, the great enthusiast despite
his 23 years firing and Arthur Moss with his arthritis so bad that it was a struggle to get
up and down from the cab and yet he did his work without complaint. No doubt, Jack did
the oiling and examination for him. Arthur was inclined to be heavy with an engine and
did not run downhill very fast but the got on remarkably well. Arthur has a nice pair of
clogs. The engine was one of the Doncaster new V2s in the 365 series, built at
Darlington in 1942. Why Copley Hill had her on what was normally a K3 turn, I cannot
remember. The set on the right is old NER stock, probably a Jull set. Botanic men came
into the Garden Sidings about 2030 and stood alongside us. The V2 would work the
2201 ex London back to Leeds. Double summer time.
RH89 Alf Cartwright at Bournemouth after the war, given to me by Alf himself. No
celluloid collar here and I do think the hat suits him!
RH90 Fireman Alf Woollard and Driver Harry White, the “Perfect Driver”. I think Alf
was not his regular mate but whom he was with, I cannot recall. He was a quiet man and
an excellent fireman but he did not like GC engines, reckoned they burned too much coal,
made too much noise and were filthy dirty old “Poggies”. A lot of GN men held to that
opinion but both GN and GC men were united on the merits of the GN Atlantic, a real
fireman’s engine. Alf left the railway before he went up for driving but something went
wrong and I heard he had come back as a freight guard at Wath. Engine 4470, Great
Northern summer 1944.
RH91 By now Copley Hill had more than one Pacific and here is 2552 Sansovino behind
the Doncaster North box waiting for the 2008 London. The hatchet faced fireman, Matt
Duck, had left Ernest Hine and was now in the top link, near enough 50 years of age and
still firing but not for long for by 1945, thinks had begun to move much more quickly
especially after the war in Europe. He was a very good fireman and very strong although
Thernie Marsden was a light driver. I remember when 2552 was a Neasden engine when
I was about to join the railway.
RH92 Grantham on a Saturday PM in Dec 1944. 2554, the first Pacific on which I
travelled as a school boy early 1940 on the Manchester Mail from Marylebone. Driver
Ted Simpson and Fireman Sam Oldknow of Neasden as far as Aylesbury. I caught the
last Met home to Amersham. By now, Percy Hudson is driving and Alf Cartwright’s new
mate is Tommy Hopkinson about 1922 seniority. Alf had at least nine years in the top
link or Pullman link and drove 990 on the return from Leeds to Kings Cross in l953.
2554 is now an A3 but still has RH drive: see the bridle rod below the middle and rear
splashers.
RH93 “Tea in the Garden”. Len Richmond and Harry White taking it easy on a summer
evening in 1943 in the Garden Sidings before working the Colchester to Leeds.
Traditional bottles of cold tea without milk, the most refreshing drink of all. The only
time I ever saw Harry in a uniform cap and this looks too big for him.
RH94 Leaving Fitzwilliam Halt, Eng 4433, with the 1120 slow from Doncaster to
Leeds. Not a good photograph but it shows the faceplate, the cramped little cab, the
Spartan fittings and Percy Hudson with Alf Cartwright, “The Old Firm” for they were
together in both No2 and No1 links and enjoyed each others company. Alf has the first
port of the regulator full open, full head of steam and uphill until the top is turned near
Nostell. He is wearing his celebrated celluloid collar, standing as was usual on a GN
Atlantic. Gauges L-R: Steam heat, boiler pressure, vacuum showing barely 20” on the
train side though the chamber side is standing up to 21”. Above Alf’s hand is the RH
injector of the lifting pattern and the injector steam key is immediately above his hand.
Vacuum brake ejector and application handle to the right. Small ejector steam valve,
“Pepperpot”, set at 21” vacuum, top of brake handle silhouetted in the bottom cab
window. A tranquil scene, sorry about the movement.
RH 95 Aug 1941 in the Garden Sidings, Doncaster. Engine 203, class K3. Returning
the Leeds with the 1737 slow. Fireman Percy Carline: Fireman Jack Burgon and Driver
Bob Foster. An old friend of Bob’s, Emily Hepworth, said to Bob “You look as if you
are saying ‘Please spare a copper for the aged!’” Bob was not amused. Emily had been
Emily Duckmanton of Wakefield GC: her father was John Duckmanton, the senior
passenger driver at Wakefield, taking the D9 105 to Cleethorpes daily and her brother
finished his career at Kings Cross in the top link retiring when I was Divisional Manager
in 1966. Emily was a box girl at Wakefield during the first war and married Charlie
Hepworth who was Bob’s fireman at Wakefield. She knew here railways. The son,
Ralph, also went on the footplate at Mexborough and became a Locomotive Inspector.
RH96 Lausanne in St Francois Square (I think) and tram junction in 1936. My camera
was given to me to photograph the scenery but it came back with lake steamers and trams
much to my parents amazement! Here is one of the modern and very fast trams built in
the 1930s. They worked the hill Ouchy service and used to climb marvellously. The
little one on the left is 61, a much more modest affair of a type that groaned instead of
singing as did the later trams.
RH97 Fireman Ralph Brook with Ernest Brown in Copley Hill Loco early in 1945. The
N5 is 5547, one of the three Copley Hill N5s used largely on Castleford and Bradford
work often via Pudsey. They were good little engines with only one fault: they would
not coast freely. This did not matter when going down the severe banks but when
running into a station on the level, steam needed to be kept on later than with, say a C12
which ran very freely indeed.
RH98 Driver Johnny Jeffs of Copley Hill with Fireman Tommy Senior in the shunting
neck outside Bradford in July 1945, one of the last pictures that I took in the West
Riding.
RH99 This is a historical photograph. Taken autumn 1942 at Leeds Central. The engine
is Earl Beatty, 6164, class B3, Caprotti and run down. It has been to Doncaster and back
with the 1257 from Doncaster with 16 cars at Wakefield, Driver Fen Lewis, and done
quite well considering its condition. This is the second round: on Saturday, the engine
for the 2008 ex Doncaster, a very heavy train, double headed the 1555 ex Leeds slow to
Doncaster and the 1555 engine came back with the Colchester as all week. The front
engine is the K3 91 with Arthur Moss: this side of the cambox is Alf Cartwright,
complete with celluloid collar: sitting are Firemen Jack Burgon and Percy Hudson and
our guard, George Wrigglesworth of Leeds. I travelled with them only as far as Holbeck,
returning to Leeds on the next train. The Caprotti gear of those days allowed for
complete reversal fore and back gear with one turn of the reverser which was a huge
wheel with a large number of finely spaced teeth to catch the claw to engage any given
and infinitely variable cut off. A notice to this effect was posted in the cab and also a
notice insisting on full regulator when it was open in connection with the steam operation
of the poppet valves. We started off in full gear and, then quite deliberately, Alf pulled
the gear up half a turn, which took it to mid gear so that the beat disappeared. Alf looked
round with a wondering expression and a gleam of amusement in his eyes. He was a
glorious deadpan and very dry humorist. Of course, he then put the gear where it should
be with two engines and six coaches with the regulator wide open!
RH100-188 Sheffield GC – Doncaster Carr – Doncaster Plant – Mexboro’ – Doncaster
Digs/Landlady – Edward Thompson’s Family
RH 100 March 1945 in the “Lanky Loco” on the up side at York station. Driver Joe
Oglesby of Darnall was a lovely man and the sort of mate that firemen dreamed of and so
did I. We became very great friends and I fired for him to Manchester, Leicester, York
Cleethorpes and once to Liverpool. We had worked the 1520 SO Sheffield-York via
Rotherham (GC) Mexboro’, Doncaster and Selby. Joe always had a surprise up his
sleeve. I fired for him on this journey with his mate, Cyril Golding in the train. We
stopped at Selby after a real dash across the flat from Doncaster. Joe said “What have
you got in there?” (meaning the firebox). “Enough for York when it is levelled with the
poker”. “Right, take her to Challoners Whin”, and over the other side I went for the final
stretch to the outskirts of York. Our engine is 4452, a Sheffield Atlantic, the first piston
valve superheated C1 built at Doncaster in 1910.
RH101 Jan 1944, the Doncaster Carr Loco Breakdown Crane after a rerailing job. Our
excellent crane is a 45 ton Cowans Sheldon and I was the apprentice along with Pete
Wright attached to the gang for experience. We have the full gang on this occasion as
follows: Ernie Newby, crane driver on the crane; (L-R) Herbert Ealham, Syd Grindell,
Walt Green (Fitter), Fred Hague (guard), Bernard Ogden, Mr Charlie Walker
(Mechanical Foreman) who had been a chargehand fitter at Mexboro’ before promotion
to Doncaster; (Sitting L-R) Pete Wright, Stan Harrison, Ted Booth and Jim Ashton. The
gang was made up of Fitters Mates, highly experienced breakdown men who know the
job inside out and with a splendid foreman. I was more or less their mascot and had a
grand time. The camaraderie of a good gang was something remarkable.
RH102 July 1944. The drop pit was manned over 24 hours and here are two of the
fitters in charge at the change over of shift at 1400 down the back end of the Running
Shed on a V2 3668 fairly new. L-R: Bernard Rushforth, Jimmy (a 15 year old
apprentice) and Walt Green, later to become Mechanical Foreman and who used to
relieve the Chargehand Fitters. Very long headed men, both of them and very friendly
disposed to me. On arrival at the Carr, I was put on the drop pit for a month so worked
with all three fitters.
RH103 The Big End Gang at the Carr Loco against a dismantled “A” engine, class J6 of
which we had quite a few at Doncaster. The two fitters worked days and afternoons on
big and small end routine maintenance and repairs but as both mates were members of
the breakdown gang the fitters would be given a spare man or another mate on overtime
to finish whatever job he had. L-R: Syd Grindell, Fred Stace (Fitter), Bill Ward (Fitter)
and Ernie Newby. Like most of the fitters at the Carr Loco, Fred and Bill had served
their time there or at Mexboro.
RH104 April 1944 at Hickleton Main colliery where we had been rerailing wagons and
an engine. A misty morning after thickish fog. After the job had been done, the gang
would pose for photographs: Syd Grindell of the squeaky voice an ex-miner Bernard
Ogden, another ex-miner and one of the best unless put out and “Gentleman Jack” Jupp, a
laid back but able fitter.
RH105 Feb 1945. The small boy in the centre had just returned from America where his
parents had sent him, along with his younger sister, during the war. He had a perfect
railway weekend with me and he is the brother of Basil de Iongh of the RAF but one time
Doncaster apprentice. Peter had been with me in the West Riding the previous day on the
engines and I had had to carry him home exhausted off the Mail at 2300 the previous
night. Here he is at the back of the Carr Loco with Driver Harry Frith who had just come
off the main line through ill health and drove the fitting shop and back end pilot, a J52
which had seen better days. His fireman is a young hand who will now be retired if he
stayed with the railway. Harry was a Doncaster GE man of whom there were several at
Doncaster and the West Riding. Peter is wearing my uniform cap and looks the part.
RH106 Some of the names have gone but Arthur Briars (Fitter) is third from the right
and extreme right is Fred Stace big and small end fitter.
RH107 Nov 1943. The north end pilot at Doncaster Station, always an Atlantic facing
north and the crews are changing over. The No2 link at the Carr was largely C1 work to
Leeds, York, hull, Lincoln, Sheffield, Grantham as well as Kings Cross with a big engine.
L-R: Driver Bill Addy, Fireman ..?.., Fireman Len Sierson and Driver George Higgs, all
of them top class men of whom I knew George Higgs extremely well, calm and
resourceful and a pipe smoker.
RH108 Fireman Charlie Sharpe later to become a driver and whom I saw when I was
Divisional Manager at Kings Cross in 1966. He was firing to John George Wright in the
Top Link and is on the South End pilot at Doncaster station in May 1945. 4472 was then
a low pressure A1 with RH drive stationed at Doncaster where the passenger engines
were given a wipe over from time to time. Charlie’s father was in the top link but at most
sheds, father and son were never booked together.
RH109 Carr Loco Doncaster and a Sheffield Atlantic 4420 which must have failed at the
station and come down to the Carr for repairs. As an apprentice one had little knowledge
as to why “foreigners” out of steam had arrived for repairs. However, she is the
background for a lunchtime photo in )ct 1944 a few days before I was 21 and on my way
to the Drawing Office where I was employed as a very ordinary draughtsman. This could
possibly be considered as a rogues gallery as it contains some very likeable rascals
including the Carr Loco Bookie, the Carr Loco Crown and Anchor Croupier and his
assistant and watchman. L-R: Bernard Ogden, Harry Smith, Harry Timlin, Frank Horne,
..?..on gangway, Fred Tate, George Helliwell (on gangway), George Booth, Tommy
Nothand, Harry Higgins.
RH110 John George Wright now in the Top Link and on the South End pilot with 2547
“Doncaster”, one of our A1 Pacifics. None of the A3s were shedded at Doncaster at that
time (July 1945) until they started to come back with 220psi boilers from the Plant. His
fireman is Cliff Wood but promotion for the 1919-20 men had at last picked up and Cliff
did not have to wait long to be passed for driving after some 25 years service.
RH111 The Garratt 2395 came to Doncaster for overhaul in Feb 1945. The photo was
taken either at the Carr Loco or the Crimpsall on a Sunday AM in Feb 1945 with Peter
De Iongh up. Peter did not come to the railway despite his interest but, after a very
successful career as a schoolmaster, he retired as Headmaster of Lathallan School, north
of Montrose where his handyman/gardener had been a Corkerhill (Glasgow) fireman!
RH112 A J52, 4250, on the downside carriage pilot at Doncaster station in the Western
bay platform in 1945. (L) Driver Abe Lawrence always on the late turn and used to view
my activities with the Leeds men with a jaundiced eye until we got to know each other
and he was kindness itself. Shunting was carried out carefully, no histrionics and without
hurry but always to time. Normally, the fireman (a young hand) was never allowed to
drive but today he has Charlie Carter, a Passed Fireman so Abe spent the day on the other
side, a pleasant change. The old J52s were everywhere on the GN from London to
Doncaster: not many in the West Riding where the pilot and freight work was carried out
by the “Tango tanks”, class J50.
RH113 Sunday morning in Feb 1945 and Peter de Iongh having the weekend of his
young life. Here he is getting progressively more dirty with the Crane Driver of the Carr
Loco 45 ton Cowans Sheldon crane: not many boys have sat up in that privileged
position.
RH114 A V2 as background at the Carr Loco, summer 1944. Fitters Bill Noble and
George Hattersley, and Ernie Birkhill and ..?.., their mates. Both George and Bill Noble
had come from outside industry during the was but had become very useful fitters on
running repairs, no easy task when the clock is always the enemy unlike the Plant Works
where the enemy was always production.
RH115 Tommy Laister was a GC man from Mexborough, his mate being Arthur Davis,
a very competent Fitters Mate as he needed to be as Tommy was an outstanding Running
Shed Fitter who knew what to do, how to do it in the minimum time, how to save delays,
how to coax drivers off the shed with rough old engines they did not want to take. He
practised all the arts of skill and expediency and it was at the Carr Loco and when I was
with Tommy Laister that I realised for the first time but by no means the last, that as
craftsmen and railwaymen the best of the Running Shed artisans, be they fitters of
boilermakers, were in a class of their own.
RH116 A Doncaster C1 which started life as 1421, a 4 cylinder compound built in 1907
but converted to a piston valve two cylinder superheated Atlantic in 1920. As a
compound her fireman for some time was George Wilson in the top link along with his
brother Fred in my time at Doncaster. We are at Botanic Gardens on a Sunday afternoon
with Fireman Arthur Gell and the fiery Harry Moyer who had a brother at Grimsby, a GC
man and some years older than Harry who was in the Atlantic link. Harry got on well
with Arthur who was in a lower link and who had changed over with Harry’s regular
mate with whom he did not get on too well for Harry was not by any means sunshine and
light with his regular mates if they did not measure up. He was a very good engineman
and a perfectionist and nothing wrong with that.
RH117 The Doncaster breakdown gang pauses for a few minutes after a job and before
the jib is lowered on to its truck. Smokers to a man, and so we all were when it was
difficult to get a decent smoke. If one got Woodbines, one was in clover, never mind
Capstans Full Strength, my favourite weed until I started on Nut Brown and Nosegay at
Stratford and years later on Gauloises. L-R: Herbert Ealham, Ted Booth, Bernard Ogden
and Syd Grindell. All four good friends to me, three of whom had been underground
down the pit but Herbert, reticent about his past, was a cultured man who was quite
content to live his life as a fitter’s mate and live in Chilvers St Doncaster. We met again
many years later about 1979 to our mutual happiness.
RH118 The Heavy Hammer Gang: Carr Loco brake blockers and adjusters alongside an
American 2-8-0 USAA 1720 which had passed through the plant before going overseas
in Aug or Sep 1944. The photo was taken in the summer of 1944 at the back end of the
shed with Jack Liversedge and Jim Archer. How men have changed in their style of
dress in Jack Liversedge’s case. The old cheap cloth cap was everywhere and usually
greasy and comfortable if it provided little protection from knocks and blows on the head.
But nobody worried about that sort of thing: Life was dangerous in a running shed but
not so bad as all that if you kept a sharp lookout for movements or engines easing up in
the shed with you underneath. No tin hats nor orange vests nor washing facilities nor
anywhere to put your overalls but nobody thought of washing except in a bucket of
paraffin or biking home other than in overalls!
RH119 The South End station pilot at Doncaster Central in 1943 when I was an
apprentice in the Crimpsall on my way home for lunch. The engine is a V2, 4781 and the
group includes a boy messenger from the Good Dept, a Goods Guard, Driver George
Rolfe, one of the very old school of GN drivers, his fireman and RH in typical goinghome mode. We never changed nor washed except in paraffin and my dear landlady,
Miss Marsh, had paper on the chair as there was never time to take the overalls off nor
the clogs either.
RH120 1943 4781 again with Driver George Rolfe, the Goods Dept messenger,
George’s Fireman and in the background my great friend Basil De Iongh, shortly to leave
the LNER for flying duties with the RAF. He stayed on after the war and retired as a
Group Captain, a career that eminently suited him. But his heart is in the railway to this
day and there are Doncaster photographs dotted about his home and in the family album.
RH121 Summer 1944. A group of Running Shed Apprentices at the Carr Loco. The
background is the fitting shop, our base which housed the only heating, a huge stove in
the nearest corner of the building. Benches along both sides of the shop, tables for big
and small end gangs, office in the far left hand corner for the chargehand and the two
Mechanical Foreman, and in the far right corner the door to the machine shop in which
the turners worked. One had been the senior apprentice, now a turner, George Oliver,
one day to be a leading light in the AEU. All the apprentices were craft apprentices who
had left school at 14 except for Jack Taylor, a premium apprentice like me. Back row:
Jack Taylor, Geoff Pacey (one day to be Mechanical Foreman), Jack Sampey, almost out
of his time. Middle: Bernard Parkin, Jimmy, Stan Allett, Pete Flannery, Bert Gilbody.
Front: Tiddler, Dennis Hammond, Ted Hirst, Harry Harker. Most stayed with the
railway and one or two went to the Plant as erectors. A rare commodity, a few flame
scoops in the background.
RH122 The North End Pilot between the North signalbox and the turntable. Eng 3291, a
flat valve Atlantic and a bad starter but a flyer when on the move. Driver Harry Frith (ex
Doncaster GE) and Fireman Charlie Howlett ex GC from New Holland shed. Charlie’s
grandson is a RCTS member on Humberside and Charlie was a 1919 man still waiting to
be passed and not even in the top link when this was taken in 1943.
RH123 Hickleton Main Colliery after rerailing: April 1944. Up until then and right
through the war, Foreman Charlie Walker was the only Mechanical Foreman at the Carr
Loco which gives an idea of the responsibility on the shoulders of the working
Chargehands and there were only three of them! But an Assistant Foreman had been
appointed and this was his first week: he became our breakdown foreman and he was to
become Motive Power officer of the GN Line by 1958 – he was one of the best. An
Apprentice first at Wrexham GC, then Kings Cross and up the ladder, C G Palmer. L-R:
Cyril Palmer, Charlie Walker, “Gentleman Jack” Jupp, Fitter, Syd Grindell, Pilot Guard,
Fred Hague, Guard, Bernard Ogden and front Herbert Ealham, Ted Booth. Ernie Newby
on the crane.
RH124 Engine 5438 “Worsley Taylor” a Sheffield D10 Director in the Lanky sidings at
York station on the up side. We had worked the 1520 SO from Sheffield Vic via
Rotherham GC, Mexboro’, Doncaster and Selby. Driver Joe Oglesby, Fireman Norman
Foster of Darnall. Norman had been in the train and Joe and I had done the necessary,
plenty of steam and a perfect trip. I remember pushing the fire over a few miles from
York with the poker and threw it back up on to the coal just as we went under a bridge. It
hit the bridge but I held on, just which was as well for it could have caused some damage
to the train for we were going over 60 mph.
RH125 One Day, in 1942, ET gave me an engine pass for Doncaster-Manchester Central
and return and I was expecting a “Sam Fay” class B2 but got a rough old K3 instead. The
Sheffield driver did not exactly welcome an unknown young man on a Sunday morning
on a detested K3 but his fireman Tom Shirley was talkative and anxious that I should do
the firing up to Woodhead. This was cleared by the driver in a very dour manner but by
the time we got to Manchester he was a new man and we had a grand day out as I
returned with them on the 1725 Liverpool-Hull. It took me until Nov 2000 to find out his
name at a funeral in Sheffield: It was Fred Southgate, one of the old school of GC
drivers.
RH126 6063 was the Sheffield Carriage pilot which also did trips to Penistone and back.
Class c13, a good GC engine, built in 1903 and very useful for local passenger work to
Retford, Lincoln and Chesterfield. Driver Joe Oglesby and Fireman George Sanderson of
Neepsend in 1942. George always wore a boiler suit as did quite a few drivers and
firemen at Neasden and Woodford. They joined the artisan’s overall club which provided
us with a clean pair of overalls every fortnight. I think it cost a shilling a fortnight!
George’s younger brother Walter moved to Calcton as a driver in 1960 and landed with
great pleasure on the Britannias. He lives to this day in Clacton and in 1999, I gave him
enlarged copies of this negative for himself and George’s son. Tragically, George
Sanderson died in his 40s. Joe had some splendid mates, Joe Antcliff, George Sanderson
and then the younger men, Walter Bacon, Norman Foster and Cyril Golding up to 1945
when I made my last journey with him.
RH127 4452, a Sheffield engine and a good one, the first superheated piston valve GN
Atlantic in the Lanky yard at York station up side. We had come from Sheffield Vic with
the 1520, a flyer after Doncaster and it nipped along via Rotherham and Mexborough too.
Fireman Cyril Golding with his regular mate and my great friend, Joe Oglesby.
RH128 Summer, 1944. The engine of the 1835 slow Doncaster-Sheffield in No 2 bay
platform at Doncaster. The engine is a GC 4 cylinder B7, a good engine if handled
properly and if not a coal scoffer: I found them lovely engines for Joe Oglesby and
Ernest Millington were first class enginemen. This turn was a doddle for such a powerful
engine. Fireman George Dawson and Driver Ernest Millington of Darnell.
RH129 Joe and Mrs Oglesby in their home in Downham Road, Firth Park, Sheffield.
The occasion was the visit of my mother who loved to meet my railway friends. Gladys,
as always, smiling and kindly and Joe looking splendid in his best suit. Joe had a little 8
hp Ford which hardly consumed any petrol. He used it to get to work or home at
awkward hours which was permissible for certain railwaymen. But not many of the older
men had cars even if they could afford them as they tended to drive a car like a steam
locomotive which didn’t always work nor did they care for the idea of steering.
RH130 Eng 6085, a GC Atlantic worked the 0832 Doncaster-Sheffield on Easter
Saturday 1944 and we were stopped between Broughton Lane and Woodburn Jc on a
gradient of 1 in 58. The Sheffield driver was Arthur King (L), the son of a Locomotive
Inspector in early LNER days and he had gone in the train so that the Doncaster driver
(R), Arthur Kirk could refresh his knowledge of the road. All went well until an attempt
was made to start from the signal check. 6085 was a piston valve engine and there was
no need to open the cylinder cocks or reverse all the way down the rack to full back gear.
But our Doncaster driver, the nicest of men, knew only one way which took us
backwards until the Sheffield driver jumped out of the front compartment, climbed up,
assumed control and got us away up to Woodburn. The photo is taken in Sheffield
Victoria on arrival.
RH131 5438 at York in the Lanky Loco on the up side south of the station. We had
turned and were ready for our food after working from Sheffield and returning with the
1810 SO flyer to Sheffield via Doncaster, Mexboro’ and Rotherham. I was the fireman
that day (L) and by the look of my face, I had been busy but a little dirt didn’t signify
with a young man of 19-20. With me is the Sheffield fireman, Norman Foster who had
the day off on the cushions.
RH132 This belongs to a later era – probably about 1955-56 when Ralph Hepworth (R)
was firing at Mexborough to Driver Alf Mace (L). Like many Mexboro’ men, Alf
enjoyed exercising his skill as a fireman so that Ralph had a deal of driving when he was
in the passenger link. Mexboro’ had only one passenger link with about a dozen sets of
men. In my time at Doncaster, 1941-45, their usual express engines were the GC B5
“Fish” engines used on the Hull jobs, very handy and free running engines. DoncasterSheffield-Penistone-Mexboro was all very heavy and Doncaster-Hull, level by
comparison. 1167 was one of the Mexboro’ B1s which had replaced the Fish engines and
that day, instead of going to Hull which had been terminated at Goole, coming back
tender first to Doncaster where we turned (See also RH178).
RH133 Hull, early 1945, just before seniority took George Scott out of the passenger
link into a species of “Old Man’s Gang”. The last time I saw him he was shunting at
Conisborough with 5184, class B5. I met him in 1942 when he had Tom Brown as his
fireman and Tom was driving 6034, a “Pom-Pom Bogie”class D9 while George was
chatting up all and sundry on Doncaster station, mostly the birds! Given a good mate,
George rarely if ever did the driving and, as they were both in middle age, Tom was
virtually in charge. But George Scott knew the job from A-Z and I went many miles with
him. On this occasion he had 5432 class D10 a Sheffield engine instead of the usual
Mexboro’ D10(5429/31) or the D9 5107/8 or 6034. She had TAB valves and, on
coasting, the screw was wound into full gear and then mid gear which gave completely
free running, the valve heads stationary while the spindles moved in the sleeve. When
the regulator was opened the valve heads went up to their proper position on the spindles.
We are in Botanic Gardens shed ready to work back to Mexboro where George and his
mate Jim Terry would be relieved.
RH134 Doncaster Plant Works March 1943. Left: “Stan”, a Polish aristocrat who
joined the RAF where I heard that he had been killed. He was a most enjoyable character
and revelled in the rough and tumble of Yorkshire industrial life which says a lot for him.
Right: my mate Edgar Elvidge who was an Erector on Bill Umpleby’s pit in the
Crimpsall. Edgar, or Joe as he was sometimes known, was a hard worker and saw to it
that I did my whack. Profane entirely by habit and only at work, he called me all the
names every day. We had eleven months together and I enjoyed his company. I should
only have been with him five months but I asked if I could stay rather than go into 4 Bay
on the Pacifics and V2s. It suited him and our foreman, George Andrews, an old LDEC
man from Tuxford. I took a few pictures of him but normally there was no time for that
sort of thing! We worked very hard and a small engine would come on our pit stripped
down and six days later it was over at the Weigh Bridge having had a general repair. I
was Joe’s barrow boy and never happier than when we had to go after rods or piston
valves or to the boilermakers or coppersmiths or, better still, to the Carr Loco which was
very bad news for Edgar as he regarded Shed Fitters as beyond the pale and also loss of
piecework earnings. The last time I saw him was in 1963 when I was in Doncaster
Works for the first time since 1945. He had had a serious accident at the Weigh House
and was on a bench job at the far end of the Crimpsall where we had a lovely 20 minutes
together. Of course, he wanted to know what I had been up to since I left him. As ever,
he gave me a rollicking but when we parted there were tears in his eyes.
RH135 I took this photograph in Jan 1944 a day or so before leaving Doncaster Plant for
ever and going down to the Carr Loco. The engine was not the first rebuilt Q4 but had
been 5044 which became 9931. But it was handy for an official photo and only one side
of the engine was painted grey and only one buffer. The Q4 was an excellent engine, the
original “Tiny” and the predecessor of J G Robinson’s famous ROD, class 04: I have
heard mixed reports of the Q1, not enough water for a trip engine, not handy for shunting,
useful on a hump but several GC hump engines about already and such as J67/68 and N5
did a useful job with lighter loads and yards with two or three humps and the EE 350 HP
shunter on the doorstep but a useful conversion especially in wartime. 5058 was the true
99225 of 1946. A gang had been set up to rebuild these engines in 4 Bay under
Chargehand Hewitson.
RH136 A year’s grime since 4477 “Gay Crusader” had her last General in 1/43. I do not
know why she had come in although at first glance she has knocked her front end out.
The cylinder cover is whole, however, it may have been needed for another engine or the
strippers had started work before the engine got to the stripping shed. I never worked in
the stripping shed nor the tender bay nor the boilermakers but you could not do
everything and my training was as a Fitter and Turner according to the certificates I
received signed by Mr Edward Thompson in Oct 1944 when I was 21.
RH137 Harry Oldham; Fitter in the Machine Bay in the Crimpsall with whom I worked
for three months on Walchaerts Valve Gear. Our job was to clean valve gear in the bosh
and then to file and fit return cranks to crank axles, knock them on with a long wooden
hammer and measure them for set against a gauge. If they needed adjustment, we had
them heated and blacksmithed to our measurements. We had plenty of other things to
keep us busy to the extent that Harry used to explode periodically and take it out of me.
Apart from that we got on fine.
RH138 About one every three months if work permitted it. Edgar said I could go on a
trial run if anybody was daft enough to take me. On the contrary, the trial crews always
welcomed a visitor and here we are with the K3 159 which we had turned off our pit the
day before yesterday. Everything coupled up and tested in steam: engine thoroughly
examined: adjusted by Bill Umpleby’s gang (us) if necessary and very unpopular for we
would lose piecework bonus while working at the Weigh House. Engine coaled for the
next day and away we went to Barkston Jc where we turned on the triangle formed with
the Nottingham-Boston line which passed underneath the main line. We took it gently on
the up road and if everything was cool, faster on the way home. I remember we used to
keep an army camp near Newark warm by pushing off great lumps of coal for the boys to
nip over the fence and pick up. Here we have Fireman Roly Williamson, one day to be
on the ER Sectional Council and a future Mayor of Doncaster. He died far too young
some years ago. Driver Fred Elmes, quiet, calm and experienced. There were three trial
drivers: Fred, Harry Capp and Arthur Laver, all volunteers and carefully vetted for
knowledge. Two were on trials and the third did the Crimpsall shunting with 3980, the
old Stirling J52. The guard appeared from one of the signal boxes on the triangle and we
gave him a lift home to Claypole, bike and all!
RH139 My wonderful landlady, Miss Marsh, with her loveable little mongrel, Queenie,
and Mr Barrett, Foreman of the Plant Stores. He was a widower and I think MM had
hopes but it was not to be. He used to come on a Sunday afternoon and cut the grass. It
was my good fortune that MM was top of the list when I was interviewed by the
Mechanical Engineer, Doncaster, Mr Edward Thompson. He had 15 minutes’ chat with
me, told me to start as soon as possible and that his chauffeur would take me to some
digs. He rang for a Mr Digby who was the clerk who progressed all apprentices through
the Plant and Carriage End, and he picked 43 St Marys Road. MM agreed to take me,
and a week later my great adventure had begun. I was with MM from Jan 1941 – Aug
1945 and she mothered me, but she could be tough. I could come in all hours if I was in
overalls but, if I went to the flicks and was not in by 2230, she wanted chapter and verse.
How she fed us folk or coped with the work I do not know: she was marvellous. I
always enjoyed going to the fish shop for her, a very convivial place run by the Websters,
and in times of shortage I was asked to buy a spot of horse meat from the shop in
Netherall Road. It tasted fine, and as for her Yorkshire puddings..! In short, she was a
wonderful landlady of the old school who would stand no nonsense. Anybody coming
home drunk was shown the door next morning or even the same night, quite fearlessly.
She had five of us of various backgrounds, usually two railway youngsters. Bathing was
rudimentary but I had some friends with hot water so I could have a bath from time to
time. Happy days and how well my Mother got on with her when she came up two or
three times a year. And all for 30 bob a week all found, raised with profuse apologies to
35/-, seven days a week, four meals a day.
RH140 Not every day do you come across Edward Thompson’s sister or his niece.
Betty Stratford-Tuke was married to Athol, a wing commander, a regular. While he was
away, she lived with her mother in the Old Rectory at the end of the Balby trackless
route. I did not meet Betty until I went into the Drawing Office, where she was a tracer,
along with three other ladies, one of whom was Buster Brown’s daughter (he was the
Works Manager of the Carriage End). Her son, Robin, in the centre, joined the Royal
Marines (I’m not absolutely sure of that) and came out with the rank of Major although I
am not sure when. He became a prison governor in later years and I think he was at
Wandsworth Jail. He must be past 70 now and I have completely lost touch. Edward
Thompson’s sister was a lovely person and tough at times. I remember getting a hell of a
rollocking for putting the handles of the table knives in the washing-up water. I never
visited ET’s home but I do know it was kept scrupulously tidy despite his being a
widower!
RH141 The Yankee 2-8-0 1888 had come into Doncaster Plant in spring 1943 for some
fettling before going to work on the LNER at March. We were not employed on the
work but Bill Umpleby and his gang wanted their photo taken against this engine. How
different people looked in those days: we came to work on bikes, on foot or on the shiny
seated “Trackless Trams”. Bill Umpleby, our Chargehand, led a happy crew although his
honesty with the pencil when calculating piecework payments used to infuriate my mate,
Edgar, who was after every penny that could be earned. L-R: Wally Sysman on
smokeboxes; Bill Umpleby C’hand Erector; Phoebe Cliff, our labourer; Aubrey another
apprentice; Edgar Elvidge, pistons, valves, rods and motion; and Harry Waring, pipework and fittings.
RH142 4406, a piston valve Atlantic class C1 was turned out of Doncaster Works just
before Christmas 1943, a few days before I left the Plant for the Carr Loco. It is in steam
and will go on its trial trip next day when Dick Jackson, Weigh House labourer, has
coaled it. The PV engines had a round piston gland, most of them had dummy tailrod
guides and most, but not all, had smokebox saddles. All slide valve engines had oval
piston glands and the spindle glands tended to blow, in cold weather, up the boiler side
when starting. No wonder with a 32 element superheater.
RG143 Our lady labourer, Phoebe Cliff, stands with some of Bill Umpleby’s men (he
was our C’hand Erector) beside and old “W” class D2 4398 and shedded at Botanic
Gardens, Hull. We had just turned her off our pit, tarred and feathered, as most of the
painting was done while we were working on the engines in the Crimpsall 2 Bay. 4398
would have been on our pit for six maybe seven days, and away into traffic without a trial
trip. The Carr Loco would run her in on some tiddlybunk job and off she would go to
Hull. K2, K3 and C1 took a day or two longer and the little engines paid us best on
piecework, J3/4, C12, J52 and suchlike. Not all the gang is present. L-R: Wally Sysman,
son of a well known Doncaster driver; George Sparrow; “Pat”, who has just joined from
outside industry; my mate, Edgar; Phoebe, who kept us in order with her sharpish tongue;
and George Holmes. It was nearly 58 years ago and it seems like yesterday.
RH144 Edgar Elvidge (R) minus the cap that was part of his equipment, with two other
gentlemen of the Crimpsall. Left is Frank Sutton, Storesman. To start the day, I called
on Frank for the tallow candles which we screwed into nuts and were our only source of
lighting underneath an engine, whereas at the Carr Loco, the fitters all had acetylene
lamps which had their moments and, if sworn at, would answer with a jet of flame about
a foot long. Mr Day (I always called him this) was a remarkable craftsman who patched
cylinders. He was well-spoken and never used bad language and, whereas Edgar was
staunch Labour, the old gentleman was as blue a Conservative as ever lived. He and
Edgar were good friends and it was a joy to hear them arguing, with Mr Day lecturing
from his poop deck the ever more vitriolic Edgar. “Now, Edgar, that language is quite
unnecessary and won’t help your case”, which sent my mate off into another frenzy of
torrid language. In heavy industry, men really could swear but I wonder what they would
have made of the patronising and “so clever” bad language one hears on TV and in films
today.
RH145 We had a couple of Royal Engineers “working” with us at the Weigh House
towards the end of 1943. They were grand lads who came in their uniform and
entertained us. Geordie is second from the left and Charlie Varley, a true Cockney (R).
He was very much a private so don’t be fooled by his chalk-marked stripes. L-R:
“Flan”, Geordie, .?. , Bill Umpleby under whom I had worked in 2 Bay, Chargehand
Arthur Reesbeck, Charlie, Fred Gregson, “Banner” Senior whose nephew, Hedley
Wilkinson, retired as the BRB Chief Management Accountant. Flan, Fred and Banner
were regular Weigh House fitters.
RH146 Mallard, looking the worse for wear and in need of a General. Against the
legendary engine, stand some of the Premium Apprentices. In fact, my mother was the
last to pay the £50 for the “Duration”. Only three of us stayed with the LNER and BR; it
was our life and nothing else would do. L-R: Peter Townend, later Shedmaster at Kings
Cross Top Shed where he was the right man at the right time and is the acknowledged
expert on Doncaster Pacifics and V2s; Bill Taylor specialised in electric traction and
became a senior Electrical Engineer on the LM at Derby; Jack Taylor who was the son
of the C&W Engineer and who left the Southern many years ago; Henry Steel who
stayed with BR until 1949 and then served the railway in East Africa; Alan Coggan, the
son of a GC driver from Keadby who, after transfer to Doncaster, found himself firing on
the A1 4481 still with short travel valves and a rough driver who emptied the tender
going to London and back. Alan has been all over since leaving the railway and now
lives in Switzerland and Spain. On the gangway, David Sandiland, and myself on the
right.
RH147 The engine is an N2 4722. Why we selected it, I would not know but to three of
us, an engine was an engine. R-L: John Hyde, Denis Branton, Aubrey and myself.
When I started at the Plant in Jan 1941, I was sent to learn a turret lathe in B Shop with
Denis on days and John on afternoons. They were 15 and 17 but they seemed years older
for they had been at work since 14. By coincidence, the three of us were also in Bill
Umpleby’s gang in 2 Bay in 1943. I never met anybody less like an “Audrey” but I
suppose it might have been his surname used as a mark of affection. All were craft
apprentices serving seven years to become journeymen. Denis finished as one of the
Chargehands in the New Erecting Shop and John retired as Production Manager at York
Works for many a craft apprentice rose up from the ranks. As for me, I had grown from
a skinny nipper at 17 to a fairly muscular boy. Back, arms, chest, stomach muscles and
strong hands were developed by hard work and heavy lifting. Try me for a handshake!
RH 148 In the Crimpsall, you had to shout all the time. Edgar would send me to get the
overhead crane but my deep voice would never reach the crane driver up in the roof so
Edgar’s piercing whistle would do the trick. Riveters, welders and boilermakers would
work alongside us and the background of noise was beyond belief but one never gave it a
thought for it was part of our life. We boys threw loose asbestos at each other for fun but
we never knew we were dealing with dangerous stuff. The famous “Asbestos Annie”
who put lagging on boilers was covered with the stuff but I expect she lived to a ripe old
age but John Bellwood, three years my junior, died in 1988 of asbestosis. The old K3 is
waiting to be stripped for general repair and she looks a rough old thing. L-R: Harry
Oldham was my fitter in the Machine Bay; Edgar Elvidge, my mate in 2 Bay; Jimmy
Jewell, Edgar’s friend and character; Ted Micklethwaite riveter who was often on our pit
and making a diabolical noise next to us; and a boilermaker whose name has gone. I
never cease to marvel that such tough characters were so happy to be photographed and
that the nice lady in Bagshaws kept me in films, for I now have a treasured social history
of those days in the University of life.
RH 149 The Weigh House staff and hangers-on against a new K3 in Oct 1943. Amongst
those on the gangway are: Pete Wright and Harold Thomas, apprentices, with Roly
Williamson, one day to be Mayor of Doncaster. Standing L-R: Fitters Paddy Ledger,
Fred Gregson, “Flan”, Drivers Fred Elmes and Harry Capp, Chargehand Arthur
Reisbeck, Driver Arthur Laver, Shunter Dick Ball, our labourer and steamraiser Dick
Jackson and Examiner Cyril Wood: not much missed his eagle eye. Each driver had two
weeks on trial trips and one week on 3980, the Crimpsall shunter: the firemen came and
went on seniority, all young men by the standards of the day but the drivers were
nominated volunteers and were out of the line of promotion until they wished to return
which was a rarity—a good arrangement as all three men were vastly experienced.
RH150 In Dec 1943, the Crimpsall ”Humpy” was a departmental engine but carried its
old number, 3980. It had been built a month before Pat Stiring died in 1895 and was
manned in turn by the trial drivers and their mates. The A4, just out of the Crimpsall, is
4466, recently renamed Sir Ralph Wedgwood, as the engine that had carried the name,
4469, was damaged beyond repair in an air raid in York in 1942. 4466 has just been lit
up for tomorrow’s trial run.
RH151 An ”A” engine, class J6 new off Umpleby’s pit and not too good a photograph.
On the gangway, Denis Branton and Aubrey, apprentices, and standing L-R “Pat” from
outside industry, “Ossie” our bench fitter, Wally Svsman, Edgar Elvidge, George
Sparrow, Harry Waring and Phoebe Cliff.
RH152 Not often did we see a V1/3 at Doncaster. In the centre is Roy Herod, the
Crimpsall welder always in his brown overalls and usually up to his neck with work in
his welding booth in the far end of the tender bay. With him is my great friend Basil de
Iongh who joined the RAF for flying duties and stayed in after the war and “Bonk”
Halcombe, the son of a doctor in Doncaster. He never stayed with the railway after his
training and vanished from the scene.
RH 153 Lincoln Cathedral and “Uphill” in the distance. We are “Downhill” at Lincoln
Loco where we are lifting in a new turntable for the Outdoor Machinery Dept with the
Doncaster Cowans Shildon 45 ton crane. It was a nice job on a warm day in 1944. It was
also memorable in that Syd Grindell, Fitters Mate, dropped the end of a sleeper on the toe
of one of my clogs. More through shock rather than pain, it drew the F-word from me at
the top of my voice which convulsed the entire gang and Foreman Cyril Palmer with
laughter in which I soon joined. With clogs, I didn’t even lose a toe nail! Wonderful
footwear.
RH 154 Plenty of interest on this photo. Upper quadrant signals, somersaults and shunt
somersaults, the North End turntable at Doncaster Central, a NER carriage in the
distance, the oval piston gland which signifies that 3291 has her original pattern of
cylinders with Richardson balanced slide valves. She was a Doncaster engine at that time
and a good strong one, once on the move, the Achilles heel of the slide valves engines,
with their smaller cylinders and lever reverse, locked tight by a steam chest full of steam.
Normally, the pilot was a PV engine for this reason and 3291 was used on secondary
passenger trains on the Lincoln, Cleethorpes and Sheffield roads. The driver is Harry
Frith ex Doncaster GER shed and the fireman Charlie Howlett ex GC from New Holland.
Harry was a NUR man and Charlie was strong ASLEF which led to interesting discussion
in which both men could see the others point of view without agreeing with it; first class
enginemen happy in their work. Charlie was a 1919 man well in his forties not yet in the
top link.
RH 155 Summer 1944. The background is one of those dreadful old GN O1s not to be
compared with the CC 04 ROD, the finest heavy freight locomotive to run on our
railways and one that won both wars. The GW and the LMS had excellent eight wheeled
coupled engines which ran faster and could time an excursion train but that is not the
point. The ROD was prime for it was cheap to build, required little maintenance and was
indestructible: It did not slip, the steam brake was strong with low steam pressure, it
steamed, it was warm and comfortable with everything to hand, easy to oil, easy on coal,
the perfect heavy freight engine. The O1 was handy but the background ought to have
been an ROD. Herbert Ealham (L) fitter’s mate, an outstanding man, very content with
his lot. I met him again in 1977 and he was exactly the same and well known to his
DMPS which is an interesting point. Flo was one of our lady fitter’s mates used on
lighter work but very much at home in a masculine world. Bernard Wright was an
excellent fitter and did a lot of work on lubricators as well as V & P work.
RH 156 Carr Loco 1944 Autumn. Jack Sampey was just out of his time and was sent to
Bentley Colliery with me as his mate to strip down and bring in a Geordie 95 which had
broken a side rod. After a bit of a struggle we got her sorted out and dragged her home
with the engine which we had brought and next day Jack wanted his photo taken as it was
his first breakdown. The 95 did great service in France in the 1914-18 war but as with
the GC Q4 and 04, was superseded by another brilliant heavy freight engine, the Q6. The
NE engines had outside admission even the PV engines so, with little work done on the
glands, they moved in a continuous cloud of steam at slow speeds. On the photo is quite
a comic collection. L-R: Ernie Major, Fitters Mate and Bookie’s Runner; Harry Kaye,
Fitters Mate; Joe, Office-boy; Harry Harker, apprentice. Gangway L-R: Steve Thompson
and Gud Hattersley, Fitters; Walter Bacon, Fitter and valve setter who could turn his hand
to anything; Bill Noble, Fitter; Jock Harrison, jack of all trades from Examining to
Bicycles; Jack Sampey in the trilby.
RH 157 Pete Wright, and today a specialist model engineer in the very small N gauge
and many other things, on the 45 ton crane in its usual siding easy for access and exit
from the shed yard at the Carr Loco either up or down road.
RH 158 Our three ladies: Flo, Reenie and Dorothy were all lightwork fitters mates and
were all welcome which says a lot for them in a man’s world. They are with Herbert
Ealham, an outstanding man and fitters mate and his regular fitter, Gilbert Holden, a most
friendly man. In those days it was unheard of for even the hardest swearing man to do so
in front of ladies. I was in a smokebox letting drive at some steam pipe nuts with a big
hammer while my mate held the long chisel bar (we had to split the nuts). I misfired and
hit my mate instead. He let drive at me but with the tail of his eye he saw a girl clerk from
the office passing our engine. He jumped down and went after the girl to apologise.
When he returned he carried on with me where he had left off !
RE 159 In Jan 1944 I started on the drop pit with Bernard Rushforth and as it was a
three shift job, Bernard went home at 1400 and Arthur Fendall took over, Walt Green
being nights. Arthur and his mate were of the friendly and gentle type of old school.
Neither man used strong language (no more did Bernard Rushforth) and I was made very
much at home and able to do my whack at once. Charlie Cobb is the fitters mate (L), a
clay pipe smoker (a very nice smoke too). Both Charlie and Arthur wore clogs ideal
footwear for a shed where there was often plenty of water and oil about and it could be
cold in winter; no heating, bar an open brazier fed with coal from the endless source on
hand. Running shed life was hard but I loved every minute.
RH160 A Sunday morning in the summer of 1944 about 1330. We had been on a lifting
job which did not require a full gang and for which I would not be paid. L- R: Our
regular guard, Fred Hague, the cranedriver, Ernie Newby, George Gant, the van man
who, apart from working hard, looked after the cooking, if any, and in this case,
breakfast, probably bully beef, bread and marge and pickles - marvellous. Remember, it
was wartime; no eggs, no this, that and the other but gallons of tea with tinned milk to
keep us going. Then our Foreman, Mr Cyril Palmer, ready for off with his bike clips,
Ted Booth, Syd Grindell and Stan Harrison, all long serving and completely reliable
members of the gang. Stan was a Mexboro man his brother George, a staff clerk in the
District offices at the north end of the shed - they are still there. We clocked on at 0300
and went off to Marshalls of Gainsboro to load a sheeted midget submarine on a rail
wagon. We were told to keep our mouths shut which we did, for the job was a doddle
and everybody bar me was being paid for the privilege. We got back after several delays
and deviations well satisfied. Only the Foreman and I went home and the others
completed their normal Sunday duties. On the way to work at 0230 I was stopped by PC
61 at the Gaumont corner for riding without either head or tail light. The moon was
bright and truth to tell I had set off without them. Fined 10 bob and be it noted that PC
61 was centre-half for Doncaster Rovers by the name of Bycroft.
RH161 A V2 yet again as a background at the Carr Loco, summer 1944. Three fitters
and a mate: Gilbert Holden, “Taggy” the mate, George Booth and Cyril Buckley, the son
of a Doncaster driver. He has a good line in oily trilby hats of great antiquity, and I was
with George when I found that the inside of an empty water tank was still full of water
when it came to crawling about, climbing over baffles and kneeling to see to sieves.
RH162 The North End pilot with Doncaster and Leeds men who were waiting to work
the 1257 Leeds when it had arrived from King’s Cross. With them is my great friend
Basil de Iongh probably on the eve of his departure for the RAF, unless he was day
release at the Tech. John George Wright, the very picture of the Boys Own Paper Engine
Driver; Basil; Harry Steel firing for JG; Stan Hodgson firing for Arthur Moss of Copley
Hill. Stan was a very dear friend and Arthur a remarkably courageous man for his
arthritis was terrible and he was in constant pain. Yet he came down from his engine to
have his picture taken.
RH163 Grantham Loco one Saturday afternoon in 1942, photo taken by Cyril
Richardson, Running Foreman and later Shedmaster in my time as Divisional Manager
King’s Cross. Basil de Iongh and I were very young: it must have been Sept 1941 but it
did not stop us posing on old 4040, one of the few J4s left running and really a Newark
engine. She was built in 1896 in Ivatt’s time by Dubs of Glasgow but has a genuine
Stirling curved topped cab with an extension bolted on in later years. She lasted until
1949 and was never reboilered to class J3. The sister engine at Newark featured in a
breakdown of a V2 with a hot big end with a very heavy train about 1415 ex Doncaster in
1944. The driver was the hot-tempered Harry Moyer and we were given an ”A” engine
(class J6) assisted by 4041. As 4041 was the leading engine, the driver correctly created
the brake but for some reason Harry was upset by the Newark man’s assumption. Harry
went forward and as the Newark driver was not prepared to be got at by some upstart
from Doncaster, there was an almighty row. The guard blew until he was purple in the
face; station staff shouted and in the end the fireman off 4041 blew the whistle and off we
went. Not very fast as we both had to have a blow-up going up to Peascliffe tunnel: to
this day I can see the tall Newark driver wearing a unique cap with a bobble on top
glaring back at Harry who would periodically shake his fist in retaliation. We got to
Grantham and were given a V2 to go forward to Peterboro’. This was one of the very
few times that I have been on an engine that could not continue its journey to the bitter
end.
RH164 The cabin off the Western platform at Doncaster and by the North Box. A train
leaving the Western platform required the starter if it had not already passed it and then
the tall signal behind J G Wright. Up by the bridge there were the Marshgate signals and
beyond we took the left hand road for Leeds. L-R: Fireman Eddie Thompson and Driver
Thernie Marsden of Copley Hill whose engine was behind me. Then Walt Sellars, Basil
de Iongh (how on earth did he keep so clean) and John George Wright. Their Atlantic is
just off the picture. Photo 1942.
RH165 4428 was the last Cl to be altered to piston valves and 20” cylinders. She had
spent several years at Neepsend and a short time at Copley Hill but when she was
converted she went to Doncaster. She is on the North pilot at Doncaster station with
Basil de Iongh, John George Wright and his new fireman Harry Steel who, as a driver,
relieved Bill Hoole on arrival at Doncaster after the record-breaking down run with the
A4 60007 (old 4498). He appears in some of the photographs and was never one to
underclub himself in the matter of words.
RH166 Rickmansworth, the up siding where the electric locomotives stood until their
train arrived from Aylesbury. A great boyhood friend from Amersham, Don Douglas,
myself wearing “Digger” Hyde’s Met Cap and Motorman Syd Tapper, a lovely man. I
went many times on those old Met electrics coming down from Baker St late at night
after the war after seeing my wife to be in London. I also went crashing round the inner
Circle on a Saturday in 1946 with Syd in the cab and Digger at the back with the flags. I
would see the miracle of braking at every station: one application and a perfect stop with
the Westo brake at the end off the platform. In summer the trains ran with the cab doors
open and likewise the train doors: nobody fell out!
RH167 Sheffield Victoria 1941: a Barnsley N5 bound for Barnsley via Chapeltown.
The photo tells us very little. The fireman was an ex GE man by the name of Holmes
who left the railway after the war. The driver was Bill Jacques (not visible) and I
remember him demonstrating how the vacuum release valve worked when climbing
Chapeltown bank. It was unknown for the pepperbox holding the valve, spindle and
spring to be removed for demonstration purposes when on the move: never seen it since
but it showed me exactly how it worked. Not a good photo.
RH168 The only Hull men I knew, and we met in the Garden Sidings one evening when
they stopped alongside us. I made two journeys with them: the first on a D49 Hunt from
Sheffield-Doncaster on the Liverpool-Hull leaving Sheffield at 1905 on a Sunday(a bone
shaking engine if ever there was one); the other to Hull on a B15. I remember
successfully firing this engine and being amazed at the lack of room in the huge cab. The
space was taken up by deep splashers both sides, the normal fish and chips screen for the
firehole door on NE engines and the injector control wheels on the fireman’s seat where
he would normally sit. I cannot remember the fireman’s name but Charlie Ringrose, the
driver, was a lovely man. 236 Lancashire is a D49 with outside Walchaerts gear and twoto-one beam behind the cylinders. Rough engines but reasonably popular and stronger
than the Hunts with Lentz poppet valve gear. 1944 Doncaster North End.
RH169 Easter 1944 and the B1 8301”Springbok” is about 16 months out of Darlington
Works. I remember seeing her outside the Plant by the old turntable for the inspection of
the CME. In March 1943, she went to Gorton and she was by no means rough after 16
months of service. We had a good run to London from Sheffield with three different
crews and 11 cars, a very fair load for such a heavy road although the GC B3s often
hauled up to 14 on the night trains. Driver Bill Shepley and Fireman Arthur Jepson of
Gorton had brought the 0950 from Manchester London Road and inside two minutes they
had agreed not only to have their photo taken but Arthur said that he was quite happy to
sit on his seat to Nottingham. It amazes me that I had the nerve to ask two complete
strangers to be photographed and to be trusted to fire a strange engine on a heavy express
train. Arthur said ”the same fire as a Footballer; you know the road, don’t you and no
blowing-off dropping down into Nottingham”. Woodford men came on there (Driver
Ernest Coulson)and Neasden men at Leicester; both were old friends from my school
days - Jack Procter and Charlie Simpson. Jack was the senior driver at Neasden, the last
of the pre-war top link men and Charlie, the son of the famous Ted Simpson, who had
been so kind to me as a boy. Charlie was killed in tragic circumstances in 1955 when
coming south on the wrong line. He crossed over to the up line at speed at Barby when
he expected to do so at Braunston.
RH170 Bridlington Loco on a Sunday morning: Miss Marsh had taken David
Sandiland and me to her brother’s home for the weekend and we were given permission
to go to the shed on the Sunday morning. David is the smart young man in the trilby; the
gent in the sports coat is the shed chargeman and the two Brid men were preparing the
old NE class R 2024, now D20 and superheated otherwise not much altered from her
original state. The R class were renowned as splendid machines, the best 4-4-0s in the
NE. We could regularly see a Selby D20 at Doncaster and I think it worked through to
Harrogate with coaches off a down London.
RH171 Charlie Ringrose of Botanic Gardens (R) and his fireman, with the D49 236
“Lancashire” on the North End turntable at Doncaster Central. Further details see
RH168.
RH172 Lunchtime at the Carr Loco in mid 1944. A dirty old A4, 4484 “Falcon”, a
King’s Cross engine which had been remanned by New England men at Peterboro.
Instead of turning at the station they had come to the shed before returning with a
stopping train of sorts. The engine is standing on the pit used for ‘visitors’ and the engine
has just turned on the triangle. Walter Ramsey Ayres was the only driver I knew at
Peterboro’ and he was to retire about a year later. I had a last and good trip from
Grantham to Doncaster on 4475 “Flying Fox” when his fireman was George King.
Doncaster men, whom I had never met before or since, somehow got in on the act and
Pete Wright(C)was a fellow apprentice. Ramsey’s fireman will never see forty again nor
would George King who followed him.
RH173 Grantham Loco April 1942 (see RH163) for details of 4040 class J4 based at
Newark. In the cab my great friend Basil de Iongh and Cyril Richardson, Running
Foreman, by the footstep. Cyril had served his time at Grantham and ultimately became
Mechanical Foreman and then Shedmaster near the end of steam and after a succession of
L P Parker’s young men who had followed a very well known Shedmaster, Jack L Smith.
Most Running Foremen were ex footplate staff but a leven of mechanical men did no
harm and widened their outlook. Cyril’s son retired as Chief Motive Power Inspector for
the Eastern Region at York and had fired his own Peppercorn Al at Grantham.
RH174 Basil de Iongh and Cyril Richardson in Grantham Loco in April 1942. 2560
’Pretty Polly’ is still an Al and painted green. She was a good Grantham engine but lost
her stripes when I was shedmaster at Woodford and 60061 was at Leicester. Time and
again she would come off at Woodford short of steam and her place taken by one of our
V2s. 60103 was not much better!
RH175 A nice portrait of Basil and Cyril Richardson against 2560 at Grantham in April
1942.
RH176 Basil de Iongh, Doncaster apprentice who left the LNER for the RAF never to
return to railway service but followed a distinguished career in the RAF, and myself. It
was typical of both of us that I should be leaning against a connecting rod whilst the
impeccable Basil had a smart overall jacket and collar and tie. In his cap he wears the
Railway Service badge that we always carried in wartime.
RH177 Two very dear Grantham friends Fireman Alf Rudkin and Driver J A (Bill)
Thompson against the Al 4479 ”Robert the Devil” in Winter 1943-44. We were about to
go to King s Cross: we had a good trip going up, and a terrible one coming back with
2549 “Persimmon” which was completely off the boil all the way with 18 coaches. We
breasted Stoke summit at about 15—20 mph gasping for breath and down to about 95 psi.
Neither man turned a hair; Alf and I had shared the work and the very best was done.
The tubes must have been made up and a superheater element was blowing badly. A
great deal of heat came hack to us from the firehole door usually a sign that the tubes
were solid. More information about Bill and Alf on RH182.
RH178 The back yard of a terraced house in Mexboro’, No 10 Wellington St. Summer
1941. This is the home of Charlie and Emily Hepworth, a railway family originating
from Wakefield GCR when there was a shed there near Balne Lane. I got to know the
Hepworths who became great friends through Driver Bob Foster of Copley Hill, Leeds
whom I met in May 1941(of RH45, 63, 77). Charlie had fired for Bob at Wakefield and
they remained great friends after Charlie went to Mexboro and Bob to Leeds. Charlie
had married Emily Duckmanton who had been a GC signalbox girl in 1917-18 at
Westgate (WR&G Joint). Her father was the senior driver who had Wakefield’s one
main line passenger job to himself, Wakefield-Cleethorpes via Adwick Jc with the PomPom bogie 105, later to become 5105 class D9. His son Horace went to Mexboro then to
Gorton and finally to Kings Cross where he retired in 1966 when I was Divisional
Manager. He and Driver McKinley had the Al 60156 at Kings Cross in the A4 link and
he retired with a completely clear record. The Hepworth’s son, Ralph, became a Fireman
at Mexboro’, then a driver at Stratford before becoming an Inspector. Charlie did not
come from a railway family for his father was a miller but here they are back in 1941, a
piece of social history, for fashions have changed. L-R: Bob Foster, Charlie and Emily
Hepworth, old Mr and Mrs Hepworth and Ralph in the foreground.
RH179 WaIter Ramsey Ayres of Peterboro’ New England shed and his fireman on the
pit at the Carr Loco 1944, King’s Cross A4, 4484 “Falcon” with a chime whistle. Some
of the A4s lost their chime whistles for the duration. Ramsey was one of the old school
of GN men and a very good engineman although he did not believe in very short cut-offs,
usually easing the regulator once speed had been attained on 25% cut-off. My last
journey with him was the Friday evening of my first week in the Drawing Office in 1944.
Without the manual work of the last four years, I found it difficult to sleep, so one
evening I went to Grantham and picked Ramsey and George King up there. We had
4475 Flying Fox, a good old low pressure Pacific (l8Opsi) and I fired this engine with
great pleasure and success with a heavy train behind us. I next met George King when I
was Divisional Manager at King’s Cross and he was about to retire.
RH180 Harry Moyer, of Doncaster and a GN man, had a brother at Grimsby, Bill. In
his quieter way, Bill was a martinet on the footplate and was a MS&L man rather than
GCR. Certainly he had only a short while to go before he retired. He was a kind,
dignified old gentleman who never thrashed an engine and never used the big valve
except on the C5 Compounds at Immingham. This particular fireman was a first class
man, Norman Griffin, and the two men worked in perfect harmony. Engine 5508 class
D11 “Prince of Wales”, and I joined them at Gainsborough on a Sheffield via Retford
turn. I fired for the old gentleman and was given a nod of satisfaction although I did not
know the road to Retford and had to avoid blowing off and the correct level of water and
have 180 psi when the regulator was open. No heavy smoke allowed, no dust, no coal on
the footplate but by 1944, I had done many miles with Ted Hailstone who was an even
greater martinet.
RH181 My first meeting with a delightful pair of men with whom I spent happy hours
on the old Met Bo-Bo 1200 HP machines which made an extraordinary amount of noise
when leaving a station what with contractors, series to parallel working which produced a
sizeable flash and bang behind us. And as for the unprotected knife switch behind the
railings where the third man stood (me); I was inches away from it most of the time.
Very quick on the uptake and climbing gradients until they reached about 48-50 mph but
then further acceleration was slower. Vacuum brake for the train, and Westo on the
engine. The photo was taken about 2245 in the summer of 1941 at Baker St, a time
exposure but worth it. Left is Motorman Syd Tapper of Neasden in his smart white stiff
collar and tie, and “Digger” Hyde, his Assistant Motorman, the son of a Met steam driver
Len Hyde. Of course Syd and Digger shared the driving except when they had Saturday
turns round the Inner Circle on the old BTC and Metro Vick stock which seemed to go
faster then anything today. Certainly braking was very fast and smooth with the old
Westo brake and No 4 valve and what fun it was with Syd at the front and Guard
“Digger” giving him no respite at stations. I had hold of these locomotives several times,
the first time in the blackout, indeed always in the dark. Stopping at a blacked out station
without that familiar movement underneath to guide you as to speed, was far from easy at
first. Neither Syd nor Digger had been on steam work so did not realize at first what I
was missing.
RH182 Alf Rudkin and Bill Thompson with 4401 after coming from Doncaster with a
slow all stations but with 12 coaches, the rear six being new ex Plant for the London end.
On this occasion Alf had been in the train and Bill had suggested taking water at the
“Traws” as he called them at Muskham. With an Atlantic you pulled a lever down
through 45 degrees and could never get it back until the end of the troughs. Bill said:
“Don’t put the scoop down until I say, Richard” and when we got to Muskham, I waited
and waited and then, thinking he had forgotten, put the scoop down. “Now you’ve done
it, Richard”, and so I had. Water from the tender ventilators, from the tank lid, poured
down the tender on to the footplate bringing with it enough coal to go to London. Bill
said, as I started to clear up with the uphill drag to Peascliffe tunnel ahead, “You’ll know
better next time, Richard. Never mind, have another pear”. Every day this remarkable
man came to work with enough fruit in his pockets to feed the three of us. We used to go
to York on a Sunday night on one of the night trains, very heavy indeed. We remanned a
London V2 which ran in gasping for breath, the water right down in the nut and about
130 psi. We got on, the Cockney fireman hopped off and vanished without a word and
the driver said to Bill: “You’ve 19 on and she’s a bastard. Ta-ta”. She was but I
struggled and kept about 160 psi most of the way to York. Bill said somewhere in the
wilds above Doncaster: “How are you doing, Richard? Don’t worry, just keep at her and
have another apple”. He emigrated to Australia when his wife died and wrote regularly.
One PS said: “If you are doing rough going to London, keep going. Never take the
Peterboro’ pilot; its bound to be worse”. Good news from Sydney and how Bill enjoyed
life down under near his daughter.
RH183 No 1 Platform 1943, Doncaster Central. 5107 class D9 often working the
Sheffield-Cleethorpes-Hull jobs and in this case a Hull-Sheffield working that
Mexborough men worked to Hull and back, being relieved by Goods men for the last lap
to Sheffield. This was a heavy train and, when more than nine coaches, took the
Rotherham pilot, an N4 (with Joy valve gear) as the start from Tinsley and Broughton
Lane was particularly heavy. The pipe leading to the smokebox above George Scott’s
right shoulder takes steam to the ash ejector, a device for emptying the smokebox. This
was always used on the 1 in 58 climb up to Woodburn Jc where the GCR main line to
Marylebone and Manchester was met. A good blast was necessary to lift the ash clear
and the cutting side on the grade was deep in ash. Driver George Scott may have his coat
on but you can bet your boots he was doing the firing and his mate Jack Gainham the
driving.
RH184 George Scott of Mexborough with his fireman Harry Bluck at Doncaster Central
in 1943. This is a “Fish” engine of a type originally built for the Grimsby fast fish traffic
in 1902. There were several at Mexboro used on any from express passenger to banking
work up Worsborough and on to Silkstone, Penistone and Dunford Bridge. 5181 (slide
valves) 5184/5 (piston valves) usually worked a diagram that started from Mexboro for
Doncaster about 0530, went through to Sheffield and then worked a Liverpool-Hull
express returning with a Hull-Liverpool that left Doncaster at 1730. After being
remanned at Sheffield, the engine worked to Penistone and home to Mexboro’; this was
quite an extensive job. The B5s were excellent engines with 6’0” coupled wheels and a
very fair turn of speed on level track whilst being strong on a bank and free running
downhill especially the slide valve engines. The job could mix Mexboro. Sheffield,
Doncaster and Hull water, a lethal cocktail and a recipe for priming. On the 0650 from
Doncaster after leaving Rotherham, the tender drain valves were opened so that the
tender was empty on arrival at Sheffield but the boiler full as the injector had been on
throughout. A tank of water took the engine to Hull and the same on the return so that
the minimum of Mexboro water was in the tender. Slight camera movement.
RH185 Alan Coggon was a fellow premium apprentice in the Plant Works at Doncaster.
Although he was a Doncaster boy, he had a fascination for GE engines especially the N7
which he had travelled behind when visiting Liverpool St. Accordingly he drew one of
the 12 GE engines built before the Grouping and this is the best my old box camera could
do, probably a time exposure as well as a bit out of focus for an excellent drawing.
RH186 Gorton Yard in 1944, Eng 5461, class B7. Walter Bacon and his Driver Joe
Oglesby of Darnall. We had come from Sheffield with 11 bogies to lug up to Dunford
and had had a perfect trip. Walter had given me a good start with a big fire at the back
end of the grate and then retired to the train. Joe used a wide open regulator and as short
a cut off as possible bearing in mind load and gradient. I was not troubled by the load
and gradient with a responsive free steaming engine and an armchair ride down to
Manchester. Never believe the rubbish written about these engines when working
express trains. They did not burn excessive coal when handled properly, a magnificent
strong engine built like a battleship and sure-footed in starting. That day, laving
Penistone, Joe simply put the regulator right across and sat down knowing perfectly well
that the engine would not slip on the curve and l in 60 gradient. (Copy neg).
RH187 The triangle at Doncaster Carr one evening in 1942. The Lincoln C4 5192, a
great favourite of the driver, Herbert Harrison, who was GC through and through. His
brother was a Lincoln GN man and they had magnificent domestic arguments round the
kitchen table on the merits of the engines of both railways. Herbert died suddenly not
long after this photo was taken but I knew him since my second day of railway service on
Doncaster station in a snow storm when he stopped with the heavy York-Colchester train
with 6097 “Immingham” and invited me up to keep warm. His foreman on 5192 was a
young passed cleaner but Herbert was as good as gold if he had a GC engine. Herbert’s
son intended to follow his father on to the footplate but the old man said “You are going
to be a ‘clurk’”. Frank never looked back and finished his career at BRHQ as Chief
Operating Officer. He was always immensely proud of his father who was a railwayman.
(Copy Neg).
RH188 York, Lanky yard, with a Jubilee behind in 1945. A Sheffield C1 3273 Fireman
Cyril Golding and Driver Joe Oglesby of Darnall, a very great friend. We had come from
Sheffield Vic with the 1520 flyer to York via Doncaster and Selby. Cyril went in the
train and as we ran into Rotherham, having come round the curve at a good 50 mph with
the station in sight said “Over here quick and stop her at the platform”. This was typical
of Joe who always had some unknown challenge to keep you on your toes. That was also
the day that I trapped my foot under the fall plate between engine and tender at York. In
the yard there were some sharp curves and the fall plate sprung up, my foot slipped down
and I was trapped with the wood of my clogs taking the weight. Joe put the tender hand
brake hard on, leaked the vacuum brake off the engine and gave her steam. She went
ahead a few inches, out came my clog, the wood a bit squeezed but my foot none the
worse. A lesson learned for I was standing between the uprights one arm on the tender,
one arm on the engine, rather pleased with myself and not concentrating. A rude
awakening but as ever a lesson learned the hard way.
RH189-218 STRATFORD 70036 AND DRIVER AT WORK – 1958 STRATFORD
MEN AND ENGINES – OFFICE STAFF AND WORKSHOP STAFF – CLACTON
MEN – SB&CR – AMERSHAM MET&GC 1936-40 & 43
RH189 A Britannia being driven as it should be, with a wide open regulator and short
cut-off. GE men had been brought up to do this through the influence of the great Motive
Power Supt, Mr L P Parker, and it was one of the reasons for the immediate success of
70000 and her breed on the fast and frequent London-Norwich services, the Hook of
Holland Continental and the heavy fast freight work such as the Temple-Mills-Niddrie
run with precision and punctuality. Driver Ted Whitehead, Stratford, July 1958. Eng
70036, his regular engine.
RH190 The first B17 to be rebuilt at Darlington (in Aug 1945) to class B2 was No 2871
“Manchester City” which was renamed “Royal Sovereign” and painted green in April
1946. It then became the Cambridge Royal engine for many years working the Royal
Train between Kings Cross and Kings Lynn. Here it has dropped into the “Back End” of
the Jubilee Shed at Stratford in Oct 1945. In the cab is one of the Running Shed Machine
Shop Labourers, Fred Frairey and (L-R): Jack Welsh, Chargeman of the Machine Shop
and of great help to me when I was Running Shed Progressman; and Bob Chapman who
ultimately filled this position on a permanent basis when it had become financially
attractive in later years. Bob was a bench fitter in the shop and both men were endearing
characters who taught me how to roll Nut Brown tobacco. I was given a packet for my
22nd birthday by Jack: good stuff but my mother would not have it in the house!
RH191 Driver Ted Whitehead of Stratford on his own Britannia, 70036 “Boadicea”
which he and his mate Jim Pummel shared with two other crews. Ted was an outstanding
engineman and a charming man, calm, confident and experienced. He had come from
Ipswich to Stratford as a fireman, then to Palace Gates as a driver and, when the Palace
closed, back to Stratford in No 9 link, the main line goods known as the “Plus 2” gang.
By 1956, when he was moving up to the Norwich Gang, No 12, I heard a doubt expressed
by a list clerk that he might find such work pretty testing after Palace Gates; he was
brilliant and had been so on the “Bongos”, link 11. By Ted’s knee, the blower valve; by
his left hand, the vacuum brake handle; above it, the regulator handle; and to its right the
steam brake valve. Behind his left hand is the reversing wheel or “bacon slicer”.
RH192 (Photo RCR) A Stratford B1, 1280, on the 0830 Liverpool St-Norwich in Sept
1958 by arrangement, to give Mécanicien Andre Duteil of La Chapelle, Paris Nord the
experience of a Bongo on the down journey, and 70036 with Driver Ted Whitehead on
the return. Andre had had the Chapelon Pacific E4 as his own and then been promoted to
the De Caso Baltics, his engine being S002. He came three times to England as our guest
and on the return journey in 1958, he drove 70036 from Bentley, where we were booked
to stop, as far as Shenfield. He always wore his cap back to front and with his SNCF
goggles resembled (as Ted said) “The man from Mars”. This was Ted’s last week in the
Norwich gang before moving up to No 14, the L1 link, on outer suburban work.
RH193 Not a good photograph (but probably the only one) of the District General Office
clerical staff at Stratford Loco outside the smoke encrusted offices in Dec 1945. L-R:
Office boy, Jack Arnold; Frank Wilson, in charge of the Duty List Office; Bill Fenton
who travelled daily from Ipswich (0615 up); Arthur Shillito, who played the saw
marvellously; Alec Sneary; Bill Hobbs, Chief Clerk; Harold Davies, who succeeded him;
Bill Hawkins, in the Stores; -?-; and Ted Foreman. A remarkable collection in whose
office I had a desk for my paperwork next to the generally sleeping but cynically
humorous Ted Foreman and opposite Kitty Keegan and the even more humorous Arthur
Shillito who was a master of deception when concocting the District Locomotive
Availability figures; he also played the saw in the office and in the Marble Arch Corner
House orchestra.
RH194 Clacton men do not often reach the headlines but here we have a unique pair of
men. Both earned unusual nicknames: Fireman “Apple” Moore and Driver “Chocolate”
Stan Pittock, and they were a splendid pair. Stan had earned his nickname as a boy
selling chocolate. He was a beautiful engineman with a disposition to match. His 1666
rolled back the years in his hands and one evening when the 7MTs were about to take
over the Clactons, Stan and I conducted a trial to prove that whatever a Brit could do so
could a B17 and a B1. Knowing that a lower powered engine would have to deputise
now and again, I would not tolerate loss of time on the Interval service if a good B1/17
was provided, and we set out to show what could be done. So, with Stan at the regulator,
1666 could take on the world which was not always so on the opposite shift when the
gloriously controversial Herman Sparke was in charge of 1666. Herman said to me at a
discipline hearing and in some trouble “Let me tell you, Mr Hardy, I pride myself on my
obstinacy”!
RH195 Liverpool St Loco in 1958 by the office off the end of No10/11 platforms. We
used three drivers as Acting Locomotive Inspectors in the last years of steam and the
early years of the diesels. Many potential delays and failures were saved by these men,
and here is one of them, Driver Bill Redhead, who had been the driver of 70000 on her
first trip to Norwich and also when E S Cox rode on it next day, made an excellent
inspector but too late in life to accept a permanent appointment. These acting men had
done it all – one of the advantages of the Norwich link being far from the top in seniority.
Ted Carron, Running Foreman, an institution and character with a loud voice. However,
he did not like crossing too many main lines in the peak and, as he said his shout for
action was not loud enough, we gave him a loud hailer. The noise he made terrified him
and in future he either relied on his voice or his feet. He was a great man in the GE
Amateur Athletic Association and all its ramifications. Finally, Len Webb, Loco Head
Shunter and the best of a good bunch who controlled the outside movement and turning
of engines in the Loco which sounds easy but was anything but in times of crisis. Len
tried to get a transfer to Ramsgate but we could not manage it back in 1958 so he left the
service, moved to Kent and then joined the staff on the station at Ramsgate: their gain
was very much our loss.
RH196 The same site with RHNH instead of Ted Carron who took the picture (not too
good).
RH197 Where and who? A Pacific engine with no driver visible; an empty train being
used for driver instruction (me); and my mother dominating the scene in her first summer
of widowhood, 1938. Where is the driver? Probably setting the road as I seem to think
we had the railway to ourselves and that we were about to arrive at the terminus at
Frimley. I think the Surrey Border and Camberley Railway ceased to operate with the
war and never reopened.
RH198 1945, the New Shed (1871) at Stratford Loco: an old GE F3 under repair and the
crew of the Running Shed Machine Shop Lister truck. These two men were well trained
in the art of scrounging material from “over the uvver side”, ie the Main Works across
the railway, reached through that rat infested tunnel. The old gent on the left was Albert
Allison’s mate and Albert had come to Stratford as a fireman from Ipswich. He had
failed with colour vision and was now a driver of another sort. I like to think of Albert
sitting sideways on his JAP engined steed towing a trailer full of engine springs, on
which his old mate sat, legs dangling at the back. A “Gobbler” would be prepared and
ready to leave the shed for the evening peak but was missing a 15 plate spring. The
“road” would be set for Albert who would appear along by the MIC room running on full
throttle. The crossing in front of the New Shed would be cleared of engines and
bystanders, so would the tunnel near the “Appearance Book” office, and the “Gobbler”
along with Fred Lucas, Mechanical Foreman, fitters and mates, would be standing ready.
The heavy spring would be tipped off, skilled running shed fitters would get it under the
engine and up on its hangers and away would go the “Gobbler”, a right time start. Back
in 1945, another world but some world for all that.
RH199 Late summer 1936 at Amersham against the evening sun. The Woodford
engine, 5195, class B1 is working the 1825 SO Marylebone-Woodford stopping a
Harrow, Northwood, Rickmansworth, Amersham and all the lot to Woodford. During the
week, the train leaves a 1826, fast to Amersham and always hauled by a B7 “4 cylinder”.
5195 was one of
J G Robinson’s first large engines. 192 and 194 were built as Atlantics in 1903/4 and
195/6 as 4-6-0s for comparative purposes. The Atlantic type was standardised and 195/6
were the only members of their class. Very fine engines and employed on heavy cross
country services via Banbury and heavy express freight and fish workings.
RH200 May 1940, Amersham. The engine is the 4 cylinder B3 6167 shedded at
Neasden and fitted in 1938 with the Italian Caprotti valve gear of a modified design in
which the poppet valves were returned to their seats by steam rather than by springs in
the case of earlier engines, the supply being taken from the left-hand side of the dome.
The train is the 0815 Marylebone-Leicester all stations, and the men would return with
the 0950 ex Manchester London Rd from Leicester. The engine returned all stations and
was often used the same night on the very heavy night mail trains to Leicester and back.
The signal is of Met design and the crew are Neasden men, the fireman (L) Ted Mahon
and the Driver, a very well known character and splendid engineman, Ted Simpson. He
was very kind to me and hailed from Brunswick shed in Liverpool having come down as
a fireman in 1899 to open up the Great Central. He had been a main line driver since his
late twenties.
RH201 The War Memorial engine of the GCR enters Amersham in 1936 working the
0620 Leicester-Marylebone, fast from Amersham at 0911, the “Gentleman’s Train” in
those more leisured days. She has worked the fastest down service on the GC section, the
0232 Marylebone-Sheffield Newspaper train as far as Leicester and a tough job on which
a 4 cylinder B3 was always used rather than a Director until the B17s arrived at Neasden.
When the crew reached Marylebone at 0946 they knew they had done a day’s work!
Neasden men had the 0232, 0845, 1000, 1520, 1655 and 2200 services, the 1520 being a
lodge job through to Manchester alternating with Gorton men at the time of the
photograph.
RH202 1937. The men and engine off the 1000 Marylebone-Bradford returned from
Leicester with a slow which left Amersham at 1606. 6085 class C4 was a Woodford
engine which, for some reason, had replaced the normal Neasden Director. The station
bridge is still there and the buildings virtually unchanged to this day; good Met style.
RH203 Easter Monday 1944. Aylesbury Eng 2847, class B17 “Helmingham Hall”
working the 1530 M’bone-Manchester, load 11 buckeyes. A day to remember. Up road,
my first trip on a B1, 8301, a perfect journey from Sheffield. The down Journey with
Driver Ben Riddington and Fireman Syd Jenkins went very well. The third man (RH) did
the firing to Leicester where 2847 had run hot and was replaced by a GC Atlantic and
Leicestermen. She had to come off short of steam at Nottingham Vic (not my doing) and
was replaced by a GN Atlantic 4447, Driver A V Davies a Welsh speaking Gorton driver
who had started on the WM&CQ Railway at Wrexham. 4447 came off at Sheffield and a
gutsy GC B7 played with the job up the long bank to Woodhead. I got home to
Doncaster somehow from Penistone. I had lost my cap on the up road with its “City of
Bradford” badge.
RH204 April 1941 at Sheffield Victoria. The B4 6097 “Immingham” on a slow to
Lincoln via Retford. I was on an N5 bound for Barnsley via Tinsley and Chapeltown,
Driver Bill Jacques of Barnsley.
RH205 Summer 1943, Amersham. The 1700 Marylebone-Woodford with 5473, a B7.
Fireman Bill Andrews and Driver Bill Collins of Neasden. Bill Collins was a very dear
friend then in the “Piped Goods” link at Neasden with whom I went many miles. He
lived until he was ninety-three and I went to his funeral at Marlow Church by the Thames
on a day as sunny as his disposition.
RH206 Michael Kerry and I are still great friends and in 1936-38, our summer treat was
a journey to Leicester and back with the 1655 (arr 1843) which was often a Director,
D11. This photo was taken of the C4 5265 at Leicester in 1937 in poor lighting
conditions before our return working on the 1943 from Leicester (2116 High Wycombe),
a tight turn round for men and engine but GC trains were never late.
RH207 Jan 1941, two days before I started work on the LNER. Aylesbury and the
engine, the Neasden A1, 2552 “Sansovino” on the return of the 0400 Paper train to
Woodford, all stations to Marylebone. Two days later, I was meeting for the first time,
the brother of the fireman, a blacksmith in the Plant Works at Doncaster. Frank
Worthington who came from Neepsend, Sheffield said as we travelled gently back to
Amersham “Don’t forget to go to see my brother, Harry, in the Plant”. I did! David
Bareham the driver was a hard runner who had reached Neasden from the northern end of
the GC, in this case Nottingham Loco when it was closed and it had to move elsewhere.
RH208 Wartime on the Met&GC. A Neasden or Gorton A1 on the 0950 ManchesterMarylebone approaching the footcrossing ¾ of a mile north of Amersham station. The
engine has just passed the up distant.
RH209 July 1940. 1530 Marylebone-Manchester, load 11 bogies, passing Amersham in
fine form, safety valves lifting after 6 ½ miles of 1 in 105 up from Rickmansworth.
6169 instead of the normal Pacific went through to Manchester and returned next day,
I’m told, with the 0950 Marylebone. 6169 “Lord Faringdon” belonged either to Gorton
or Immingham at the time. Driver Ted Simpson, Fireman Ted Mahon: they would rather
have had an A1 but the 4 cylinder did the job very well. Amersham goods yard and shed
(L) with plenty of business including private owner coal wagons. Right, tall Met down
home and down refuge. There were two Met freight trains being shunted at the same
time (note part of back of M2 bunker left of 6169 smokebox). Gas table and tarred PW
shanty in foreground.
RH210 6168, class B3, one of the two engines converted to Caprotti gear in 1929,
entering Amersham and Chesham Bois in 1937 after working the 0232 down Newspaper,
a very fast and hart turn and now non-stop to Marylebone with the 0911 ex Amersham.
(Not a good photo.)
RH211 By 1939, the GC L1 “Crabs” at Neasden were at work on some of the Met
freight turns and the Met K class (2-6-4T) of Woolwich ancestry were used on Met
passenger jobs having been transferred to the GC shed at Neasden along with classes G
and H. This is 5341 on No 2 Goods running into the station before setting back into the
down refuge. The Goods Yard can be seen on the left and the Amersham wagons will,
we hope, be marshalled next to the engine.
RH212 1939. Len Hyde was a well-known Met driver and he has a Neasden GC man,
Harry Fenn, with him on the Sunday this was taken at Amersham. The engine is class H2
(Met class H), 6422 which as Met No 110 was the last to be built of eight by Kerr Stuart
in 1920. Good free running engines, given to slipping when starting on the curve out of
Rickmansworth. They were transferred to Colwick in 1940 where they were very
unpopular but in decent condition and good Welsh coal, they would go to Aylesbury on
one firing, no smoke and plenty of steam.
RH213 Another view from the signalbox on the down side. The 1350 MaryleboneWoodford entering Amersham as seen from the signalbox. 6084 was a Woodford engine
and for the first year of the war this was a Woodford job on which any engine could
appear, now and again a Sheffield GN Atlantic. The front coach is a GN clerestory and
the rest an assortment of GC stock. The goods Yard on the left and a gas table and the
PW cabin are in the foreground.
RH214 Hector Radcliffe, Signalman at Amersham along with “Robey” Neal and Daniel
Fox. All had their own style of working the box and levers, and I spent many happy
hours with Hector learning the elements of the job. The signalman had some of the same
responsibility as the driver and plenty of opportunity to use his initiative so that
enginemen and signalmen, although in different departments, were the most independent
of men. In the background the PW cabin and their rose garden. The track was in
supremely good condition, not a weed nor a piece of paper within station limits or
anywhere else. Long gone days!
RH215 My first railway photograph in July 1936 after I had been given the Brownie box
to take to Switzerland for a summer holiday. The train is the 1604 slow running to
Amersham, all stations from Leicester to Harrow-on-the-Hill. The enginemen have
worked the 1000 Marylebone-Bradford as far as Leicester, a very fast job; they have a
nice little doddle for the return with relief at Harrow and pass to Neasden. The engine is
5506 Butler-Henderson, class D11, a Neasden engine and the driver, the senior driver,
Fred France, who retired in 1937 and who was the Gorton fireman with Driver Ernie
Grain on the Pollitt bogie No 876 on the day of the opening ceremony in 1899. My first
journey (in the train) to Leicester in Aug 1936 was behind the same driver and engine, a
day for two twelve year old boys to cherish.
RH216 A wartime photograph in 1943. Driver Jack Kitching, ex Barnsley and in the
Piped Goods Link at Neasden and his ex GN (New England) mate Cecil White at Princes
Risboro’. I would come down from Doncaster on the Aberdonian leaving at 0420 if on
time and travel with Jack on the 1120 to Woodford via the New Line all stations even
Wotton and Akeman St and return with the 1505 all stations to Marylebone via the Met.
Jack was our “Inspector” and I drove one way and fired for Cecil the other. Note the
blackout cab window and the nameplate “Jutland” and brasses painted over at Gorton
Tank. Eng 5504, class D11 and shedded at Neasden.
RH217 Marylebone, 1944 in No 4 platform: the 1530 Manchester with a V2, load 10-11
coaches. Driver Jack Fisher and Fireman Jesse Goode. The former went into the top link
in 1938 and he carried on until he was well over 65, permissible in certain circumstances
during the war years. Jack was pretty heavy with an engine but a very agreeable mate.
Jesse Goode was a GE man from March and very likeable. The last time I saw him was
tearing through Great Missenden with a class 9 on an up express, many years later. He
could not take to the diesel units and came off the road near the end of his time.
RH218 Grimsby, 1943. Driver Bill Moyer of Immingham and Grimsby along with his
fireman whose name I did not know. When I travelled with Bill, he had Norman Griffin
as his mate. He was not such a scourge of firemen as his younger brother at Doncaster, a
GN man but was very careful and wanted things done exactly so. The engine is 5364,
one of the four C5 Compounds shedded at Immingham and the usual engine for the
lunchtime turn from Cleethorpes to Doncaster being sub-shedded for the purpose at
Grimsby.
RH219-256 STEWARTS LANE MEN AND ENGINES, AMERSHAM AND
MET&GC 1936-44
RH219 35028 after working the Golden Arrow and arriving in the dead end at
Folkestone Jc. She was our best MN after she had been through the Shops for a General,
late in 1952. She always looked a picture and was an even better engine than in her
rebuilt form. The arrows are of wood: both this and the plate on the smokebox door were
fitted daily by a grade 2 Fitter and mate and this grade also filled the sump/valve gear oil
bath daily. This was not part of a driver’s responsibility; in fact the driver’s preparation
on an original Bulleid did not involve him going underneath. Driver Jack May, Chairman
of the LDC, is in charge; normally in the spare link No4 and the stoker is Alfie Jones.
Jack was a remarkable man and worked closely with me although he was always a
splendid negotiator for the staff he represented. He was as straight as they come. J Head
RHNH collection. (Copy neg).
RH220 35028 Clan Line working the 1230 Victoria-Dover-Ostend winter 1953 at
Victoria. The train contained Royalty working under Deepdene conditions hence the
specially cleaned engine. 35028 is working a Dover duty, 430 for which the engine
comes off the up “Blue” our name for the Night Ferry and we turned a fresh engine for
the Deepdene. If we needed it we would use the Dover engine off the Blue and change
over on the down Night Ferry. The driver is a Dover man and he is accompanied by
Chief Inspector Danny Knight of Waterloo. (Copy neg). Photo J G Click. RHNH
Collection.
RH221 35028 on the up Golden Arrow coming round the “Orpington Loop” at Bickley
Jc. This curve was introduced in 1902 as a result of the amalgamation of the SER and the
LCDR whose main line crossed but did not connect. The loops enables both lines to be
utilised and when, in 1904 the Chislehurst loop was opened, it enabled trains from the
SER main line to work over the LCDR through Chatham to Dover. (Copy neg). Photo J
Head, RH collection.
RH222 Missing.
RH223 A 1957 group at Stewarts Lane two years after I had left the Lane. This is the
Running Foreman’s Office near the outlet. Syd Norman, Shop Officeman; Fred
Pankhurst, Chief Running Foreman; John Ryan, Water Treatment Controller; Harry
Newman, Running Foreman; Harry New, Driver acting as Assistant Running Foreman;
Bob Fenning, Running Foreman, Ipswich; and James and Anthea Hardy then aged 7 and
4!
RH224 “Smithy” our ash loading crane driver. If ever there was an artful but likeable
old rascal it was him. Provided that he was watched every day by me and chided by his
two Polish labourers, Stan and Con, he did an excellent job and kept the yard truly clean
and the pits as well. But given an inch he would see his little crane ran short of steam so
that ash loading came to a halt while some imaginary defect was held accountable. The
cure for this was to get Smithy loading wagons by hand along with Con and Stan. That
cooled his ardour. He came from Deptford and spoke the broadest Cockney in a thin,
piping voice. An unforgettable character.
RH225 Oct 1954. We had prepared 34088 to go light to Eastleigh to return next day
from Portsmouth Harbour with the Emperor of Abysinia, Haile Selassie, who would be
met by the Queen and Sir Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister at Victoria. Not often
did I have my camera at work but I took photographs that day, and here are two excellent
Grade 2 Fitters, both of whom I had had high words for as we were all independent and
strong personalities. Hatchets were always buried quickly at the Lane and here are Syd
Walker and Wilf Price, the first a Cockney from outside the gate and the second from
South Wales.
RH226 The famous 768, “Sir Balin”, a grand engine in Ramsgate Loco. We were on
holiday at Kingsgate but R I Nelson was travelling from Victoria on the engine with
Sammy Gingell (L) and his mate Fred Rowe. The fire had been cleaned and would soon
be made up, and the contestants would retire to the pub outside the gate for a glass of
“sherbert” as Sam would call it and which he would buy for he never allowed his mate to
buy the beer. It was a very hot day too. On the right is Percy Tutt down with some extra
service. He was in the spare link and a super engineman and mate. As for Sammy, he
was a legend in his lifetime.
RH227 Artful old “Smithy” from Deptford and his 80 year old steam crane standing
near the softener sludge tank which is an old LB&SCR Stroudley tender. Smithy is
covered in detail on RH224 but here we have the sort of men who do not normally claim
the spotlight but who deserve as much of a shedmaster’s time as a main line driver or
Grade 1 Fitter or Boilermaker. So, L-R: Con, whose Polish name nobody could
pronounce nor remember so he was Con who worked as a shed labourer with Smithy and
Frank Butowski; Tom Nightingale, Coalman, and I believe a bookie although I did not
know it at the time; Bill Price, Coalman (both men worked the mechanical coaling plant);
Harry Keefe, Shed Driver; and Frank Butowski, strong and broad shouldered who liked
and was worth overtime. If he didn’t get it, he would swear in a comprehensive mixture
of Cockney and Polish at the Chief Running Foreman who thought the world of Frank in
particular. He was one of the best and when and if the crane broke down he would make
old Smithy work for a living.
RH228 Bill Brooks, Chairman of the Workshop Committee at Stew Lane. He was a
fitter who specialised on lubrication and looks as if he was doing the rounds on 34088
before she worked the Royal in Oct 1954. He spoke lah-di-dah Cockney, was very astute
and likeable and missed nothing. If asked if things were quiet, he would answer that it
was the calm before the storm and he and Gerry McTague would soon be knocking on
the door to give me the rounds of the kitchen.
RH229 768 about to leave the shed for the 1535 Victoria-Ramsgate late 1954. My time
at the Lane was running out and my little box camera was pressed into service for once.
768 was always highly polished and well cleaned and she looked good. Four interesting
people: Jack May, now in No 2 link with Billy Reynolds (R). A splendid pair right up to
the job. Jack was the LDC Chairman and one of the best holders of the responsible
position that I have ever met, straight, able, respected by all and able to see both sides of
any issue. He was an NUR man elected for his ability by a largely ASLEF stronghold.
He retired from the LDC in Jan 1954, still held in high regard but never put himself
forward owing to the ASLEF strike in May 1955 when the NUR men ordered their men
to work normally. Next, Freddy Burton, a Shed Driver with a heart as big as a house. He
had been a top class fireman on the Nelsons before the war but after a while his eyes let
him down and he was confined to shed limits. A lovely man and so in his way was Gerry
McTague, Secretary of the Workshop Committee. He was a charming and persuasive
Irishman from Inchicore, Dublin and he and Bill Brooks were a very effective pair: they
did a lot for the men they represented and made sure that my life was not one of slippered
ease.
RH230 A R C Riley photo taken about 1958 at the Lane three and a half years after I had
left. Now and again I took the children down to see what was going on and for them to
enjoy themselves. Here is our son James now a GP in Bethnal Green and myself against
an L1 (Glasshouse German) 1754. She had come up the previous day on a 46 duty which
I believe was the 1402 ex Dover Priory on a normal Saturday. She carries the Chatham
headcode. Over the top runs a South London train no longer old LB&SC overhead AC
stock converted to third rail DC: good old trains which gave no trouble except slipping
uphill from Wandsworth Rd and Clapham Road in the early winter mornings.
RH231 Jan 1955. My last Sunday at the Lane just before I went home to face life at
Stratford next day. About each of the five I could tell many a story: they served the
railway well in their different ways. L-R: Syd Cook, Chargeman Cleaner, who had been
Foreman’s Assistant at the signing-on point. He finished as punctuality clerk at Croydon
Divisional office and he was a splendid man. Chief Running Foreman Fred Pankhurst
about whom I could write a book and who saved the railway thousands of minutes delay
through his ability to conjure men and engines from nowhere. Jim Alden, always 1300
on duty and an ex fireman and now a Shed Engineman who set the shed for the next day
with precision by no means an easy job which required much thought and attention to
detail. Running Foreman Algy Harman, once of Battersea Park a fireman and young
driver and Jack Bird also a Brighton man who acted as relief foreman without wanting
the job permanently. He finished his working career in Victoria Central signalbox.
RH232 See RH227. A different angle, RH227 is a better photo.
RH233 Boxing Day 1954. Plenty about and a week before I left for the Eastern Region
at Stratford. In the distance is 768 being cleaned for the 1535 Ramsgate, another N15, a
C class, a GW Pannier off the South Lambeth pilot and worked on all three shifts by our
men. And the engine for the Arrow, 34071. Driver Bert Hutton and Fireman Peter
Morley. For some reason I brought my box camera and went up the coaling plant to take
this photo of the old shed yard at which I had spent two and a quarter unforgettable years.
Everything is straight up, the yard and coal road cleaned and tidy. I won’t stay much
beyond one o’clock and I shan’t look over my shoulder to see who is following me!
RH234 123 Caley 7’0” single wheeler built by Neilson of Glasgow in 1886 to a
Drummond design, preserved after its withdrawal in 1933. In Sep/Oct 1953, it came to
Battersea Wharf to an exhibition of Royal stock. It was our responsibility and it was
necessary to do some pretty heavy work on paint and above all steelwork. They were
done by Johnny Millman, an ex-fireman who was labouring in the shed yard. It went
back looking a picture and John did a splendid job, for his generation did nearly thirty
years of cleaning and firing. On the photo: Jim McTague, Fitter and a NM/Bob
specialist; Assistant Foreman Fitter, Wal Thomas; Mr Wheeler, a visitor; RH; Fred
Pankhurst, Chief Running Foreman; George Kerr (Tick-tock, always looking at his
watch), Running Foreman; Johnny Millman, Shedman; Harry Newman, acting Running
Foreman; and Harry Biggs, Shed Engineman. Photo P Ransome Wallis, RCTS or SLS
visit to S Lane.
RH235 John Greenfield, Punctuality Clerk and a remarkable man who lived for the job
and who retired as Motive Power Officer at Croydon Div Managers Office in 1981
through ill health. At Grantham with Driver Ted Hailstone, my old Bradford mentor and
now at Kings Cross, probably about 1954. Eng 60026, Miles Beevor.
RH236 See above.
RH237 Ted Hailstone and Driver Billy Hoole of King’s Cross and his mate on the same
occasion.
RH238 213 Squadron 34088 prepared and about to leave the shed for Eastleigh to work
the Royal train from Portsmouth Harbour via the Mid-sussex next day (Dr Honey King
and Fireman Syd Hudson). The Emperor Haile Selassie of Abysinia visited this country
in Oct 1954 as the guest of Her Majesty The Queen.
RH239 The final touches before departure light to Eastleigh: prominent are the Royal
Buffers and the Royal drag hook and screw coupling. Next day, the Royal brass beaded
and polished disc boards will be set in the usual code for Royal trains. LH, Bill
Thorburn, an outstanding chargeman cleaner who worked extremely hard and led from
the front. He kept his Battersea boys in order and there was never a dirty engine on his
shift. I inherited two other chargeman cleaners and moved both as soon as possible to a
different class of work so that our engines, for a London shed, and remembering that we
had no adult engine cleaners as did Kings Cross, were kept in pretty good order. Chief
Inspector Danny Knight was in charge of the Inspectorate at T E Chrimes’ HQ(MPS) at
Waterloo and who rode on all Royal or Deepdene duties. He had also selected the two
sets of Nine Elms enginemen (Swain/Hooker and James/Reynolds) for the 1948
interchange trials and was liked throughout the SR.
RH240 May 1959 at Victoria. This was the day that I travelled on the footplate from
Victoria to Paris and worked my passage throughout, as driver to Dover, and fireman
Calais-Paris on 231 E26; Mécanicien Bebert Bethune, Chauffeur René Sene and a good
bottle of red wine. On the photo are Sammy Gingell, retired and now an outside porter at
Victoria, a job he did for the next twelve years and which he greatly enjoyed. My great
friend James Colyer-Fergusson who made these trips to France possible, then was
Personal Assistant to the Chairman, Sir Brian Robertson. Driver Syd Patrick of SL and
Fireman Brian Matthews, now a top link fireman and just a fireman when I left the Lane
four years and five months before. How times changed, for Syd was firing at Nine Elms
for twenty four years before coming to the Lane before the war as a driver.
RH241 The cab of 770 in Aug 1953 and the best I could do with a box camera. The low
roof, round-topped firebox and high footplate combine to make the enginemen’s world
confined but not difficult to work in. The driver is Sammy Gingell, wearing a beret, a
rarity on the SR, but Sam liked to cut a dash in a quiet way. His mate is Les Penfold and
they must have been together two years in the Ramsgate link before Les moved over to
the Brickin, their Dual Link. A typical Eastleigh footplate with Drummond fittings. The
firehole door goes back to Stroudley’s days on the LB&SC and to the LSWR via
Drummond, his Works Manager. The gauge glass protectors are unique to Eastleigh with
a spiked column on the right. It was said that LSW firemen kept the water level with the
top of the spike. Three steam valves in the centre are for steam heat, supplementary
steam for the F class exhaust injector and for the sight feed lubricator behind Les’s left
shoulder. High up are the steam valves for the two injectors.
RH242 1936 in Amersham goods yard. Met No 3 Goods. Goods Guard, wearing
Met&GC uniform, a friend, Tony Short; Driver, Len Hyde of Neasden Met; and his
fireman in the cab.
RH243 The second photo I took with my 620 box in Aug 1936 of D11 5506 “Butler
Henderson” at Amersham on the 1606 to Marylebone, all stations Leicester-Harrow-onthe-Hill and fast to M’bone. 5506 worked the 1000 Bradford as far as Leicester which
was worked forward to Sheffield by a Neepsend GN Atlantic and from the Vic by an
L&Y Dreadnought 4 cyl. Driver Fred France who retired in 1937 fired on the first train
out of Marylebone in 1899 to Driver Ernie Grain. You can see him on the fireman’s side
of that famous “aerial” photo where the bigshots are congregated round the engine and
Ernie Grain is standing at the regulator in frock coat and pot hat. Fred was driving
expresses before the 1914-18 war and was moved from Gorton to Neasden in the early
years of the 20th century. He certainly knew how to get round Ricky curve at about 40
mph, his usual speed for the 25 mph slack before setting his engine at the Amersham
bank quite gently, remembering the fireman’s arms on the last stretch over Woodhead on
the 1520 Manchester!
RH244 Met K class at Aylesbury in Met days. Met driver and fireman unknown but
wearing Met overall and uniform cap.
RH245 1936. The 1520 Marylebone-Manchester hauled by 5510 “Princess Mary”,
always reckoned to be the best of a brilliant bunch of D11s at Neasden. The others were
5504/5/6/7 in 1936. Load 8 bogies, 109” to Leicester and very sharp timings on to
Manchester. The fireman has put a good poultice in the back and sides of the grate and
will sit down for the next five minutes until they pass Mantles Wood autos and the grade
changes before Great Missenden and up to Dutchlands summit. Amersham Goods yard
on the left, up reception and up main. Standard Met signal and box on RH with PW hut
beyond, Ganger, sub ganger and four trackmen looked after Bell Lane Chalfont-Rectory
Road bridge Amersham.
RH246 GC 4 cylinder class B7, marvellous engines if handled correctly with wide open
regulator and short cut-off. If worked with a long cut-off, they were coal scoffers like
many other engines. Driver George Parks entering Harrow-on-the-Hill and the new
station buildings under construction about 1936. Stopping train from Woodford and the
engine will return with the 1826 fast to Amersham and all stations to Woodford and then
forward with a fast goods to Manchester. It was a Woodford engine and the 1826 was
worked by Woodford men.
RH247 Class L3 (exL1) 9056 dripping down into Wendover with Met No 2 goods in
early BR days. The Crabs replaced the Met G and K class engines on some of the Met
goods turns and from 1938, Neasden used the Ks on passenger trains unknown in Met
days. The colour light on the up road had a stumpy arm behind the lights which can just
be seen; a LT signal.
RH248 Amersham 1936. Met class G, 97 “Brill” on down evening Aylesbury train
loading mail, a long gone practice. Porter and driver are wearing Met uniform caps.
RH249 D11 5510 “Princess Mary” on 1606 Marylebone from Amersham all stations
Leicester-Marylebone including all Met stations Aylesbury-North Harrow and Harrowon-the-Hill. Driver sitting comfortably in his armchair and the fireman likewise until he
reaches Ricky; J G Robinson engines post-1911 were the acme of comfort. Background
and Goods Yard now contain multi-storey car park and two roads of flats and maisonettes
not to mention council offices, medical centre and police station!
RH250 1938 Met G class 6154 “Lord Aberconway” on No 2 Goods near Mantles Wood
autos between Amersham and Missenden, not far from where the A413 goes under the
main line.
RH251 Bob Clarke started at Chesham in 1935 and came to Amersham as a porter in
1941, just after I joined the LNER. He was a very quiet man, a bachelor who lived with
his sister down on the Moor at Chesham (still does in retirement). He retired as senior
stationman, one of the last of the Met&GC men. He had an amazing knowledge of
railway matters by no means confined to his home ground but which had to be prised
from him. Everybody knew Bob; he was an institution. Photo: Amersham, 1975.
RH252 George White was also an Amersham institution. He drove the old 1928
Thornycroft Met&GC lorry and knew every house and family in the place. In those days
“passengers’ luggage in advance” was the thing and my school trunk would be swung by
George on to his strong shoulders and be in Marlborough College for unpacking next
day: wonderful service. When the lorries were withdrawn probably in the sixties, George
went to Chalfont as senior rail man and was liked by the passengers for his knowledge
and friendliness. When we came south from Liverpool at the end of 1973, George had
retired but was on duty at the bookstall every morning at Chalfont where I often used to
see him until he retired to Thetford in the early 80s. Photo, 1976.
RH253 Bob Butcher, relief porter in my boyhood, character, cricketer, gardener and
railwayman in that order. He let a raft of wagons out on to the main line at Quainton
when I was at Woodford in 1949 and we went to clear up the mess. But he was known
by everybody and his sometimes useful information was often delivered with a hoarse
whisper behind his hand. He retired and died some fifteen years ago but his
grandchildren still live in Amersham and have copies of the photograph. 1975,
Amersham overbridge; look at the haircuts!
RH254 1936, Amersham 1723 Marylebone-Brackley at Amersham with the Neasden A5
5165 taken into the evening light but evocative. The leading coach is one of the large
Robinson brake third suburban coaches. The 1723 missed some stations such as North
Harrow, Northwood Hills and Moor Park and reached Amersham in about 47 minutes.
RH255 One of my favourite box photos on a Sunday morning in summer 1939 from
Hyrons Lane bridge S of Amersham and where the gradient eases from 1 in 105 after the
bridge. Each Sunday in 1939 excursions ran to Sheffield, Nottingham and I think to
Derby at 0950, 1000 and 1005 ex M’bone. They were usually ten coaches or more and I
never saw one hauled by other than a B3 4 cylinder, almost invariably 6166, 6167 and
6168, all Caprotti engines and very good indeed for the job. “Valour”, 6165, also worked
the job from time to time. My mother expected me to go to Matins with her and so it was
a mad rush after the 1000 had passed at about 1035. I never recall seeing the 1005. Here,
6168 “Lord Stuart of Wortley” is climbing the last stretch of the bank on the point of
blowing off steam and the fireman has put a good poultice in there to last him until he
starts to climb up to Dutchlands, the next summit. The men were in No 2, the piped
goods link who did all the Manchester lodge jobs at night with heavy freight and B7s,
also 4 cylinder engines. Let it be understood these engines were splendid performers,
both classes, and would pull a station and stop block (if required). Michael Kerry (who
retired after a distinguished legal career) and I always had a summer treat, and in 1939 it
was on the 0950 to Sheffield and back late in the evening with 6168 and the same men
throughout the day, a book off job and gold dust in 1939.
RH256 A F4 “Gobbler” at Fenchurch St in 1937, 7782, shedded at Stratford.
RH257-RH312 - 1937 NOTTINGHAM AND LEICESTER GC, KINGS CROSS, MET
BO-BO, AMERSHAM 1936-40, IPSWICH 1950-52, WOODFORD 1949-50 AND 1966
RH257 GN C12 of the second series 4513 at Nottingham Vic on a GN suburban train
heading north for Derby or Ilkeston. As he is taking water the train could have come
through from Gedling and Colwick. April 1938.
RH258 1936. A poor photo: The Leicester C4 that would work the 1215 ex
Marylebone on a slow up about 1015 from Amersham. The scene is completely different
from today. There are houses and flats where the grass is, and council offices, police
station and medical centre behind where I stood to take the photo; there was one rough
track across the field used by cyclists aiming for the station.
RH259 Finsbury Park station. This road was used by suburban and freight services for
Kings Cross Goods. The old “Raggy” 4657 has a partially fitted train. The K2s did good
work wherever they went and, from the GE section to the West Highland, they were good
old sloggers with no comfort, a stick lever reverse, no seats worth the name and the
regulator handle a pullout up in the roof. The M&GN men hated them for these reasons
when they replaced D16s, the acme of comfort even though they had their own engines
and some splendid work.
RH260 4471 class A1 “Sir Frederick Banbury” No 10 platform at Kings Cross in 1937.
Not a good photo of the engine but the observers were dressed according to their
generation, and where are they now?
RH261 One of the 1200 HP Met electrics in the dock at Ricky waiting for a steam
hauled service for Baker St to arrive. Donald Douglas, an old friend and Motorman Syd
Tapper of Neasden and his Assistant “Digger” Hyde, son of Len Hyde a well known Met
steam driver at Neasden. LT uniform included a blue overall jacket. Photo about 1943
on a Sunday pm.
RH262 Amersham in 1936/7. The 1606 up all stations Leicester-Harrow-on-the-Hill,
fast to Marylebone including all stations between Ricky and Harrow which were then
Met&GC and of course there was no quadrupling in those days. Eng 5504 “Jutland” for
many years a Neasden engine which has worked down to Leicester on the 1000 Bradford.
RH263 1937. The first time, except back in 1931, that I saw a Fish engine. 6071 class
B5 at Leicester Central on the goods road, splendid mixed traffic engines with a good
turn of speed on express passenger work such as Sheffield-Hull or Lincoln-York. They
worked most of the passenger jobs at Mexborough during the war and all of them when
the D10s 5429/31 had moved to Sheffield and the D9s elsewhere.
RH264 1937. The very fast 1655 Marylebone-Manchester (108” to Leicester and
change engines and away in 2-3” – marvellous to watch). B3 6165 passing Amersham at
about 45 mph with six coaches. Very powerful engines which could run well up into the
80s but had no need to do so if the driver gave them their head uphill. The ideal job for
these engines was the 0232 Paper train, the fastest of all the down trains, or the Night
Mail loaded up to 14 coaches, a load rarely, if ever, exceeded in the days of the Pacifics
in later years. (Movement of engine at 1/25 sec).
RH 265 1826 ex Marylebone-Woodford arriving at Amersham at 1903 with Eng 5473
class B7, a regular on the train and probably a Woodford engine. First stop Amersham
and arriving on time, 37 minutes but invariably checked almost to a stand near Chorley
Wood by the down Met to Chesham. Once the road was clear at Chorley Wood, the 4 cyl
would roar into the attack of Amersham bank and generally arrived on time; no mean
feat. My holiday treat to the London stations or the Oval/Lords always ended with a
front compartment journey home behind the tender with our heads outside all the way.
Note the engine is blowing off after climbing the bank: grand engines. Ignore all the
claptrap you hear about the big Robinson engines being no use.
RH266 At Aylesbury, early Jan 1940. It is the 1027 slow up from Woodford, the return
working of the 0400 Mail and paper train to Leicester which Neasden men worked to
Woodford returning with a Woodford engine in this case 6084 class C4. Driver Jack
Procter, the youngest of the pre-war top link and Fireman Jack Floyd who left the railway
after the war. When Jack Procter retired in 1945, he gave me his book “The Locomotive
Today” published by the Locomotive Publishing Co in 1900, signed in beautiful copperplate writing so different to the slap happy signatures of today. He had started at
Sheffield in 1896 and come to Neasden as a f9ireman in 1899 when the railway was
opened.
RH267 Driver Syd Glenn (the man-killer) and Fireman Jack Goodchild of Neasden on
the 0815 Marylebone-Leicester slow at Amersham in 1942. Normally the train was
worked by a V2 or a B3 but this Woodford engine had got on the job. Her glory days
were over, and she was still at Woodford when I got there in 1949, in a very rough state
as she is here. 2851, class B17, “Derby County” and we were to meet again when I
became ADMPS Stratford for she was at Clacton along with 1650/1662/1666.
RH268 1700 Marylebone-Nottingham at Marylebone in 1938, 2867 “Bradford” shortly
before departure. The old signal box on the right became the office of the London
Running Foreman and was used by the District Locomotive Inspector based on Neasden.
RH269 Aylesbury 1943. Derek King (R) was a Doncaster apprentice with me and came
to stay at Amersham for a short weekend during which we had a journey to Aylesbury
and back with Driver Len Hyde, a good old friend. The fireman’s name I did not know,
only that he eventually became a driver at Cricklewood. Eng 5046 another Neasden
stalwart.
RH270 Jan 1940 Caprotti 6167 class B3 1350 M’bone-Woodford and a time exposure.
Driver Bill Collins, fireman for the day and Fireman Bill Palfreyman of Neasden. Bill
was a very dear friend who lived until he was 94 and died at Marlow in 1980; the funeral
took place by the Thames on a glorious day. Bill had a temperament to match. Bill was
killed at Neasden, crossing the main line in the dark in the late fifties and he often wore a
boiler-suit. A number of GC men at Neasden, Woodford and Neepsend joined the
artisan’s overall club and had a clean pair of overalls each fortnight as I did during my
apprenticeship.
RH271 Aylesbury, 1944. A5 5003, Driver Gerald Pope (Old Popey), a well known
character and hard runner. A Met man but now at the GC shed. He is wearing the Met
cap (padded like that of the chauffeur of the day and very comfortable) and Met overalls
similar to those of the SR and GWR needing braces as they only came up hip high and
were not “bib and brace”. Nothing ever got Popey down even when the Neasden engines
deteriorated after the war until the new steam brake L1s came along as well as D W
Harvey and F C Clements as shedmasters.
RH272 May, 1940. B3 6166, Earl Haig, at Amersham. 0815 M’bone-Leicester all
stations and return with the corresponding slow due in M’bone at 1806. The engine then
worked the night mail to Leicester in both directions until the Pacifics and V2s were
established: the above was sometimes worked by one of Neasden’s two V2, 4830/45 but
not the Mail. Fireman Ted Mahon, and Driver Ted Simpson, the senior driver at Neasden
who hailed from Brunswick, Liverpool and came to Neasden in 1898/99 as a fireman.
He had been driving since 1911 and firing on the main line for at least five years. He
started on the MS&L (CLC) in 1891. A dear friend to me and great encouragement in
my career: he retired in April 1941, three months after I started at Doncaster. Lived on
the GC estate nearby the shed at 48 Gresham Road, Neasden. His wife was LiverpoolIrish and a lovely lady. Their son, Charlie, was killed when the V2 he was driving was
derailed during single line working at Barby near Braunston in 1955.
RH273 Ipswich, 1951 where I was shedmaster from April 1950-Aug 1952. Eng 1569
class B12 in Ipswich Loco. The Ipswich LDC were as good as any I have worked with
and a good mixture. On the left, Bert Coleman, Shed staff rep who had done all the jobs:
tube blowing, boilerwashing, coalman, labourer, nights down the Tram Shed/Lower Yard
coaling on regular nights and was a most conscientious man for he revelled in hard work
in which he had great pride. Amongst his many duties were the old lavatories virtually
out in the open in the yard. Now and again he would call me to inspect them, his pride
and joy, seats scrubbed white. He was as straight as a die and lived until he was well
over ninety. Next is Arthur Brooks in the Main Line Goods link, a very likeable man
who had a good line in patter and excellent at defusing the few sharp disagreements that
we had with his rather lofty turn of phrase. He too lived until he was well over ninety. F
W Newby, Chief Clerk to the DMPS Norwich and present because we had just concluded
a meeting. Fred Thorpe, driver along with Maurice Hood of 1566, B12, was the
Chairman, very direct and abrupt and one of the best and straight as a table top. A ROD
fireman in France in 1917-18 and a great asset to the LDC. He died young at about 7475. Lastly, the most remarkable of all, the Secretary, Driver Ernie Payne whose engine
was the B1, 1201. He started in 1911, went to France in 1915, promoted Captain in the
field in 1918, joined RFC and returned to his link position in 1919 as fireman. He fired
for over two years to Driver George Pinkney, Branch Chairman ASLEF and Chairman of
the MIC who also ran 8535 on the Ipswich-Manchester lodge job. Ernie was passed for
driving in 1929, quick promotion for those days. In the last war, he was Major Payne,
Offer Commanding the Ipswich LNER Home Guard and his shedmaster V Gilchrist was
one of his sergeants. He had vast trade union experience and he was a joy to work with.
We had complete understanding and trust and could move mountains. He also lived until
he was 92 and I went to his funeral for we had kept in touch ever since I left Ipswich in
1952.
RH274 A Sunday morning in June 1952 in Ipswich Loco. In the background the
running Shed which held four of the ninety one allocated. 1253, class B1 is standing on
the short pit and has just been washed out. It will be lit up, cleaned and then work an
evening job to London. L-R: Arthur Rumbellow (Rummy), Running Foreman, a
likeable man but a very laid back foreman; Fred Locksmith, Shed Turner, an excellent if
fiery man. The turner had to be a third foreman when it came to shed arranging in that
impossible shed yard. Fred was given, in times of stress, to throwing his shunting pole
on the ground and stamping on it. Jack Baldwin, a very able man although rather laid
back which did not always suit me. He left the railway long before his time. Harold
Alen, NCT (non-clerical timekeeper) and captain of the Ipswich Loco Cricket XI for
which I used to play.
RH275 Sunday morning, June 1952, north end of the running shed. 1634
“Hinchingbrooke” had just been washed out, examined with great care by Charlie
Ransom, boilermaker for the chargehand Charlie Winney demanded the highest standards
of workmanship. L-R: Maury Smith, the giant boilerwasher; Jack Reed and Charlie
Ransom, Boilermakers; and Chargehand Tube Cleaner, Pom Hagger, whose son had been
killed just before my arrival at Ipswich on the B1, 1057 at Witham, Mar 1950, Driver
Birch. All four were first class men at their job.
RH276 London End of Ipswich Loco; none of the engines are over a pit so we had room
for four tender engines in the shed and two tender engines over pits at each end (total
allocation 91!). Two of our excellent L1s which often worked an express to Liverpool St
on a Sunday on a tank of water: 1056, with 1054 one of our spare B1s.
RH277 1705 Ipswich-London 1059 Driver Frank Cocksedge, Fireman George Lown but
why she is carrying stopping train headboards is a mystery. She always looked a picture
and the cab was like a jeweller’s shop. Her footboards were scrubbed with soap and
water twice a week and the wood was white as was the hood, the inside of the cab roof.
RH278 Taken at Bentley on a Sunday in 1951, some trials the purpose of which I have
long forgotten. There were two B1s, I think, and two crews, three Loco Inspectors, a
Traffic Inspector and a Fitter from Ipswich Loco.
L-R: Arthur Kemp on the eve of retirement, the last pre-war Manchester driver; Bert
Dixon, HQ Loco Inspector, Liverpool St; Sam Jenkins, Chief Loco Inspector, Motive
Power Dept, Liverpool St; Bill Slack, Dist Loco Inspector, Norwich, a GC man from
Staveley; Syd Barley, District Traffic and Signals Inspector (nobody better), Ipswich;
Charlie Podd, Fitter; Passed Cleaner B Maile. Sitting: Fireman D McKie and Driver Alf
Pettitt. Additionally, I was there, the only one not paid overtime at Sunday rates of pay!
RH279 The country end of the yard at Ipswich Loco. L-R: Enginemen’s messroom and
Running Foreman’s office alongside of Running Shed; water tank and sandbin; bicycle
shed home made, B1 standing on the old turntable road which also led to the water
softener. Another B1 standing on the only disposal pit, two engines other than the
London end pit which took three engines. Hand coaling takes place in and outside the
shed beyond the B1 and the coalmen were assisted by the old RB10 down the “Digger”
for which coal was thrown from wagons by hand, Delays were unknown waiting coal
and tenders were usually well coaled with good coal but not always and thereon lies a
tale. On the RH are the roads leading to the “Digger” and used for stabling and
preparation.
RH280 Sunday morning in 1952. I was taking photographs just prior to my departure
from Ipswich for Stewarts Lane. L-R: Jack Cage, Fitter 2 (semi-skilled); Eric Birch,
Fitter and Turner of excellence who became Outdoor Machinery Foreman at Fleetwood
in the Shipping Dept before transferring to Newhaven. I met him years later at a talk I
gave in Seaford about l989, a small world; Ernie Simpson, his mate and Eric Boyle who
worked with Jack Cage; all excellent, Ernie being on the breakdown gang.
RH281 A group of Ipswich men who conducted affairs on my behalf! L-R: 1) Percy
Sparke, son of J F Sparke appointed DLS Kings Cross straight from Stratford Works
without any Running experience and therefore “carried” for a time. Percy was appointed
Mechanical Foreman without any running experience and was helped enormously by his
Chargehand Fitter, Jack Percy. In 1956, he moved to a safe haven at Colchester. 2)
Arthur Percy, brother of Jack and primarily safety valve fitter. He was, in fact, Alderman
Arthur Percy JP, twice Mayor of Ipswich. Although hampered by deafness, he adorned
both his profession as a railwayman and his civic duties. 3) Charlie Winney, Chargehand
Boilermaker, without a shadow of doubt the best chargehand boilermaker I have met on
the railway. Ipswich engines were never in trouble in respect of any branch of
boilerwork which included all ancillaries such as boilerwashing, tube blowing etc. 4)
Jack Percy had forgotten more about steam locomotives than most people will ever know.
How wonderful that I was blessed with such men whose fleet of engines were second to
none. 5) Ernie Rivers was a character and spare time waiter at the Station Hotel. He was
also our list clerk, a performer of great eccentricity in a job that needed the closest
attention to detail. When pressed to find men for Sunday working he would enter the
mythical name of ‘Smith’ to close the gap knowing the Running Foreman could always
conjure men from somewhere. Complaints were often lodged against “that bloody
Rivers” and yet men would do anything for him; he was a sergeant in both wars, the
second under Major Ernie Payne of the Ipswich LNER Home Guard. Lastly Archie
Hatch, ex-driver crippled in an accident. He had been a big union man and knew exactly
what could and could not be done. He prepared weekly and six monthly rosters amongst
many other jobs, invariably correct and well ordered and he restrained Ernie on many
occasions; the pair was a splendid combination.
RH282 Norwich District Locomotive Inspector Bill Slack at Bentley on the occasion of
HQ trials. I wish I could remember for what purpose. Bill was ex GC Staveley and went
to Norwich for his driving job.
RH283 Norwich under Bill Harvey might have done what we did in the interests of
running the railway but I doubt it. But we reckoned to be streets ahead of Norwich so it
did not signify. In the summer of 1952, six weeks before I left for the Southern, 1634
collided with another engine in the yard and came off second best. The tender was
seriously damaged and should have gone to Stratford Works for repairs. However, we
had a railway to run and both Chargehands suggested to me that if the breakdown crane
would lift the body off the chassis and I would agree for the tender to be placed on blocks
in front of my office, the job could be cut out and a new section welded into place. This
was done and the initiative of Jack Percy and Charlie Winney (both left) resulted to a
return to traffic in two days instead of three weeks to a month. On the right is Bill
Dunnett, our painter who added the finishing touches.
RH284 1059, class B1, on a Sunday morning in March 1952 before being cleaned and
standing on the “Back Hadleigh” road. On the gangway are George Ellison, fitter on Syd
Lincoln’s shift, Ted Waldridge, Cyril Rudland, Fitters, and Jack Percy, Chargehand, all
high class artisans.
RH285 Driver Ernie Payne and his trusty fireman, Ted Barrell against their B1, 1201, on
the North Country Continental at Bury St Edmunds in 1952. Ernie was an outstanding
man in every way. He was a gentleman, had served in France in the ‘14-18 war and been
commissioned, finally being trained as a pilot in the RFC. He was Major Payne in ‘2945, commanding the railway Home Guard with some efficiency. One of his sergeants
was Vic Gilchrist, his blunt and very able shedmaster, which led to comic situations when
Victor was caught smoking on duty. Ernie became a great friend and to say I trusted him
as Sec of the LDC is putting it mildly. He was a great asset to me, to the men he
represented and to the depot. He was a first class engineman and lived happily until he
was ninety two, respected by everybody. Ted Barrell said it was an honour to come to
work with him and to be paid for the privilege. He was a splendid strong fireman and
told me years later that, on Ernie’s sixtieth birthday, on the 0717 London and the down
Easterling Liverpool St, first stop Yarmouth, he insisted that Ted did the driving
throughout. Not only this, but he cleaned the fire in London before the non-stop run.
RH286 Outside the offices in the old Ipswich shed with the “Leah shelter” (put up by
our carpenter so that Driver Ernie Leah could collect ASLEF subs on pay day without
being drowned) and the water tank and oil stores beyond. Syd Lincoln one of the three
splendid shift Chargehand/Examiners and Percy Sparke, Mechanical Foreman.
RH287 The Ipswich breakdown gang was very good and these two men played the
leading part. Left is the crane driver, Charlie Dack, who was killed when the new shed
was under construction and a load slipped due to the sudden movement of the shed
turner’s “Mike”, a J15. After my time so that I can see Charlie, a lovely character as I
remember him. Right is Stan Stiff, a member of the gang but with a difference. He knew
exactly what the crane would do and all the moves better than I or either Percy Sparke or
Jack Percy. So at a derailment, we would agree a plan of campaign and Stan would
execute it, bearing in mind that the man i/c was responsible. Stan never let anybody
down and he loved breakdown work and any big challenge. He was, in fact, a fitter’s
mate but, once at work on the job he would not have interference from anybody other
than the foreman or shedmaster in charge and this included District Officers!
RH288 Closing of the Mid-Suffolk Railway in July 1952. Eng 5447 class J15
“Westinghouse Goods” at Haughley ready to leave with the last down train. Fireman
Jack Law who was made redundant next day and was transferred to Kings Cross in the
Leeds Link and then into the Newcastle link with Driver E Hailstone, some change from
a very rural railway where the fireman and then guard dealt with the crossing gates. Psd
Fireman Joe Skinner, once on the B1 1058 as a fireman, volunteered to work at Laxfield
as a driver for some months with great success and totted up a good percentage of driving
turns to reach his first 313 before the other junior passed men had reached fifty. Joe did
an excellent PR job on the MSLR and many were the passengers he and Jack entertained
on the footplate.
RH289 5447 at the head of the last down train from Haughley to Laxfield. GE Westo
four car set worked the branch from 1951. No nonsense about keeping passengers away
from the engine in those days. The Laxfield “General factotum” Harold Howlett is
between the uprights and he came for the ride on the last day.
RH290 General view of 5447, driver’s side showing Westo pump, bridle rod, RH
injector clack valve and vacuum train pipe to front buffer beam along the gangway.
RH291 Passed Fireman Joe Skinner and 5447 standing at Haughley before working the
last train to Laxfield.
RH292 The Ipswich crane always kept clean by Charlie Dack. It was a 20 tonner but
lifted far more than that as did the famous 36 tonner at Stratford. Both cranes had
relatively short jibs and were beautifully proportioned. Charlie Dack and Stan Stiff, the
key members of the gang. See RH287.
RH293 1570 class B12 which belonged to Jim Trenter and Freddy Gibbs. It was a
marvellous engine in perfect order mechanically and Jim was very particular as well I
know as shedmaster. A Sunday morning in the early spring of 1952. She is in steam and
has been “dug out” and will shortly be turned for up road and placed over in the Back
Hadleigh where she will be cleaned before the cleaners finish at 1400 and later made
ready for the 1730 Liverpool St.
RH294 The engine is 1651, a Woodford B17, very rough when I went to Woodford but
after some unwilling attention at Colwick not too bad and fit for fast train work. On the
ground in Woodford Loco is: left, Hubert Merrivale, Foreman’s Assistant who was
devoted to Pom French his Foreman although they had some hefty rows being both
vigorous and outspoken. Hubert lived in Moreton Pinkney which was served by two
stations, on the GC at Culworth and on the “Nibble” main line from Blisworth to
Stratford-on-Avon (S-on-A and Midland Junction Railway) which we could reach at
Woodford West Jc. In the centre is Peter Adams, a fireman and a splendid young man.
He was an orphan and was adopted by Driver Mark Andrews in my time in the top link.
Finally, Pom French as dedicated railwayman as you would wish to meet and a legend in
his lifetime. When he retired, he stayed on as a guard and a very sharp pointed pencil he
wielded if he was behind a Woodford man who was prone to lose time. I last saw him in
1966 on my last visit to Woodford before closure which must have hit Pom hard. But I
can hear his voice as I write.
RH295 One of our two best B17s, 1664, “Liverpool” and she could run like a hare. She
is in Woodford Loco with an interesting collection of men. L-R: Ern Allard, Shed
Driver and one of three who covered the 24 hours and set the shed and controlled all
movements as directed by the Running Foreman; Driver Frank Brown in no 5 link, all
spare work both passenger and more likely freight; Albert Harris (The Vicar, later the
Bishop), our toolman who, on my arrival, was doing next to no work but when we set up
the L P Parker tool arrangements, I promoted him to “Bishop” and we never looked back
for he was brilliant in using my name to get things done and was also impervious to
threats and bad language! Next is George Walters who lived in Culworth and bicycled
through our village of Eydon on his way to and fro. He was an excellent shed labourer
who kept the shed front in spotless condition. I asked him to call home on his way to
Culworth for something and he introduced himself to my wife as “Walters G”. How
times have changed; Frank Furness was an outstanding Foreman’s Assistant who had
gradually secured promotion from the Labouring grades. When Cyril Jordan retired
some years later, he was promoted Running Foreman ahead of some driver applicants and
was said to be quite outstanding; Cyril Jordan (R), a very capable foreman and quid pro
quo man with whom I had a complete understanding; both his son and his grandson did
very well in management grades on BR.
RH296 Jack Stowe was a very sound and capable fitter in my time at Woodford and
when the GC closed he went to Bletchley where he finished his service. The present MD
of Chiltern Railways, Adrian Shooter, was AME Bletchley in 1975 and I visited him to
note his progress when I was responsible for the career development of all professional
engineers on BR/BREL and from 1978, involved in every appointment to be filled by
professional or potential professional engineers. RH on right, Jack Stowe having taken
the photo.
RH297 Bill Jeynes, Leading Boilermaker and Joe Goode, Leading Fitter, Woodford.
They both did their best against the endless problems of terrible water which caused the
WDs to leak like sieves; LNER engines were not so bad especially the GCR breeds.
Here is an Annesley 04 3742 off a “Runner” and waiting to go out on a return working to
Annesley. The Annesley-Woodford-Annesley service was an amazing business, the
brainchild of the likes of Reg Munns at Liverpool St HQ, and it worked like clockwork,
the fastest loose coupled freight service in this country and no doubt in the world. Class
01 was the normal power but the 04s deputised and did a magnificent job, the simplest,
most rugged and reliable heavy freight locomotive ever created in this country.
RH298 See RH295.
RH299 The last week of the GCR, my favourite railway, but this was 1966 and after
1958, the writing was on the wall when the LMR took over. H C Johnson had been
General Manager of the LMR and had set up the closure which was carried out by his
successor, W G Thorpe, and it was inevitable. The last week, the power was Stanier
Black ‘uns and this one 5289 was all to pieces down with the 1350 Nottingham via
Princes Risborough and the Aylesbury branch. I had hold throughout and both drove and
fired on the return journey with Gentleman George Cave. Here is Driver Hector Boot
and myself at Marylebone. It looks like a GW headlight but anything would do on the
LMR I’m sorry to say.
RH300 See RH294.
RH301 Marylebone in 1965 with Driver Jack Cammock, a fireman whose name escapes
me and Inspector Ron Alder. Jack was a splendid man and he adorned his profession in
every way both as an engineman and in his relations with his fellows and with
management. He is exactly as he looks, a 100%er. Ron became a dear friend, one of the
best. In my time at Woodford, he was Branch Chairman ASLEF and a fireman in No 1
to Mac Rhodes and then Walter Pratt. He became a driver and then, in 1958, an Inspector
at Rugby and never looked back finishing as Train Crew Manager at Kings Cross under
the Divisional Manager.
RH302 These three had once been a splendid LDC and it was my honour to work with
George Wootton (C) and Charlie Saunders, both of whom had retired when the
photograph was taken with Ron Alder, by now working at GN House on the staff side
under Reg Clay, Div Staff Officer. George, Charlie and I trusted one another completely
and I treasure our understanding and memories for, from our different points of view, we
were for Woodford and everything it stood for. I was just under 26 years of age when I
was appointed Shedmaster and between us we achieved a great deal in those eight all too
brief months before I went off to Ipswich. Charlie had been a Leicester fireman on the
GC Atlantics and the B17s before the war.
RH303 See RH310 but with RH, the engine is a BR standard, 73159 - quite a good
machine. Personally, I preferred the BR Class to the Stanier 5, lighter on water and coal.
RH304 Mac Rhodes and Jack Pratt of Woodford. Jack was Walter’s son in No 1 link
and Mac had two sons: Ralph who was the Caprotti fitter at Woodford when the B3 6164
was allocated in 1939; and Frank who became a Loco Inspector at Norwich along with
Eric Wilkinson, his junior by four years, who also went to Norwich – those GC men went
everywhere. I had left Woodford but heard that 4438 Pom Pom class J11 was working
the 1245 Brackley-Marylebone and the 1700 return. 4438 was a wreck in my time and
unfit for service. I arranged for the shed drivers to book her all day and every day so that
her mileage clocked steadily up at seven mph, the agreed figure for a shunting engine. Of
course she never moved but her mileage did and she eventually was towed to Gorton
Works for a General and emerged in perfect order. A fiddle or good management? A bit
of both but to set her up for any sort of service would have stopped us going through our
fleet of V2s.
RH305 Ron Alder and Hector Boot at Marylebone last week of the GC London
Extension.
RH306 Outside my office door, always firmly bolted against entry so that potential
visitors came in via the Clerk’s office. L-R: Harry Hyam who helped the Clerk with
various routine matters; he was rated as an office man whatever that may have been. Ted
Webster was the clerk, a very likeable man who had to leave due to some shady work
which was never quite unravelled. There were no proceedings, and he left quietly and
vanished from the scene. He was an excellent clerk with a remarkable filing system
which was simplicity itself but which seemed to produce letters without difficulty. Ted
used a spike for each month and therefore had an array of twelve spikes across his desk.
He also had a very good memory. Jim Clark was the chargehand cleaner. A non–job as
we did not have a cleaner on the premises for nobody would join the railway deep in the
country when they could find far better paid jobs in Northampton, Banbury and Daventry
indeed it is remarkable how we covered the job as well as we did. Jim would never have
been able to control a crowd of cleaner boys and, years later, he was appointed list clerk
by some optimist. The corner of the Running Foreman’s office in which he carried out
his controversial duties became known as “Puzzle Corner”. A conscientious man who
carried the weight of the world on his shoulders whatever he was doing!
RH307 Ron Alder and Hector Boot and Marylebone. The last week of the GC at
Marylebone Eng 5289 Black 5 and a poor tool at that!
RH308 Woodford Station waiting for the last one up, a few days before closure in 1966.
RH (C) and the Secretary of the LDC, Driver George Wootton, and the Chairman, Driver
Charlie Sanders, both of whom had retired. What a wonderful pair. Good fighters for
what was right and as straight as a table top, therefore we worked in perfect accord. See
RH302 for further details.
RH313-RH321 are taken aboard TSS Invicta, a beautiful sea boat and manned by some
good men, one of whom, Stanley Gardiner, Cabin Steward, looked after us in one of his
state cabins. A dear man who had been Captain’s “Tiger” on the Canterbury at Dunkirk
and throughout the war. The Canterbury, built in 1929, was one of the most beautiful
vessels of her generation.
RH313 Stanley Gardiner and RH.
RH314 Stanley Gardiner, RH, “Bowser” McQueen (who had the best state cabins on
upper deck) and Les Taylor, dining room steward, who also served behind the bar.
Always smart, civil and obliging and great fun. Stanley used to say “My time is your
time”, what a marvellous job and they did very well too. We were always first off the
boat as Stanley had a way round the back which put us at the head of the queue. 1969.
RH316 RH and Stanley Gardiner, summer, 1968. Forty-five minutes before, I had come
off a 231G or K, straight up the gangway to the cabin where Stanley had arranged
newspaper on the floor and after a comprehensive wash, tea and sandwiches and then a
photo but not when there was what Stanley called “a bit of a chop on”.
RH317 RH and Stanley Gardiner.
RH318 Stanley and Danny Whelan, then Divisional Operating Supt at Liverpool. One
of the finest railwaymen with whom I have worked and who tragically died early in 1980
having achieved his ambition to become Divisional Manager, Preston. The Frenchmen
loved “Danny Whelan si devoué” for they knew a real railwayman when they saw one.
Summer, 1968.
RH318/9 Stanley with Frank Mayes (L) and Sir James Colyer-Ferguson Bt who had first
introduced me to France in 1958 with the Fleche d’Or. Henri Dutertre, Henri Meyns and
231E16 Calais-Paris. Here we are en route to France and Frank is making his first
journey which I arranged for him. He went on the Flech and we went on train 34 E4,
Mec Albert Anicote. Frank came from Barnsley to Kings Cross and then transferred to
Stratford as a driver and finally Inspector. Both men became very close friends.
RH320 With Stanley is none other than the great David William Harvey of Norwich, the
most remarkable of practical steam locomotive engineers of modern times. How he
loved to come to France and to receive the Calais boys on their visits to England.
RH321 Once again Stanley Gardiner, “Bowser” McQueen and Les Taylor at Dover
marine before departure and with John Shone, an OM, a Liverpool miller of distinction
(Wilson, King) and whose humour and personality and his “Franglais” was loved by the
French railwaymen. He and his wife, Ibbs, entertained the 1969 and 1971 Calais groups
at their home in Heswell Hills.
RH322 The “Passenger’s Friend” Leslie Ames, Leading Railman at Hooton once GW
and LNWR Jt and by 1973 when this was taken a pale shade of its former glory. But Les
was a legend for his ability, knowledge, kindness, helpfulness and constant good humour,
a wonderful advertisement for the railway. He was always on afternoons so I saw him
most evenings. When I left Liverpool, he gave us a kitchen clock which is still going
strong. We hear from him every year and he must, like me, be nudging 80.
RH323 Chief Ticket Inspector George Gent was another wonderful railwayman and here
he is in 1974 shortly before his retirement when he came across to Marylebone and we
had lunch together at a quiet back-street pub to go over old times at Kings Cross. His
title was ‘Divisional Chief Ticket Inspector’ for which he was paid a relative pittance but
we got him well and truly regraded about 1967 when I was Div Manager, Kings Cross.
To watch him on Christmas Eve on Kings Cross, marshalling his forces was a revelation
in both quick turn-round of trains and thorough ticket inspection along with his constant
civility and advice to the milling crowds most of whom were “lost, stolen or strayed” and
then sent clearly and sensibly in the right direction. A true gentleman and railwayman as
was Leslie Ames.
RH324 The London Midland Region Divisional Managers at Sedgeford Hall near Stoke
for our six-monthly meeting summer 1972. L-R: John Downes, Preston; Ken Davies,
Manchester; James Rusbridge, London; Frank Young, Stoke; Bob Gardiner, Nottingham
and John Pollard, Birmingham.
RH325 1963-64, Lincoln. Bill Boothright was the Traffic Manger’s chauffeur alongside
our bench front seated Ford Consul which were allocated to each Traffic manager in the
then Eastern Region and subsequently to each Divisional Manager. Bill had come up the
traditional way, Vanboy, Carter, Lorry Driver and Chauffeur of which he was the only
one in the District. Such a position held both responsibility and complete discretion and
my chauffeurs, Bill at Lincoln, Miss Letitia Rolfe (Sheila Van Damm) at Kings Cross and
Albert Bennett at Liverpool were at the top of the class. Bill was always our chef on the
inspection coach and gave him his one and only journey on a steam locomotive, 1406
class B1. My quiet instruction to the driver to let rip along the straight of the East Lincs
was obeyed to the extent that Bill was hanging on, his teeth chattering and he said “ If
that’s what it’s like, those men are heroes. Give me the road any day”. Despite that he
enjoyed the experience and he had had a much rougher trip back from Dunkirk in 1940.
RH326 London Divisional Managers, 1965, at their six monthly meetings. L-R, Front:
George Weeden, Croydon; Geoffrey Huskisson, Cannon St; Alan Suddaby, Liverpool St;
Frank Taylor, Wimbledon. Back: Leslie Leppington, Euston and Mike Johns, St
Pancras. Mike died very young and the two Divisions were merged to become London
under Leppington. Kings Cross (RH) took the photo.
RH327 Leslie Ames at Hooton with our youngest son, Peter, then about 14, in 1973.
RH329 My Secretary at Kings Cross, Rhoda Powell. She was a marvellous secretary of
the relatively old school of railway secretaries who understood the railway and who had
worked for a number of officers in different places. Rhoda had been in the Goods Dept
and when Geoffrey Huskisson, DGM at Gordon Hill became the first Traffic Manger at
Kings Cross, Rhoda came with him. She kept me straight on many things in our four
year association and was very quick and accurate with her shorthand. We kept in touch
until she died in 1998, and she and Gwenda were great buddies. The snap of Gwenda on
our honeymoon in 1949 on my desk was always there and Rhoda’s photo was taken long
before I ran to flash about 1975/6.
RH330/1 are both on the Severn Valley Railway about 1975. The Hall class engine is
6960 Raveningham Hall, one of the last to be built, I believe, and L-R is RH, Jack
Beaman, SVR Loco Inspector and BR Driver at Saltley, and Ken Payne, closely
associated with the SVR and Alun Rees, then Locomotive Engineer of the railway and
living with Gill and the children at Arley station where both the Rees children grew up. I
have had many very happy times with Alun and the other SYR men over the years and
“up the North Pole”.
RH331 6960 at Hampton Lode this time with Alun Rees, now General Manager of the
SVR, Jack Beaman and Ken Payne.
RH332 Not a complete photograph of Eric Copping’s engine but good of Eric and an
unknown young man. Eric was a Colchester passed cleaner working at Clacton and with
whom I travelled on a Britannia to Colchester. He did very well and became a fireman
and second man on diesels but left BR to the 70s and migrated to the RH&DR where he
had a reputation for hard running, a species of Sammy Gingell. Tragically, he died in the
early 80s, far too young. Always with a smile, he would do anything for anybody but he
loved a little sprint which did not always commend him to Mr Operating Manager
George Barlow.
RH333 Kings Cross Driver George Piggins who regularly worked the blue Deltic to
Doncaster and back when it was on trial in 1960 heralding the arrival of our Deltics
which revolutionised running on the East Coast.
M Philipe Leroy was riding on the engine, the Motive Power Supt of the SNCF Nord.
RH334 George White, one time Met&GC lorry driver at Amersham and who I know
well when I was a boy for he collected my tuck-box and trunk at the beginning of each
term. He was short of stature and drove a 1928 Thornycroft, and later a blue Fordson,
and I shall never forget how easily he swung that heavy trunk on to his sloping shoulder
and carried it down the lorry as though it were nothing. When Amersham Goods Yard
was closed and parcels and PLA ceased to be carried, George became a Leading Railman
at Chalfont, another Leslie Ames of Hooton, universally liked and respected by the
commuters. When he retired well past 65, he helped in the bookstall on the up side at
Chalfont during the morning rush hour and here he is about 1975/6. He retired to
Thetford and died there in his eighties.
RH335 Here is Sarah Siddons, the CM&EE’s brake block test locomotive based on
Acton and regularly driven by George Christie who is on the left. To me, it was an
evocative occasion for I had travelled many times on the Met 1200HP Bo-Bos in, and just
after, the war, and Sarah was little changed. No vacuum brake and that ferocious and live
knife switch in the cab was boxed in although I doubt if anybody was electrocuted by it
in its primeval days. I arranged for Paul Ross (R) and Inspector ? to travel to Liverpool
on an 86. Neither had been 100mph before! Centre is Richard Batten of the RH&DR
and next with the bushy beard is that very up and coming figure who I met for the first
time, Roger Paddison who retired early as Depot Engineer at West Ruislip and is now
involved to my endless gratitude with Steam on the Met.
RH336 The group shows us (Colin Morris, Divisional Running and Maintenance
Engineer, Kings Cross; John Betjeman; Edwin Howell, Divisional Movements Manager;
the great WO Bentley and RH) at Wansford which was then in my Kings Cross Division.
The photo was taken by Reggie Hanks, ex GWR pupil, trained at Swindon under C B
Collett. WO was a Doncaster Premium Apprentice and Pupil of H A Ivatt on the GNR,
and John Betjeman was knighted 2 years later. Three distinguished men who loved
railways and enjoyed each other’s company on what was an “Inspection”. From
Wansford to New England, we propelled our old GN saloon (lovingly restored and now
on the Bluebell Ry), and our three guests occupied the armchairs at the front of the coach
whilst we watched where we were going over their heads. I treasure the memory.
RH337 The Castle class 7029 had just arrived at Peterboro’ for a month’s work in the
hands of New England men who did very well and enjoyed themselves. John Betjeman
looks down in the classic pose of the old GWR drivers and behind him stand Reggie
Hanks and, beyond, Horace Botterill, Foreman Fitter of vast GN and LNE experience.
He and his staff worked hard on 7029 which pleased Pat Whitehouse, the owner and, in
conversation with W O Bentley with whom he had much in common, they agreed that
they had seen worse jobs than a Swindon engine but 7029 could not really stand
comparison with the products of Doncaster. Reggie Hanks preserved a masterly and
amused silence.
RH338 John Betjeman and Divl Signals Inspector Harry Beeby examine the gates at
Elton.
RH339 John Betjeman outside Wansford station – a typical pose.
RH340 Taken by RH, this includes Reggie Hanks, vice Chairman of the BMC and
Geoffrey Wilson, Divisional Commercial Manager at Kings Cross at Wansford. The
quiet and reticent WO was a very close friend and we had much in common. He
designed the Bentley Rotary engine fitted to the Sopwith Camel in the ’14-18 War, a
wonderful engine with ensure the Camel’s fame. Until he joined up (he was a Lieutenant
RN throughout the War), he and his brother had the concession for the French DFP car
and quietly (as was his way) fitted its hill climbing and racing version with aluminium
pistons and devastating results. After the War, he set up Bentley Motors and the rest is
history. “What a man” said John Betjeman.
RH341 The Rev Michael Hill, Rector of St Leonards, Chesham Bois and now Bishop of
Bristol with John Corfield, Divl Traction Inspector, Liverpool in 1948. We are probably
at Runcorn on the up journey with Driver Dick Mingham.
RH342 An American friend, Aubrey Taylor, whose ambition it was to travel to
Liverpool on an 86 achieved it in 1975. Here he is with Driver W T Rowe and that
Scouse Fen-Tiger Peter Brewin.
RH343 Michael Hill and John Corfield once more this time on the down journey with
Driver “H” O’Donnell.
RH344 On the up journey we had Dick Mingham, a delightful man who came from
Newton Heath, Manchester but had been at Edge Hill for many years. What better guides
could Michael Hill have than Dick and John Corfield who had done their lions share of
firing on the Lizzies and Duchesses on the heaviest jobs. John moved to Mollington St,
Birkenhead as a driver along with Harold Hale (HJ) and Johnny Kaye (JJ). Scousers
were often known simply by their initials.
RH345 See 343.
RH346 Aubrey Taylor and Inspector Ernest Hillyard, once of Rugby and great friend of
Ron Alder from Woodford GC. He was an excellent Inspector and we were well blessed
with such as Donald Norman who ought to have become Chief Inspector when that
position was created in 1969. The driver is Billy Ellis, yet another delightful Scouse
character. I was the driver from Runcorn to Watford – it still amazes me that, as
Divisional Manager, that so many drivers offered me that privilege.
RH347 Euston about 1987. In the centre is Jack Cherry, a much-loved GP in Abingdon
who was going to Liverpool for the first time and also to watch Liverpool play at Anfield
– a rugger man through and through! For a short time, the London jobs were manned
because of the mileage limitation by two drivers out of the top link, and here are Arthur
Owen and Tommy Perkins, both Scouse comedians to entertain Jack and to educate him
in railwaywork for both were able men. On arrival and after introductions, Jack climbed
into the cab to be greeted with “Now you’re here, Dochter Sherr-ie, wah about a free
consultation?” What a happy journey it was too and the return journey was the day of the
Bushey disaster when Jack saw railwaywork in the raw.
RH348 Bert Hooker in his last week’s at work on BR. He finished his career a very
happy man at Slade Green depot where there was great camaraderie compared with
Waterloo and, dare I say it, Nine Elms, something the SECR and its legacy had in full
measure at any rate in the London Area. The engine is the Depot shunter, especially
“nobbed-up” and named locally and by no means officially after “Ivor the Engine”.
RH349/50 Taken at Bournemouth West. The serious gent on the left is Major Harry
Mosse who, with Bert Hooker, became dear friends. Harry loved nothing more than a
day with steam and it was he who thrust his way into my office at Liverpool St in 1959
and asked very directly whether he could have a journey to Norwich on 7MT. We
changed his regiment from the Gunners to the REs and gave him the necessary and he
never looked back. Bert Hooker had vast knowledge and to listen to him was an
education. The fireman’s name has gone from my memory but never the other two. I
gave the address from the pulpit in Mendham Parish Church at Harry’s funeral and at
Bert’s in Eltham Crematorium. Bert began at New Cross Gate in 1934 aged 18 and
transferred to Nine Elms as a fireman in 1940. After that he never looked back and,
when he retired, he had done it all.
RH351 Reginald Jennings (‘RAUJ’ or ‘Jumbo’ to Marlborough College boys) was a
famous Housemaster in his prime both before, during and after the last war. He had
always wanted a main line trip on steam but for years he could not find the time when I
could have arranged it. But in 1966, the deed was done and we took him from
Basingstoke to Bournemouth Central on a Merchant Navy and then back to Southampton
on 73037, a Western Region engine and not a bad old boat either. We had prevailed on
Reginald to have a little drive which he did up the bank from the New Milton start and
onwards to Brockenhurst where the photo was taken.
RH352 Spl 7 my foot! Here is 34059 Sir Archibald Sinclair at Parkeston Quay in 1949
when she was on trial. The Railway Executive intended to transfer what they considered
to be under-used light Pacifics from West Country to the GE section based at Stratford
and Norwich. Our Chief L P Parker was a party to plans for an entirely new high speed
timetable using what he hoped would be the class 7 BR standard then on the drawing
board. In no circumstances would he have any Bulleids at Stratford on a permanent basis
although the engine distinguished itself on trial with a picked crew and Chief Inspector
Len Theobald in attendance. This was the penultimate day of the trials and we took a
very heavy train to Parkeston with great ease in about 85 minutes. L-R: HQ Inspector,
Tom Sands, ex M&GN who retired as Chief Inspector, Norwich; Dr Bill Burritt of
Stratford and his regular mate who later moved to Gorton; Len Theobald, an outstanding
Chief Inspector for whom LPP had great respect. We emptied the tender by Stratford to
load it with good stuff for the high speed trial to Norwich next day. On the return near
Swainsthorpe the steam pipe to the steam reverser split and we made the entire journey in
full forward gear and unable to reverse.
RH353 A Lloyd-Davies, doyen of the coal trade at Kings Cross and carefully nurtured
by Geoffrey Wilson and myself, was like all the coal-boys, very quick on the uptake! We
loved him dearly and here he is fulfilling his ambition as did so many people. He should
have gone to Bournemouth but something was wrong and we had to change over at New
Milton. Hence the station seat as we wait for the up train. Bert Hooker, Lloyd and Alan
Newman who was with Bert for over a year, a rarity in those last days of steam at Nine
Elms, while he was waiting to reach the minimum age to be passed for driving. He
became an Inspector At St Pancras and was involved with the Marylebone-Stratford-onAvon steam work in the eighties and early nineties.
RH354 Victoria Eastern awaiting departure of the 1030 boat train (R) about 1964. The
strong man in the middle is the legendary Sammy Gingell now an outside porter well
over 70. (L) is David Ruddock of Boothby Graffoe and (R) is Alan Parker, Passenger
Manager, Doncaster, one of our few Etonians. He had a devilish sense of humour which
he used when in a tight corner. Having elected to be brought to Court for illegal parking,
his simple defence, aided by an ingenious smile, was that “He was a bad Parker”. The
court may have dissolved in laughter but sadly justice had to be done!
RH355 Peter Hardy (aged 7) having an afternoon on the “Winkle” in 1964-5 which
was quite something especially when Bert Hooker allowed him to “drive”. Bert and his
mate, Alan Newman, on the right.
RH356 “The Shakespeare” has long gone and what remains of the Golden Arrow stands
in No 8 at Victoria (E). The train now goes once more to Dover Marine leaving London
at 1030. The Dover men shown have no doubt come up with the “Blue” and probably
with the same is E5000 electric locomotive. They were master of the Night Ferry
although they had some trouble, I believe, with the gaps on the climb up to Sheperdswell
from Dover.
RH357 I had long left Stewarts Lane and Jack May was well established in the Boat
Train link at the remains of the Lane. He was the perfect LDC Chairman in my time and
we worked closely for the good of the depot, its staff and the Southern Region. It would
not have done for us to be photographed together when I was shedmaster but this was
1961-2 not long before Jack retired. About this time, the Lane, so staunch a Chatham
shed, was transferred to the Central section under the Divisional Manager CROYDON,
the crowning insult!
RH358 I was Divisional Manager Liverpool from May 1968-Oct 1973, the experience of
a lifetime. We took my Saloon out on working inspections which were hard but
necessary and very enjoyable. We shared the coach with the District Engineer, Hubert
Roberts, and it was also used by the Divisional Officers. This is Aug 1973, my last
outing before leaving the Division and a happy day to see many of our more wide-spread
staff. This is Delamere, CLC when the station had a signalbox and a species of yard
which was a convenient place for lunch before moving on by stages to Skelton JC. It was
also the last saloon lunch before alcohol was banned as a sensible form of entertainment
for our guests and also the crew. The group are: (L-R standing), Arthur Williams, my
Deputy and a truly good one who ought to have been a Divisional Manager; the
incomparable Danny Whelan, Operating Supt; Arthur Behrend who lived near us on the
outskirts of our Wirral village of Burton. He had been an LNWR Improver before the
’14-18 war, but then joined the Liverpool family firm of Shipping agents, Bahr Behrend.
He left me his medal for “working” in the General Strike when his contribution was to
sign on at Chester (with the strike all but over) and take a luncheon basket 200 yards to
the shed foreman. Ken Lord, our Maintenance Engineer and reared on the Southport
electrics and later on the MS&W section under Alec Emerson. Roland Lancaster from
Saughall, the first commuter to rumble me (the service was so bad from Chester to Rock
Ferry that I did not disclose my hand at once). Denis O’Reilly, Area Manager,
Northwich, once S M Mullingar before emigrating to Liverpool where he was Chief
Traffic Inspector. Very Irish, a good operator and even better kidologist. Jack Appleby,
pillar of the Mail Room and excellent relief Steward. Peter Summers of JS&S, now part
of BSC, the only one of the three Summers sons to make a career in steel making, and a
good friend to say the least. Jack Berry, our Guard and Inspector for the day - the best,
and Fred Lancaster, a hunting farmer and brother of Roland. (L-R front), Alan Newitt,
Passed Secondman at Edge Hill with the “Extra” link; John Connolly, our Steward and
what an asset he was to our guests and to us. George Bordessa, Driver now at Garston
but ex-Edge Hill LDC. We first met at an LDC meeting chaired by Danny Whelan which
I visited for a few minutes, and finally the remarkable Reg Holmes, Signalman and
character now approaching ninety, a widower and still in first-class form.
RH359 Another Inspection, in April 1964, a month before I left Lincoln for Kings Cross.
Again this was business but with a special purpose for the benefit of Reg Munns, on the
eve of his retirement as Freight officer at ER HQ, a dedicated operating man of great
knowledge. We are at one of the extremities of the Lincoln District, Waltham-on-theWold, deep in the Leicestershire countryside where the acres of rolling grass and splendid
hedges make perfect hunting country. Reg started as a boy at Waltham as a clerk and
climbed the ladder – he was a Railwayman. Left, is Norman Micklethwaite, acting as
DMPS. We worked together at Stratford from 1959-62 after I had appointed him
Shedmaster, the right man for the years of the “Human Revolution 1959-62”, the c/o
from Steam to Diesel and for the endless problems we faced and decisions we had to
take. The two enginemen are from Amos, acting DMM. Jack was Chief Traffic
Inspector and brother of Bill Luty, Running Foreman at Kings Cross who fired on 2509
for A J Taylor on the first high-speed Silver Jubilee run in 1935. He and Jack came from
Immingham. Harry Amos became DMM Sheffield a very good operator who had come
up the hard way; we had much in common. We had arranged for the Station Master, one
Angus ? (who lived the life of Riley) to present Reg with a Stilton cheese of enormous
proportion and powerful aroma. Had we been on our own, we should have been the
recipients!
RH360 Dover Marine in 1973 when James Hardy was in his second summer vacation at
Sheffield University, both of which he spent as a steward on the Invicta living with
Stanley Gardiner now a widower. S, L-R: Bill Thomas, a great friend and a good man to
take to France on the footplate; “Tug” Wilson, ex LT&S section fireman turned BT
Policeman who used to see me by HM Customs if he was on duty; James and Stanley.
RH361 Preparation for an Eastern Region Board visit is bad enough but when they are
accompanied by two ferocious BRB members, Philip Shirley and Fred Margetts, men
wanted to put up the shutters. So one goes over the route beforehand which involved this
sort of preparation. We are at Collingham (ex Midland) and the end of the Lincoln
District Nottingham. The Board arrived from High Marnham (where I joined them) and
we came in on the LDEC via Skellingthorpe to Pyewipe and Lincoln C where the Station
Master, Mr Chadwick, and I successfully weathered a Shirley inquisition, the secret being
not to answer every one of his barrage of questions but to batten on by good luck or a
trust in God to the right ones which we did. Then to St Marks via the East Yard where
Shirley pinioned me in a corner with the unanswerable question “Why have you got two
stations at Lincoln, Hardy? Get one closed at once.” En route once more, we passed the
carefully screened 1874 Midland Pullman doing duty as a messroom (thus avoiding
another Shirley outburst) and we set off for Collingham where I left them to it. Our little
team had done a good job and the visit was a success. Once at Doncaster via the two
Newarks, the Board had an excellent dinner after which the BR Members refused to go to
bed and went on the rampage with the Traffic Manager to the Power Box at midnight.
The single-needle telegraph, a wonderful medium for all-line communication, was said
by Shirley to be years out of date (which it was). He insisted that these instruments must
be replaced at once by telephones. In fact they remained until electrification! The BR
network was impossible and when the ERHQ moved to York in 1966, it would take 203
hours to get a call from KX. Thus B1, 1406, our inspection coach and, L-R: SM
Collingham; Jack Luty; Harry Amos; Derek Burton, Commercial Manager; Norman
Micklethwaite; Sheila Hazard, my splendid secretary; Ernest Needham, Chief Clerk; Bill
Boothright and three enginemen and a goods guard. What this lot cost was nobody’s
business but homework had to be by a rooky Traffic Manager. It made Shirley’s day
when I told him that Skellingthorpe was to close traffic on 30/3/64 and was currently a
store for inwards traffic. Outward receipts for the current year amounted to £5. After
Skellingthorpe, we passed a large house set back in some trees. It belonged to the
Chairman of the local Conservative party whose son married R A Butler’s daughter. This
idiotic piece of information could be used to change the subject if cornered but Shirley
was facing the other way and was haranguing me on this and that.
RH362 Archie Hastie had been Railway Transport officer at Carlisle during the war. He
was a great friend, a very untypical Wykehamist. He knew his railways and railwaymen,
a man of the world with a supreme command of English in his letters and of the spoken
work (when it suited him). He also had a great sense of humour and of the ridiculous. A
Barrister who never practised and who preferred the very useful life of a country
gentleman in the best sense. During the war, George Tatterson (Friar Tuck fringe) had
been Asst DOS to Richard Bagwell at Carlisle. They worked wonders of operation at the
Citadel and elsewhere, forging a lifetime friendship. Tatt left the LMSR after the war
and joined John Summers & Sons at the suggestion of Sir Richard Summers (a Director
of the LMSR), retiring as Transport Director BSC at Shotton. Our party is completed by
Danny Whelan and Pass Inspector, Bill Coffey, our regular on such occasions.
RH363 Hooton, this time with Danny on the right, then Frank Harrison who was a most
unlikely Industrial Relations Manager at BRB HQ. Frank’s father was Driver Herbert
Harrison of Lincoln; His brother a GN man, but Herbert, who I met on 6097
“Immingham” on my second day on the LNER, was a “Poggy” man par excellence. Bill
Coffey, Inspector; John Connolly, Steward; and Don Wyman, Area Manager,
Birkenhead.
RH364 Lime St Station after the inspection with George Tatterson and Archie Hastie
(see 362 for details of both men). Chief Inspector Jack Johnson, ASM Eric Steward (ex
Kings Cross), Extra Link Driver Tommy Peacock, Passed Secondman John Benson, GT,
AHH, RH and Bill Coffey. Both he and Jack Johnson are wearing the sensible old BR
Inspectors hat still on issue in 1970 and Bill is still carrying the scroll with the LM red
background.
RH365 Our old 1406 on which my chauffeur, Bill Boothwright, had his first and last trip
on a steam locomotive. A quiet word from me to the driver resulted in 70 mph between
stations and Bill said “Never again”. We are on a tour of unusual corners of the District
(at Mablethorpe) not long before I left for Kings Cross in June 1964. Our Lincoln driver
and fireman and goods guard are in charge but do not know Mablethorpe so the severe
gent in the cheese-cutter has come from Immingham, Louth or Boston. Centre is Harry
Amos and on the right, my old Assistant from my Liverpool St days (1959-62), Bert
Webster, an LNW Lancastrian and what a man and companion for he complemented me
so well. He was 57 when I was 35, a wealth of experience, judgement and humour and
he deserved this day on the bummel.
RH366 See 361 which is a better photo.
RH367 The interior of the old GN Directors coach used by the GN Line Manager and
later by myself when I was DMKX. Cyril Palmer is taking Colin Scutt (R) on an
inspection of the Lincoln and Doncaster Districts. Colin Scutt is now Chief Mechanical
and Electrical Engineer, a good friend on the job and he had come a long way since he
started in the Plant some ten years before I did. His father was Head Shunter at the Carr
Loco. Cyril Palmer, Motive Power Officer GN, was my foreman when I was an
apprentice at the Carr and he dies far too young, another fine railwayman.
RH368 Has Bert Webster dropped off in our old GN saloon. I very much doubt it!
RH369 This happy crowd were some of my RH men in my short stay of 7 months at
Lincoln preparing the District to enter (against its wishes) the new Doncaster Division in
June 1964. It was very much a learning experience for here I was, a Loco man, following
a legendary Traffic Manager and Commercial man, Harry Graham. Ernest Needham,
Chief Clerk, Harry Amos once again and Jack Luty, District Traffic Inspector, brother of
Bill Luty ex Immingham and now KX Running foreman. There was a degree of comfort
in the old coach and it served us well; always know as the “Special”.
RH370 The “Special”. A GN body and frames on Gresley bogies? Anyhow, the old
coach rode very well and enabled me to see much of the district in a short time. Tim
(FW) Shuttleworth will give you its history in greater detail.
RH371 Derek Burton was our energetic and ingenious Commercial Manger, an exTraffic Costing Officer and very much a Beeching man in outlook, following the party
line, which was not bad thing for us if uncomfortable at times. Derek was destined for
great things which, for one reason or another and like so many of us, he never quite
achieved. He left his mark on Lincoln and on me.
RH372 In my 1934 LMS Saloon at Liverpool. George Tatterson and Archie Hastie have
the best window seats.
RH373 …and so does Edmond Godry, Chef Mécanicien at Calais on a happy visit to
Liverpool, How he loved the railwaymen of this country who took him to their heart, for
the feeling was mutual, and his smile got him everywhere. He took his job at Calais very
seriously and was an Inspector of the highest class.
RH374 Now we are at Burgh-le-Marsh on the East Lincs below Willoughby. Bert
Webster and Harry Amos admire the work of the proud Station Foreman. B-le-M won
every garden competition but Sleaford ran it close with Mr Stationmaster Rook’s railway
paintings on the coping stones.
RH375 See RH365, delete Amos and include Hardy in a trilby hat and smoking a
Gauloise. We must have returned to Lincoln via the New Line and Tumby Woodside or
possibly by Boston, Sleaford and up the Joint Line to Lincoln.
RH376 Bold Colliery 1980. On the footplate of the Rocket is Driver Fred Dale, senior
driver at Edge Hill/Lime St. Peter, our younger son, had a day at Bold and enjoyed
seeing old friends. Fred was concerned because the engine was not in steam for the trial
running that he needed to get used to the valve gear and reversing but by early afternoon
all was well – up to a point.
RH377 The instructor was none other than Mike Satow who saw to the building of the
“Rocket”, and when he mounted the footplate of “Rocket” accompanied by Fred and his
mate Jimmy Donnelly, some movement was confidently expected by the multitude.
However, this was confined to half a revolution forward and ditto backwards with plenty
of dirty water from the chimney for some ten minutes while Mike juggled with the levers
and got somewhat heated. However, all was well until next day when she was withdrawn
until repairs had been miraculously effected but thenceforth, Freddy, in his top hat,
worked his magic. He became known as “Mr Pickwick” (just right in a topper) as well as
his irreverent Scouse nickname of “the Principle Boy” derived from his frequent
reference to “matters of principle”. Captain Bill Smith, owner of the old GN J52 4247
beating to windward in the foreground.
RH378 Mostly Scousers at Bold Colliery 1980: Peter, Dr Tommy Perkins, Insp Eric
White, Insp Harold (HG) Hale, Insp Ernest Hillyard, Dr Fred Dale, Psd Fireman Jimmy
Donnelly, Dr Wilf Hume.
RH379 Peter and Harold Hale with the old NB J36 “Maude” behind.
RH380 Driver Stan Rimmer, now retired, a 1934 man with whom I travelled on many
occasions. He was a remarkable man and humorist and enjoyed himself cleaning 6201
on which class of engine he suffered many miles of slavery.
RH381 See RH378 but delete Jimmy Donnelly and include RH. L-R: Tommy Perkins,
Wilf Hume, Peter, Eric White, “H G”, Ernie Hillyard, RH.
RH382 Pillars of Preservation bar Peter Hardy (R). This was 23 years ago – Alun Rees,
the late John Bellwood, John Peck, a pre-war Running Graduate, Kim, a cleaner and
fireman at Sudbury and Cambridge. All LNER bar Alun.
RH383 Zeebrugge. In 1960 Geoffrey Ford (L) and I took over in our respective
Districts responsibility for the maintenance and staff of C&W, ODM and Road Motor
Depts. In Oct 1962 Geoff, who had already been with me to France the conventional way
in 1959, came with me for another visit. Here we are with our Wagon Foreman, Jack
Cleaver and the SNCB Agent who spoke good English. Jack spoke Railway Flemish, by
no means an easy language even for a Cockney of inventive ability. We had crossed on
the “Essex Ferry” which had two stroke reversible B&W diesel engines and had had a
smooth crossing and a splendid breakfast. Geoff and I went on to Paris and, next day,
after an enormous brunch at Andre Duteil’s home at Epinay-sur-Seine, caught train 19
from the Nord at 1230 for Calais. Our electric driver was Roger Lemaile of Fives and, at
Amiens, we joined Henri Dutertre and Francois Veron on 2312E9. It was really a jolly
for two hard working DRMEs, and Geoffrey returned to Norwich mentally and
physically refreshed.
RH384 HQ Inspector George Harland accompanied Philippe Leroy on the “Blue
Deltic”, lunching at Grantham before returning with Driver George Piggins. On the
down journey, Philippe had “Mallard” to Peterborough where she had run hot so the
Peterborough pilot, a V2, took over. It was not a typical Station Pilot and did very well.
More often, men preferred to stick to a dud-steamer rather than take the usually diabolical
New England V2.
RH385 Not many photos were taken in No 2 Carriage shop at Stratford for the place was
firmly locked. Anyhow, this must have been 1964 or so and was a time-exposure with
little light. One for the record which includes Ted Wade, Chief Clerk at Stratford and a
tower of strength, afraid of no-one. We were on 17 x 12 hour nights together followed by
a 12 hour day without a break and I got to know Ted and his many assets. Then Frank
Mayes, another splendid man who, by now, was an Inspector, a Barnsley man who had
emigrated to Kings X and on to Stratford. I still miss Frank for we became close friends;
he died, as did his wife Iris, in 1997. He knew everybody and kept me up to date on the
comings and goings of Stratford men. On the gangway is our Peter (6). The engines, an
M7, Q6 and either a D11 or an 04, all alive today.
RH386 to RH397 cover a period where I took few photographs on the job, other than
those indoors, without a flash, and all are in a light-hearted vein, for we were working at
high pressure for four years on end, running the railway to a high standard and
masterminding “The Human Revolution” from steam to diesel and electric traction.
RH386 Both my Assistant and I had a penchant for funny hats and here is Bert Webster
installed at Hamilton House on the top floor looking out over Bishopsgate. Bert was 57
against my 35 when we both moved up and we were a great partnership though I say it
myself. We could laugh and laugh fit to bust but at the same time our output each day of
constructive uncluttered work was pretty big. We made things easy for ourselves and
never a wrong word, however hard the going. Bert has my bowler, only worn (at work)
on special occasions but as Bert came from the LMS, he was used to bowlers. Not until
he came to the ER at March did he wear a Trilby at work. The Eastern favoured the
Homburg or the Trilby and one thought the bowler and long dustcoat looked pretty daft
but it was fashionable at the “Top Shed”, I believe.
RH387 I took Bert to France twice and he enjoyed every moment of the journey on both
the steam and the electrics from Amiens to Paris. Being outgoing in his comic
Lancashire way, he made friends easily although he could only speak franglais. We went
to Dover with the ex Stew Lane motorman of a 12 car boat train.
RH388 In the summer of 1960, it was my turn and Bill Dixon’s from Lincoln where he
was DMPS, to join the Sectional Council B summer meeting at Clacton. (A was clerical,
B, Motive Power, mostly footplate staff, C was Operating and D was Terminal and
Cartage). These are all old friends and colleagues. Bill was Darlington-trained and a
character, always grumbling and one of the best, who died in his 91st year. Frank
Longhorn was the Chief Staff Clerk of the GN Line. Appointed by Gerry Fiennes, who
wanted a rascal a step ahead of everybody, he was good and amusing and got things done
on his terms and by his own private means. Cyril Palmer was my Foreman at Doncaster
Carr Loco in 1944 and very kind to me (when he could be, on the quiet so to speak). He
was a good foreman and there was no rest when he was about nor when i/c the
breakdown gang and crane. He had served his time at Wrexham GC and moved to KX as
a fitter and No 2 Mech Foreman, Doncaster, to Charlie Walker was his first post. Later
he was the last DMPS at Peterboro and then Motive Power Officer GN under G F
Fiennes. He died in 1966, far too young. Colin Scutt has been mentioned before. He
was our GE Line MPO and on his way up he had been ADMPS Worcester and ADMPS
at Trafford Park but never a District Officer. He finished up a CM&EE ER, very, very,
able. Bill Buxton was about to retire from Chief Staff Clerk GE Line and to be followed
by Bert Newell off the Southern. Six good men.
RH389 The rather upper-crust GEAAA sports to which the nobs were invited and at
which Gwenda and my presence was obligatory was held at Loughton GEAAA ground
mid-July to be followed next day by a much lower crust and very enjoyable entertainment
known as the Stratford Loco Sports. Here we have Syd Casselton and Tug-of-War
anchor man, Breakdown Foreman and the best I ever knew. Syd knew all our family and
loved to find a little job as Foreman of the Crane shop that would take him our way.
RH390 Bert Webster and the Traffic Managers Chief Clerk, Bernard Wilby, another
charmer. Harold Few was our TM. He died in 2001 aged 95 and I will say no more than
I tried, when my turn came to be a DM, to model myself on his methods. He never
fussed; he was a good delegator but always there to take the lead over things that really
mattered; he was straight and a true railwayman. Bernard came up from Frinton daily
and was never late which says a lot for his stamina and the punctuality of the Clacton
service once we had got some of the old-timers on to the electrics.
RH391 The rest of our Motive Power team. Les Thorn, a Stratford fitter taken out of the
Jubilee shed as a sort of unofficial technical assistant and came into his own with the
diesels. We promoted him from class 2 to Special B and then Management range 2 on
account of his specialist knowledge and he was our saviour many times with the new
form of traction. He never had robust health and worried about the job. I could not do
much about the first but plenty about the second. On the right is Ken Townrow who had
come down in the world but he joined us in a general post when I took charge in Jan
1959. We found the secret of energising Ken, and he lived happily without ambition and
worked hard for the rest of our time together.
RH392 A meeting of the GE Line Motive Power Committee which met bi-monthly and
was a pleasant affair with no time wasted and plenty of action. L-R: Frank Wilson, a
very experienced Admin Asst to the Motive Power Officer, once Chief Running Foreman
at Stratford. No foozleing with Frank. He had plenty of power and was one of the great
L P Parker’s “young men” who made him a foreman from the clerical grades. Colin
Scutt, Motive Power Officer and a top-class man to work with. He knew, that as DMPS,
I had to bend all the rules at Stratford to bring in the diesels and get the best from steam
and left me to it. “Dick,” he used to say “I don’t want to be involved”, which was just
what I wanted. He became CM&EE ER and good for him. Geoff Parslew (Grock) is
next, Cambridge DMPS and he came full of LM ideas from Kentish Town. It took hi
time to get used to our way of doing things for the LM Officers were not allowed to take
the decision as we could. Grock worried and yet was a most amusing man (Horwich
trained) and son of a clergyman. He followed me to Liverpool St against his will and
never came to terms with Stratford, a disappointing finish for a good old colleague. Dick
Robson had been Shedmaster at Stratford, then ADMPS at Kings Cross and now Asst
Motive Power Officer, GE Line. A Geordie and the nicest of men with a formidable
sense of very dry humour. Then Dick Stockings who became one of us as HQ Diesel
Assistant and had a love of steam which did not stop him railing at some of the decisions
that we had to take during the “Human Revolution” of 1959-62. And Finally, Geoff
Ford and what a lovely man, railwayman, cartoonist and loyal to the cause, and yet he
worried over detail that others could have done for him willingly. He died around 62
with a cartoon half drawn depicting Colin Morris and me opening a bottle of wine on the
footplate of a Chapelon Pacific. It would have been wonderful but Geoff died and it was
never finished.
RH393 Florrie Dawson was my Sec at Liverpool St and how lucky I was, She kept me
on the straight and kept the world at bay when I was busy and her typing and shorthand
was first class. Long before the days of work processors one dictated and then when the
thing was typed one wanted an alteration which involved rubbing out or tippexing. How
easy it is today but my secs must have cursed the day that I was born and I never knew it!
RH394 The Great Eastern Amateur Athletic Association held their annual sports at
Loughton and all the nobs were present as well as the top brass of the BRSA. Gwenda
and I were there as a matter of duty but on the Sunday, there was a very different
gathering known loosely as the Stratford Loco Sports which were great fun and very
unsophisticated. The names of the three gents in braces have gone, likewise the children
and, smiling a usual (except when he was put out), is the unforgettable Syd Casselton,
Breakdown Foreman who, once he was in action with the crane of the German re-railing
gear, would brook no interference from anybody however senior outside the Loco Dept.
And I never had to interfere for Syd had forgotten more about breakdown work than I
would ever know and he never made mistakes. Never!
RH395 As Foreman of the Crane Shop as well as the Breakdown Gang and the Power
House (ex ODM), Syd liked to do “Little jobs” for the DMPS/DRME - me. Here, they
have arrived in the little van to measure up for a bench-seat for our kitchen which will be
made by Charlie Wilcox, Carpenter class 3 (R), another friend of the family. There were
three Carpenters at Stratford, class 1 being the tradesmen men and Charlie upgraded from
fitter’s mate, the one who did skilled work! Syd called the other two “Wood-Murderers”
who could turn out heavy stuff such as footboards by the dozen. In those halcyon days,
the District Officer would be expected to have this sort of thing done and nobody would
ever have queried it – how things have changed.
RH396 Back to Webby again or to give his Stratford nickname “The Mole”. Mine
happened to be “Baron Bongo”! With “Barrow-boy Webster of Spitalfields” is Les
Thorn, our Diesel Assistant. How lucky I was to have such assistance when we were
changing over from steam to diesel traction -fresh problems ever day, indeed every
minute of the day.
RH397 This is the Leigh-Pemberton railway deep in the Kentish countryside, the Torry
Hill Light Railway in its 1958-68 form when Major Leigh-Pemberton was alive. Two
visits from Stratford. The Mutual Improvement Class which was hilarious and the little
“Robin” took the place of “Rose” the GN Atlantic which did such fine work but lost a
small-end pin that day. But here is George Walker from the Stratford Loco Machine
Shop (L) who had made a set of beautiful single line tokens for the Major and had a day
of welcome along with Dick Elmer, the Stratford Loco Inspector, an old Ipswich man and
a very good Inspector: he knew what to deal with himself and what the shedmaster
should know and he was a firm decision maker. And finally, Ernie Foskett, one of our
acting Inspectors. We had an enormous base from which to choose the right men for the
challenges of the transition. The THLR was unforgettable and nobody ever wanted to go
home!
RH398-401 All taken at the British Transport Staff College about Oct 1962 during the
four months I was on course 7, a marvellous experience. The photographs include Percy
Tanner (SR), Bob Gladwin (LT), Allan Blenkarn (BT Waterways), RH, Geoff
Kibblewhite (BRHQ CM&EE), David Binnie (ScR), Dick Sallis (Directing Staff), Bill
Willmott (SR), Archie Prior (Tillings), Don Bartlett (R&D), Frank Ward (NER).
RH402 More of the Torry Hill Light Railway. Probably taken in 1967/8. The King was
the last engine I knew on the railway although since my last visit in 1968, a Lord Nelson
was added to the fleet. The King was immensely strong and very fast. R-L: is Baron
Gerard Vuillet, an amazing man who had travelled the world on the footplate and who
knew Andre Chapelon personally. He was also a daredevil driver on the TH1R on this,
his only visit, and I had the job of slowing him down before he took off into the woods.
Keith Tierman, one of the three men who helped Major Leigh-Pemberton run the railway.
My dear friend, James Colyer-Ferguson who knew the L-P family well, the Old Man
himself, and what a marvellous man he was, dedicated to service in the County and a
very real gentleman. His younger son, Jeremy, completes the party.
RH403 “Rose”, the GN Atlantic and mainstay of the railway waiting time. It will cross
another train at the passing loop up the bank and out of sight and ultimately make two
complete loops before heading for home and the passing loop. Anthea or James will be
the driver and I will sit on the leading truck to give them instruction about the feed-pump,
the regulator and reversing screw and, of course, the brake. In the cab (L) is the steam
brake handle, (C) the regulator handle, (R) pressure gauge and below, reversing gear.
The smoke tells a tale: I had filled the firebox full of coal. The pressure gauge shows
only 60psi but soon after starting it will be at the blowing-off point. The engine would do
its complete two loops without the fire being touched so the children never took their
eyes off the road. L-R: Anthea, James and John Leigh-Pemberton, the son of Robin who
would one day become Governor of the Bank of England and Lord Lieutenant of Kent.
RH404 “Rose” at the terminus with James, Peter (driving) and John Leigh-Pemberton
who is in charge of the oiling round!
RH405 The little four wheeled coupled “Robin”. Fill her and shut her up and she would
fly, marvellous little engine. Anthea, Peter, Mr Beacon, Keith Tierman and James. I was
never quite sure where the lower line went but ours went up into the wonderful woods
and out beyond into the countryside and through the tunnel where we turned back after
the second loop.
RH406 Annick Dutertre, daughter of Mécanicien Henri Dutertre of Calais and 231 E16,
followed by E9, Anthea, Peter, James, John L-P and the Major.
RH407 Dover Loco and a Stewarts Lane un-rebuilt BoB which gave us a rough trip
home which fascinated the great WO Bentley, once of Doncaster Plant and John Hewing,
stoker, now happily retired after many years as a Supervisor at Charing Cross and, like
many other, glad to get out of it and retire. Some of the old boys in my time would have
stopped on the job for life but, thank God, they all died years before the “New Railway”
took charge.
RH408 WO is suggesting something about Clun Castle in the background which he
considered to be a passable piece of engineering but not to be compared with the products
of Doncaster! He was right too!
RH409 WO at home at Little Garden Cottage, Shamley Green with our son, James, and
his friend, Harry Champion, a proud day for both of them.
RH410 WO relaxed and happy. How he loved the return to the railway that I arranged
for him after we first met in Nov 1958. He went many miles on the footplate until his last
trip in 1961 with Percy Tutt and John Hewing What a wonderful man. His was a hard
life but his achievements were many and great to say the least.
RH410A 11.00 Victoria – Dover Boat Train hauled by rebuilt, Bulleid Pacific. Driver
Percy Tutt and his fireman John Hewing made the day completely memorably for WO
and myself.
RH410B A study of Percy Tutt in the cab of 34091 taken at Dover before our return to
Victoria which was very hard work indeed for the fireman, who was me!
RH411-412 My dear friend, Danny Whelan, ultimately became Divisional Manager,
Preston, only to die in office of cancer. We had worked together in great accord when I
was DM Liverpool. The occasion is the presentation at Penrith, to May Treacy, of the
headboards carried by “Evening Star” which had worked a special train from Leeds to
Appleby on the occasion of the memorial service to Bishop Eric Treacy, on the downside
south of Appleby station. May drove the locomotive, an 86, a short distance and then we
went to a nearby village where there was a short service followed by the presentation.
May and the Vicar hold one plate whilst Bernard Staite the other. The seat is also in
Eric’s memory. He was vicar of St Mary’s Edge Hill before the war and the only
Clergyman I knew who was an honorary member of ASLEF!
RH413 In 1919, Rodney Darwen started at Walton-on-the-Hill shed in Liverpool (CLC)
and could not get a regular fireman’s job so moved to Bradford. Before the war, as a
fireman in the goods links, he was much in demand for specialling, and fired many miles
for Ted Hailstone, Harold Binder and Arthur Pheasants, all GC men. When I first met
him, he was firing to Tommy Stott (RH37) but shortly after, moved back to Liverpool,
retiring as Running Foreman at Bank Hall to which shed most of the Walton men were
sent on closure. Quite by chance, when I first went to Liverpool as DM, I was in the cab
with a Kirkdale driver who had come from Walton (Norman Ives), and to my question
about Rodney told me that he had just retired. We soon met at the Exchange Hotel at
1830 one evening and were still talking four hours later. We had everything in common.
He was very astute and a splendid judge of men and of railway work. He had been a
leading light in ASLEF for AAD, liked and respected by all. He had a protégé, the
Birkenhead driver Les Johnson, a very similar type of man, who took full time
employment as an ASLEF organiser. The photo was taken at Rail House in Lord Nelson
St when we were off to our final meeting and lunch in the French Restaurant at the
Adelphi just before I left Liverpool in Sept 1973. Happy days, for our reunions gave
him great pleasure.
RH414-416 About 1979 with my old Riley 1952 2 ½ , which we had from 1957-1980
when it had to go as a matter of expediency to pay for retrospective school fees, and
daylight could be seen through the floor of the boot. It went to a chap in Braintree who
restored it to perfect order and ultimate sale in America. We were at the Grove where us
big-shots had been interviewing university graduates who were seeking a career on BR.
RH414 Malcolm Southgate, Divl Manager Brum and Station Master KX in 1964 at an
early age, an appointment made just before my time as DM but of which I
wholeheartedly approved. Nor did Malcolm ever look back. Freddy Clements, then
CM&EE at Derby, a good friend of many years’ standing, going back to his Neasden
days in 1951. He died in 2001 and we were away at the time so I could not join the
throng of old railwaymen at his funeral. He served his time at Horwich and when L P
Parker had got his mitts on him, he never looked back. So he was LMSR, ER, WR as
Motive Power Officer and then back to his old railway. Alan Sourbutt was CM&EE at
York and was an electrical engineer who had started on the Southport Electrics at Meols
Kop as an Apprentice. I have the happiest memories of all three men.
RH415 The same group minus Fred Clements and including me.
RH416 Maurice Maguire was CM&EE of the Southern Region and a lovely man who
took things to heart too much. In my last job, he would agonise over the appointments
that I wanted him to make but always came up with the right answer. He was Rochester
born and bred, a Southern Railway electrical engineer and, with the coming of BR,
spread his net wide and was Electrical Engineer on the ScR and ER before his
appointment at Croydon where I met him for the first time. He died far too young.
Douglas Power came from the CIE in the fifties and went to the LMR as DME Euston.
In 1970, he went to Doncaster as Works Manager (having asked me to give him a rundown of some of his staff!) and did a good job there. By 1973, he was CM&EE of the
Western Region and we were close colleagues for the rest of my BR years. We went to
France together where Douglas danced the night away at some railway social and we also
stayed with the de Fumichons at Orleans as well as having his first wine-drinking
experience, riding with Michel Robillard from Calais to Amiens. When Fred Clements
retired, he became CM&EE Derby. I think he found the traditional canniness of top LM
management more constricting than the WR of his day where he was very much his own
boss.
RH417-422 all concern Albert Edward Hooker, Engineman of Nine Elms shed (not to be
confused with the premier depot at Stewarts Lane). Bert was a very dear friend. We
never worked together which was always an advantage to friendship if currently
employed as we were until he retired in 1980. He died in 1996 and I was honoured to
give the address at his funeral at Eltham Crematorium.
RH417. The scene is the footplate of 73037, a WR standard class 5 and an excellent
engine working what I think was the 1310 ex Bournemouth-Waterloo, all stations to
Brockenhurst and then the main ones up to London , leaving New Milton. On the left,
Bert Hooker and in the driver’s seat is R A U Jennings, one of the legendary
Housemasters at Marlborough College whom I had known as a boy and revered ever
since, as I did Hubert Wylie, my own Housemaster, an even greater legend. He came for
a day out with us, his life’s ambition just before it was too late. I fired to Bert on the
down road and it was my turn to drive on the up road. Somewhere about Christchurch,
Bert said to me: “Shall we let Reginald have a little drive?” but he took some persuasion.
“It’s your last chance on BR, Reginald”, I said and here he is, enjoying every second of
it. The picture captures an expression of pure joy on his face.
RH417A. A similar photograph to RH417 but without the panache.
RH418 When Bert retired in 1980, I had a hunch that he would fade from the scene with
nobody in charge to shake his hand and wish him well and that proved to be the case. My
hunch led to Gwenda and me arranging a gathering of his oldest friends at our home in
Amersham. We gave Rene and Bert some lovely presents and also I compiled a large
album as a form of “This is your life” which, since his death, has come back to me thanks
to his son, Denis. Bert was much moved and we saw him off in style. It was a nice day
and we could go in the garden so, Front L-R: Roger Constant, Miriam Barlow, Bobby
Jones, AEH, Rene Hooker, Major Harry Mosse RA. Middle: George Barlow, Gwenda
Hardy, Bill Thomas, Tony Seymour. Back: RHNH, Edmond Godry (Chef Mecanicien,
SNCF Calais), Tom Miller, Margaret Thomas and Robert Sinclair. A Happy Day.
RH419 Brockenhurst and 73037 with Alan Newman who became a Loco Inspector on
the LM Region and must be about somewhere. He learned a great deal about both sides
of the engine from Bert with Reginald Jennings and Bert.
RH420 A very early introduction to the steam locomotive. Bert Hooker and our Peter,
born in 1958. Eng 73082, one Sunday morning at Waterloo.
RH420B Portrait of Driver Dick Brock of Stratford.
RH420C Portrait of Driver Ted Whitehead of Stratford.
RH420D Portrait of Driver Albert Page of Stratford.
RH420E Portrait of Driver Harry (Bungay) Wooltorton of Stratford.
RH420F Portrait of Ernie Smith ex-Driver and now on shift in the Outlet Office at
Stratford shed.
RH420G Portrait of Driver George Marler of Stratford who had an impromptu
presentation to Her Majesty the Queen when he was acting as a diesel instructor.
RH420H Portrait of Driver Jack Searle of Stratford who took all these portrait
photographs.
RH421 A classic family photograph now hanging in the downstairs loo! Bert and Peter
Hardy in the cab of 73082, Camelot on which I had a splendid day in 2002 on the
Bluebell with David Ratcliffe.
RH422 On the down road at Southampton, Eng 35003, Reginald Jennings and Bert.
Two men from totally different backgrounds, they were as one within an hour of meeting
on the platform at Basingstoke (see RH417, RH419).
RH423 See previous pictures at Bold Colliery L&M Centenary and a half, 1980. Mike
Satow wrestles with “Rocket” to engage fore gear. Up to now, no forward movement
whilst Fred Dale, next day’s driver, watches apprehensively. The two on the right taking
cover from the dirty water from the tall chimney are (L) unknown and (R) Eric White,
Chief Loco Inspector whose only steam work had been on the Mersey Railway J72 on
ballast work but for all that 1 in 27 gradients!
RH424 The “Rocket” with Bold Cooling Towers in the background. Jimmy Donnelly,
then the senior passed fireman at Edge Hill, Captain Bill Smith, the owner of the old
GNER 1247, J52, Peter Hardy, out for the day, Freddy Day (“The Principle Boy”) and
Wilf Hulme, next in seniority to Fred. Jimmy is a Scouser but now lives in Ireland in
retirement.
RH425 Doctor Ian Allen in his garden at Thorpeness. A good old friend if ever there
was one.
RH426 Doctor Ian again, this time at Bressingham with two ex GER and BR
enginemen, one from Colchester, the other from Norwich. Eng 70013 in background.
RH427-432 are all family photos of our children.
RH427 Peter at New Romney in the cab of George Barlow’s “Green Goddess” – playing
to the gallery in April 1964, still five, and two months off his sixth birthday.
RH428 At Longmoor of all places on the way to see my cousins near Petersfield. About
1964, James and Peter. J would be about ten and had the makings of a splendid athlete
until he had to have both knees operated on for Schlatter’s disease, a tragedy which he
bore with great fortitude for one so young.
RH429 Here are James and Peter still at Longmoor with the “Gazelle” built by
Dodman’s of Kings Lynn in 1896 and after being privately owned became a Col
Stephens engine and helped in a very small way to work the Shropshire &
Montgomeryshire Light Railway when taken over by the ROD in the 1939-45 war. I
suppose the royal Engineers must have kept it but I doubt if it was ever used on the
Longmoor Military Railway. Its original Victorian owner had a grand time scooting
around the Fens on a Sunday with a GER driver and fireman.
RH430 At New Romney, April 1964 with the “Green Goddess” George Barlow and our
Anthea, James and Peter. Who is the chap with the woolly bobble cap?
RH431/2 are taken with the old box camera about 1957-8 at Stewarts Lane in the cab of
a Fairbairn “Midland” tank. Both a classics of their kind and, as such, merit a place on
the wall of the downstairs loo. James is 431 and Anthea 432.
SNCF CAPTIONS 434-450,
RH434 The Gare du Nord , Paris:. 231 E 46,one of the last Chapelon Pacifics to be
built in 1936/7 for the Nord . Working the Fleche d’Or,train 19 to Calais. E46 was the
machine titulaire of Mecanicien Henri Odent and his enormous chauffeur Robert Gourdin
who were complete masters of the job. On the left is Philippe Leroy, the head of the
Motive Power Dept on the Nord Region of the SNCF, a very dear friend and when he
retired in 1970, all his BR friends had him and Madame over here to see them off in our
warmest style. Alongside him is another old friend, Len Theobald, Chief Locomotive
Inspector of the Eastern Region under L.P,Parker. Calais men and engine in Mar 1959,
RH435 Calais men and engine again in Mar 1965. This time it is E9 and Henri Dutertre
at Boulogne on train 16. Henri took over E16 in 1951 aged 27 and when she was
withdrawn in 1961, he was given the E9. one of the original PO rebuilds as was E16. His
fireman is Michel Rock, his last on a Chapelon and Michel went with Gilbert Sueur to the
end of steam in 1971. George Barlow was having his first journey on a PO and he was
the driver from Etaples to Abbeville: he had a good story to tell when he went back to
New Romney.
RH436 Amiens: a luncheon in 1964.The participants are Andre Corbier(L)who spoke
excellent English as did both Henry de Fumichon and his dear wife, Nicole. He was the
equivalent of DMPS and Andre was Chef Controlleur in the Permanance at Amiens.
Henry had been in the Army but took his degree at the Ecole Polytechnique and then
joined the SNCF. He and Nicole were titled in their own right, Baron and Baroness and
became great family friends. Not many barons on our railway nor Etonians either but in
the background is Alan Parker who became Sir Alan by and by. He was a great character
and during the meal we were surprised to hear the persistent bark of a small dog. After
searching underneath the table and looking in all directions, the bark was traced to the
side of the smiling Alan’s mouth amid great applause.
RH437 St Lazare,Paris. James Colyer-Fergusson and I had crossed from Southampton
to Le Havre overnight and we left Le Havre at 0700 on the engine of the boat train,231 G
763 an Etat Pacific modernised by Andre Chapelon and a very good engine for a heavy
and tightly timed train. I was the fireman from Rouen to Paris and enjoyed the hard work
. The old engine did her job well but not quite in the style of the genuine PO 231E. L-R
Mecru Jean Dupont, Chauffeur Georges Heller ,the Cherbourg Chef Mec Robert
Garnier, J-CF, Phillipe Leroy and Maurice Oudry, his Assistant..
RH438 Lille and the machine titulaire of Marcel Delmasure of Fives, the passenger
engine depot for Lille. The engine is E19 which finished her career at Calais and we had
a splendid journey to Calais with train YF .I worked my way home as usual and Marcel’s
fireman enjoyed his rest and distributed his wine accordingly.With me was Stanley Seers
who was a well-known owner of veteran cars and who took me on the Brighton run in
1961 on his 1901 Mors so this was by way of a return trip which he enjoyed immensely.
RH439 The same Equipe with RH in the centre.
RH440 E19 in all her glory at Calais Ville. You can see the ACFI equipment, a
fireman’s friend if ever there was one, the large Westo pump, the Walchaerts valve gear
operating rotary cam poppet valves, the trapezoidal firebox, the immense steam pipes to
the high pressure cylinders and many other interesting features
RH441 Another Fives mecru, Arthur Duflot with George Mitchelll, the examining
Motive Power inspector for the Eastern Region an old King’s Cross fireman and driver
who enjoyed every moment of his weekend. E22 was the first of the new engines built for
the Nord Railway in 1935 and was a beauty which finished her career at Calais in charge
of Jean Guelton. Arthur was a very special engineman and a delightful man as was his
hatchet faced fireman on the next picture.
RH442 George Mitchell, Arthur Duflot and his hatchet faced fireman at Calais Ville.
RH443 As above.
RH444 See 438
RH445 Alfred Cordier, once a mecru on the 230Ds and now a Conducteur de Route on
the 66000DD, a very poor exchange for a 141R or a Pacific, indeed they were feeble
creatures. Jean Querlin Chef mecanicien under Edmond Godry and an ex Calais mecru
stands next to the camera and both are watching that Frank Mayes does the job as it
should be done on train 16 as far as Etaples.Frank was a Locomotive \inspector at
stratfoed which he reached via Barnsley, Kings Cross on the A4s with Syd Tappin and
Stratford for his driver’s check. He loved the French and was always prominent when
they came to England.
RH446 Now for few views of footplate work. The solid and smiling Gilbert Sueur has
started on the track as a trackman but transferred to the depot at Calais and got to the top
of his profession as a Mecanicien by driving firstly E41 and then E14. He was a lovely
man who came twice to England and very conscientious so that his long-time mate did
not always please him. Rene Hochart had a way of his own but he was a PO fireman for
over twenty years and knew the job backwards.
RH447 Michel Dutriot was a spare driver who had passed the exams on all but the PO
locomotives and sadly he died before he could achieve his ambition. Colin Morris, then
DMPS at King’s Cross, was a great success in France and here he is looking like Colonel
Cody, the early aviator, on the K81 en route with train 19 Paris-Calais.The day was
amazing in that a dragging brake gradually brought us to a stand on Caffiers bank
whereupon both Michel and his mate Aime Deloison left the footplate, ran down the
train, isolated the brakes on the seventh coach, ran back, released the brakes and got away
up 1 in 125 without a slip or hesitation with over 580 tons. Total delay, ten minutes,
arrival in Calais Maritime five minutes late. Wonderful work but when we were saying
good-bye before boarding the Invicta, the conductuer du train came up in a terrible rage
as we had got off the bank so quickly that we had left his mate behind up in the hills for
he had gone back to protect the train with detonators etc. How he got home and when has
never been related!
RH448 Henri Dutertre and his last mate before the diesels came, P’tit Louis
Lapierre(little Louis)who had fired for years on the E17 on the Paris jobs, a gentle giant
whose shovel looked like a pencil in his enormous hands. They are running into Calais
Ville with train 19 with the job well done(largely by me)and it is a splendid study of a
happy Equipe.
RH449 Francois Joly had K73 and when we joined him at Amiens, he produced a piece
of chalk and marked the gauge glass one third full or else there would be trouble with
priming but we did very well for I was used to the ways of the PLMs by that time.
Francois stands as usual at his work,his right hand of the wheel that controls the amount
of steam passing at higher pressure to the low pressure cylinders:in practice this is for
about half a revolution after starting.The wheels below are the reversing wheel which
also controls the travel or cut-off of the valves and to its right, the control of the
adjustable blast-pipe cap. By reducing the orifice, the driver can sharpen the blast to
improve the steaming against an exceptionally heavy train or advers weather conditions
such as a westerly Atlantic gale across the Northern Plain. Chapelon’s engines had no
such device nor did they need it!
RH450 Jacques Deseigne was Joly’s fireman on both the E19 and K73 and we had know
him since our first journey in 1958.He was an amusing and cheerful man who became an
unlikely Communist councillor for Calais later on . He was a good chauffeur, a rough
diamond by French standards and always had his bottle ready for our refreshment. One
day, on E19, I was firing from Amiens to Boulogne where Bill Thomas and I left to
return to Amiens on train 84. En route, Jacques had been watching my LNER methods of
firing a wide firebox: and turning to Bill, said in his guttural voice, “Quelle Panache, bon
chauffeur.bon chauffeur”! This was relayed to me later by Bill and gave me infinite
pleasure.
RH451 And here is Bill Thomas, not a railwayman but very knowledgeable and
experienced due in no small part to the footplate passes he got for him both in France and
in England.. He is firing a 141R (under instruction)between Etaples and Abbeville and
making a good job of a by no means easy task. (L) are the steam valves to control the
steam to the jets and the engine under the footplate that works the stoker.
RH452 Edmond Godry, Chef mecanicien and later in charge of Calais shed in its later
days is watching Frank Mayes at work on a new but feeble diesel of class 66000BB. It
was laughable to compare these things with either a Pacific or a 141R and even a little
230D. When Edmond retired in 1979, we had him and Denise, his Wife over here and
saw them into retirement in the Senior officers mess at BRBHQ. Nearly all his BR
friends and many others were there and we gave them some memorable presents. On the
job, he was quiet or charming but a perfectionist and men had to measure up to his
standards or else. He loved this country and on one occasion when he wrote to thank us,
he finished his letter with ”Que de Souvenirs imperisable”.
RH453 James and I had reached Boulogne with Francois Joly, Rene Vaillant and the K73
when up came Edmond Godry to join us. Here he is in his element for Francois
immediately handed over to him for two reasons, that he respected his Chef and that, in
France, an inspector takes total responsibility for everything that happens on the footplate
he has mounted. Needless to say
Edmond was master of the job which he truly loved. After the war he resumed his
apprenticeship, qualified as a main line fireman and eleve mecancien and took charge of
K4 and then 231C,a Nord Super pacific and finally E37 before becoming an Inspector at
Boulogne at the age of 28! On top of this he spent three years in Gemany forced labour.
RH454 And now to the Est region en route Vesoul(268 miles to Paris}-Chaumont with
train 42 and about 675 tons behind us. Our engine is one of the famous Est Mountains,
class 241A modernised by Chapelon and vastved from their original condition. Unlike
the 241P class, they are hand fired and I was able to try my strength throughout to Paris
as A29 was replaced at Chaumont by A8. With us is Monsieur Gabrion, Chef mec at La
Villette who looked after us on the Est and who was a scourge of firemen on our first trip
to Bar-le-Duc but by this time we were the best of friends The tall gentleman is a lookalike of old Fred Holdsworth of Copley Hill, Leeds minus the clogs and he was the
mecru. His name, Michel Pegoet and they were Chaumont men. The amazing looking
fireman (James described him as ”the fiend from hell”) was Robert Collett but he said he
was no relation of the GWR CME of years gone by. He immediately handed me the
shovel and from then onwards operated the coal-pushed bringing forward a great heap of
wet dust and distributing wine to all concerned. It was a happy and very competent
journey.
RH455 The same people(particularly good of the”Fiend”) plus James.
RH456 We came down from Paris with La Villette engine to Troyes where it
was replaced by G21 on which the fireman was a certain Jacques Vidal, eleve-mecanicien
who became a life-long friend and who was a big resistance-fer man in the war. Here he
is leaving Vesoul for Belfort where they came off and later returned to Troyes. More
about Jacques later.
RH457 Monsieur Gabrion is now completely relaxed with his English charges after my
little do on the shovel and which I continued to Vesoul.So here he is with James and on
arrival at Vesoul he had a whacking great lunch with us in the buffet and was ready for
A29 and L’Equipe Pegeot/Collett.
RH458 Here is Jacques Vidal on that first trip, indeed our only trip until he came to
England in 1980. We rae not far off Chaumont, our speed drifting down and now was the
time to take some pictures. We are going at 116kph on the Flaman recorder and Jacques
is a happy man. There is no room in front of the driver for the Flaman so it has to go over
the other side and the mecru has to glance across to see that the speed is within the limit
of 120kph on this stretch although the Es, K, and Gs can run at 130kph, track permitting.
RH459 Alfred Bouchard has eased but not closed the regulator(forbidden until the last
moment) and has his left hand on the Westo brake ready to slow up and stop at the water
column. He will be concerned for a moment with the amount of air he will permit to enter
the brake cylinders, usually 14.7 psi. The RH top gauge shows the boiler pressure on the
bottom level and above the steam pressure in the HP and LP steam chests, well back as
befits an almost closed regulator.
RH460 And here we are at Chaumont, the old firm of James, Alfred, Jacques, M.
Gabrion the train despatcher and another gentleman who wanted to be in the act.
RH461 G21 resting from her labours at Chaumont: There is no macaron” on the
smokebox door on the Est nor is the standard of engine cleaning so high but the engines
are maintained in perfect condition.
RH462 After 241A29 had gone off at Chaumont,A8 backed on and I was
given the go-ahead by M.Gabrion so I was the chauffeur most of the way to
Paris. As the engine was fresh out of the shed, there was no need to use the
coal-pusher but yet again, the crew(and I) were on top of the job and the great
engine had no difficulty with its vast train The driver had been a prisoner-ofwar in Berlin and then forced labour for five years so both he and his fireman
had a rough time but that was all in the past and they were a happy Equipe,
Jean Delaborde and Roger Bichet. The latter had been a baker before the war
and deported to German East Africa for five years of hell in a forced labour
camp and both men joined the SNCF at Chaumont at the same time- for a
rest!..
RH463 Calais, in the depot after Pierre Beghin and Alfred Hamy had arrived,
train 9 with their own engine, the E5. Pierre who I had not met before,said of
E5”Une belle machine, elle produit bien”, she steams well! The group
contains Monsieur Eugene Lavieville, a much respected Ingenieur Chef de
Depot for many years, the Examining Fitter ready to see to E5, our Peter
showing off, Henri Dutertre aiding and abetting and James, our elder son.
RH464 Gwenda, the children and I crossed the Channel from Lydd in a
100mph Bristol freighter and we met at the airport by Henri and Gilbert Sueur
whilst Anthea and Gwenda went off for a tour of Calais as we were bound for
the shed(see above).
RH465 Alfred George White was born of British parents who moved to Calais
soon after the first war so that Fred was brought up a Frenchman and was at
school with both Henri Dutertre and Francois Joly in Bleriot Plage. He was the
SR, BR and then Sealink Interpreter along with Bob Gontier at the Maritime
and always came with the groups to act as the interpreter and to help me over
any language difficulties. His English was slightly foreign but with a Brummy
accent! He was one of the best and a great friend of Ben Hervey.Bathurst who
often came to France as he had other connections having worked with the
Resistance as a Grenadier Guards officer completely fluent in the language
and the way of life of the working people for whom he had a profound respect.
RH466 One of many gatherings probably the first for Danny Whelan,
Divisional Operating Supt at Liverpool and the salt of the earth. This was in
1969 towards the last days of steam and how he enjoyed himself for he had a
royal welcome from the start and that short, stocky, white haired figure missed
nothing and was greatly admired by the French railwaymen whom he met
over here and in France. So, Henri Dutertre, Marcel Dewevre, Georges
Chatillon, Jean Querlin, Edmond Godry, Danny, RH, the legendary Pierre
Leseigneur, long retired as Chief Inspector of the Nord region but still very
much in charge when on an engine and Maurice Vasseur, another great
character, Far right is a Longueau chauffeur who enjoyed himself no end. He
was there because the diesel booked could not manage a 700 ton train and
the 141R was deputising.
RH467 Another typical gathering for Danny in 1968 and this time beside the
141R on train FY is Maurice Vasseur’s son, Louis Sauvage, chauffeur to
Maurice V on E7 and with him for many years, Danny, a shunter, Edmond
Godry, Maurice wearing Fred White’s BR cap, Rene Agnerai, chauffeur to
Maurice Devos, Marcel Dewevre just before his retirement as Chef mec
Calais, Fred White in Maurice Vasseur’ s beret, Maurice Devos and Georges
Chatillon, Chef de Depot. We went to Rang on train 34 and then back
with 27 for dinner at Marquise Rixent with more or less the same gang!
RH468 The same group plus RH and minus Marcel.
RH469 This was an amazing day when I was the driver of R428 and was
instructed by Edmond to regain time form Boulogne to Rang du Fliers. Never
have I thrashed an engine so hard but the mechanical stoker produced all the
steam we needed and the noise form the chimney was unforgettable. We
should have had a diesel but our luck was in as the train was far too heavy,
about 700 tons, for a 66000 so here we go again this time with Bill Thomas.
L-R Marcel, Michel Lacroix, Edmond, the Longueau fireman, Henri, Jean
Guelton, our mecru, RH, Bill Thomas and Eugene Lavieville by now retired!
Edmond, Jean and Michel’s great day was yet to come in May 1971, with the
K82 from Paris Nord to Calais Maritime.
RH470 The characters are the same as RH467 but Maurice has his own beret
in his hand and is striking a distinguished attitude. It is a better photo than
467.
RH471 Another group this time with Bill Doughty, another man greatly admired by the
French for he had been a fireman at Melton Constable and Doncaster, then a driver at
Doncaster. At 50, he failed with his eyes(colour blind and normal retirement age in
France) and came off the footplate. He was no longer able to represent the footplate staff
as secretary of Sectional Council B and became a salaried diesel instructor at Ilford. He
was a remarkable man and proved at the age of 60 to be no longer colour-blind.
Medically, this was said to be impossible.
RH472 At Calais in Sept 1965 towards the end of the reign of the PO Pacifics .The E5
had left on train 82 with Pierre Beghin in charge with Michel Lacroix as his mate and
here we are with the E4, by now in charge of Albert Annicote on train 34 as far as Rang
du Fliers. Fred White, Chauffeur Jules Lebbe and his mate off FY opposite is Roger
Chabe, the champion boule player of the SNCF Nord, Fernand Chaussoy ,Chauffeur to
Albert Annicote, Albert, James, Henri Dutertre and Eugene Lavieville.
RH473 The same group with RH and minus Eugene.
RH474 Back in March 1962 on the visit of Stanley Sears, we had E23 on train 82 and
this engine had come fairly recently from La Chapelle. The train despatcher, the Chef de
Gare, Eugene Lavieville, Chauffeur Charles(Charlot) Vasseur, the only left handed
firemen I ever met in France and so he had to alter his wall of brickettes on the shovelling
plate to accommodate my style of firing from the left behind the driver. The mecru,
Robert Seys, was a splendid man of few words and, lastly, Stanley Sears.
RH475 The same group but including RH.
RH476 March 1961,Henri,s engine was still the beautifully cleaned E16 ready to take
George Mitchell to Amiens for by May 1960 the 16000BBs had taken over to Paris and
what wonderful machines they were. The Chef de Gare, George Mitchell, Monsieur
Leclerc, the sous chef de depot, Henri and Arnaud Flamant , champion billiard player of
the SNCF Nord!
RH477 See 476
RH478/9 Similar photographs taken in March 1963 of E41 at Calais. There had been a
strike of some sort and the engine arrangements were all ohoo so that the Fleche was
hauled by an uncleaned engine, driven by Jean Guelton with the usual chauffeur for E41,
Rene Hochart. This was Bert Webster’s weekend: he was my Assistant at Liverpool St
and more of him anon except to say that he was another Danny Whelan who loved his
work and who was a delight to work with. (L-R) M.Godsmet, Bert, Jean Guelton, Rene
Hochart, Henri Dutertre ,Eugene Lavieville, Georges Chatillon.
RH480 An interesting picture of E40 at Calais at the start of what turned out to be a
difficult journey for steam for there was a steam blow at the front end and we had quite a
struggle in which I did my best to give Auguste Beauchamps as much help as possible for
he was well over fifty. The mecru was the redoubtable Maurice Saison of whom more
anon but who was a thorn in the side of his depot engineer. Although we could have
swallowed half a dozen Maurice Saisons at Stewarts Lane without noticing the difference
for Maurice was very gruff and English in his ways. It was Bill Harvey’s first journey
with me in France and the reception committee consists of Emil Lefebvre, Anick
Dutertre, Henri, M.Godsmet, Auguste, Bill, Maurice, Eugene and yet another Chef de
Gare.
RH481 and RH482 Calais with the E4 not long to go and Maurice Vasseur, our mecru,
has to share her with another driver, the end of the world! Basil de Iongh and I are on the
way to Paris where we shall meet our old SNCF friends and have a wonderful time until
we return with the train 19 at 1230 next day.. Eugene, “Dodo”,Jules Froy, Maurice, Basil
and Henri.
RH483 See 480 with myself added to the picture and Emile Lefevbre once of E36 centre
stage.
RH484 E5 almost at the end of the road but still her own mecanicien, Pierre Beghin and
his new fireman, Michel Lacroix, very good indeed and first choice for the last days of
steam along with Michel Rock.Frank Mayes is making his first trip on the SNCF and
reckoned the E5 was a better engine his old A4 ”Woodcock”! The usual gathering to see
him off and James and I went on train 34 with E4 and Albert Annicote to Rang du Fliers.
RH485 and 490(inc RH). Way back to 1960,E16 at the top of her form at Calais on train
84, the heavy summer train which followed the Fleche hauled by a Boulogne engine, a
rare event. See 490 for an excellent one of the two engines, no personnel. Henri with his
BR cap, Arnaud Flament, Henri’s new chauffeur, the very keen Arnaud Flament, James
and Eugene.
RH486 and 487 The splendid Bebert Bethune of La Chapelle who took us for the last
time to Paris Nord with a steam engine, a wonderful journey for he was a go-er and
worked his BR stoker quite hard. Our group include James, Rene Sene, eleve mecanicien,
Henri, Bebert and the friendly gendarme who had got to know us well by that time,April
1960. Paris and Fives men did Lille Calais Paris for a days work for the next month and
that was that with the May electrification Paris Amiens.
RH488 The E5 when Alfred Regnier had her and he retired in a month’s time
from the day of the photo in June 1960. He was yet another splendidly strong
character. Then his mate Alfred Hamy who suffered ill health later on which .
spelt the end of his career. Henri with his daughter, Annick, and Monsieur Leclerc and
Geoff Ford who died tragically young and who was DMPS Norwich, a man respected by
everybody and a dear friend to me.
RH489 Alfred Regnier holding court, this time an SNCF group with Henri, Annick and a
traffic gent:on the right is the cam box and the OS cam gear, one of the many secrets of
the brilliance of the great Chapelons.
RH491 Same story as 476 but RH on left smoking a Gauloise with much enjoyment.
RH492 See 485/90 but RH substituting for James C-F.
RH493 A rare view and a very interesting one. On the left, the K47, a Boulogne engine,
Mecru Auguste Halloin, a PLM Pacific, the universal Pacific engine at Boulogne whereas
Calais had the Es in Roulement 1 and the Gs and Ks in the second link. The technical
differences make very interesting reading and are well worth investigation. Both engines
did great work but the Chapelon was unique when it came to very heavy and fast work.
My last PO journey was unforgettable in this respect.
RH494 Calais on one of Danny Whelan’s visits. We did not travel on this occasion but
saw them off on their way to Amiens. L-R:- Edmond Godry, Auguste Beauchamps,
Marcel Dewevre, retired these several years, Jean Guelton, Marcel’s ace driver, George
Chatillon, now depot manager, the regular shunter and Danny.
RH495 A classic which includes me, Rene, Andre, George and M.Jean Kerleau, the
Chef. I had been driving and from the chimney of a stoker fired engine comes a solid
stream of fine gritty coal, goggles are essential as was a good wash but we had no time
for that until we got to Calais!
RH496 April 1965 and it is Bill Harvey’s second trip to Paris. This time there was the
K22 at Calais, beautifully cleaned in readiness for the Fleche and we are seen off by the
Asst Chef de Gare, Henri, Eugene and Georges Chatillon and in the centre, Jules Lebbe,
chauffeur, DWH, and Roger Chabe deputising for Danny Kaye and SNCF Nord Boule
Champion. A splendid journey which pleased that great practical engineer, David
William Harvey. no end.
RH497 The same group with me instead of Eugene. Roger always wore a Basque beret
and rarely if ever goggles other than on stoker fired engines on account of the grit. He
was quiet, calm, and completely competent.
RH498, 499 and 500( which has RH on it.) The weekend was a great tonic for Dick
Lawrence who has had a hard life and had been with me at school. He went to the LMS at
Derby and I to the LNER at Doncaster. The LNER looked after their young men and
Dick left the LMS as did many others. He is on the left, then Maurice Vasseur, the
minature Andre Desmolliens, just 5 ft tall but like many small men, a bit of a pounder.
Then that splendid fireman, Aime Deloisin. later with Maurice Saison, Henri and
Eugene. A full gale from the west and some signals were blown to danger on the northern
plain, quite remarkable as was the sea next day, flat calm!
RH501 Gilbert Sueur and his own chauffeur, Rene Hochart on the G81 at Calais with
James C-F, Georges Chatillon in 1967. As nearly always there is Fred white although by
this time both of us understood SNCF talk! The engine is the G81.
RH502 In 1965, I took George Barlow to Rang, Calais and Amiens all with Calais men
and an evening with them all in Calais. We went on train 34 with Louis Vasseur, no
relation to Maurice and Charlot. I never saw him again as he retired soon after But I saw
plenty of his excellent mate, Rene Vaillant with whom I must have had half a dozen
journeys with various mecrus. The “Old Firm” met us and by now they need no
introduction. Engine G235 also vanished from the scene and was never seen again.
RH503 Another great friend of the Calais boys, Bebert Hooker, and this was his first trip
with me although he had been over twice before on my account. Bert is wearing his
washed overalls(however many time Irene had had to do them, the lord only knows) and
he is having a rare send off, Georges Chatillon, Marcel, Fred White, Louis
Sauvage(Maurice Vasseur’s fireman,) Henri’s last mate on the steam, ”P’tit Louis”
Lapierre and Henri himself.Bert so vastly experienced learned a great deal from four
journeys over the two days with Henri. The engine is the K81.
RH504 For the first time but not the last, L’Equipe Gauchet/Delattre along with Eugene,
Bill Doughty, Georges and Fred striking one of his distinguished poses! Rene Gauchet
was a marvellous engineman and had E14 and then E37 for many years: Emilon Delattre
was an equally good fireman with fourteen years with Gauchet and then they fell out one
morning at Abbeville and Rene asked for another stoker.on arrival at Calais Michel
Lacroix was booked with him and Emilon said “To hell, I’m going driving and so he did
for his last eighteen months of service!
RH505 1967 and the PLMs were getting overloaded in the eyes of management so we
had a 141R on the front.Geoffrey Wilson from King’s Cross, our Commercial manager,
had never had anything like it in his life and we had a grand trip with little Andre
Desmolliens and Marcel who had actually retired but still kept his overalls to come with
us. The K97, I think..
And now until 535 we leave the Calais men and go to Paris, La Chapelle.
RH506 Next morning in March 1961, George Mitchell made his first trip with Andre
Duteil on the 232S001. He had shared S2 for several years but this is nearly the end of
steam when the engines were ”banalise”. Georges was offered wine at 0820 that morning
as we passed through the Forest Of Chantilly and it was for him an incredible experience
especially as I was the Mecru. Here we are at Aulnoye where we changed for Lille: Rene
De Jong, an ace fireman on any engine who retired near Calais, Andre and the Ingenieur
of the depot of Aulnoye which had a lot of passenger work with the PLMs.
RH507 My last journey with Andre on a steam locomotive in May 1961 was with Harry
Noden, our Carriage and Wagon Engineer at Liverpool St. We had crossed to Zeebrugge
to see our C&W Foreman, Bill Cleaver who looked after the ferry wagons that crossed
via Harwich on the BR train-ferries and thence in the train to Jeumont where we boarded
the S1. It was a memorable journey, one of the finest demonstration of firing on an
engine past its best with an enormous train. I wrote about it for a French guide book .
Here again are Andre and Rene, a magnificent equipe vying with one another to get the
very best from their splendid if ageing mount.
RH508 This photo should really be at the end for it forms a fitting conclusion to our
activities which included servicing the engine, walking heavy laden to the Jeumont
messroom, a distinguished lunch with various wines, a walk across the Sambre to an
auberge for cognac and coffee and here we are resting whilst we wait at Jeumont for our
train to arrive from Belguim. Henri Douillet, the senior chauffeur at la Chapelle and
normally titulaire on the U1, Andre, RH and JC-F. We were, of course, in prime form
despite our lethargic appearance.
RH509-515. These are all taken before, during and after lunch on our last visit to
Jeumont with the 0810 ex Paris Nord returning about 1435, I believe. Andre had changed
over so that he could look after us and so we had yet another fireman, Georges Povells,
and certainly a character although his firing did not gain universal approval from Andre
who was in fact very particular. So.509 shows us at the auberge across the Sambre with
James,Monsieur Le Patron, Madame La Patronne, their daughter, Grandmere, Andre,
Daniel, the shed driver at Jeumont and Georges and the little dog! 510 has Andre,
Georges and myself with a set of Aulnoye men on their way home. 511, we have
lunched well and here is proof!
512, the Aulnoye men again with JC-F. 513 the auberge including James. 514 lunch
with Andre and Georges and finally 515 , yet again, the auberge, full supporting cast and
RH.
RH516 Richard, Madame Duteil and Andre in their dining-cum-sitting room in the flat at
Epinay-sur-Seine where we had many marvellous meals prepared by madame as big as
Andre was small, a mere 5 ft! When they moved to Epinay from Crepy in 1959, one had
a marvellous view of Paris but in time more tower blocks grew up and that was that.
What happiness that family gave so many of us long after Andre retired in 1964.
RH517 Andre and Richard outside the block and probably about to set off to the station
after a magnificent “brunch” ready to make the journey back to Calais firstly with an ex
steam man on the BB16000 and then a wonderful flowing journey on a Chapelon 231E
and at Calais, straight onto the”Invicta” and into Stan’s cabin for wash up and a pot of tea
and plenty of toast, butter and jam!
RH518 Here we are at Jeumont outside the messroom where the inhabitants of the little
depot used to congregate to talk to these mysterious Englishmen who suddenly descended
on their little frontier outpost to Belguim. L-R Mimille, coal crane driver and general
factotum, Henri Gress, eleve-mecanicien and shortly mecru at Beaumont on the
huge141TQs and their pull and push trains. Daniel is standing in the middle with his
polished goggles which he wore despite being solely a shed engineman and driver in
charge. And then Andre and James.
RH519 Henri Gress,a square Frenchman and a comic if ever there was one.
RH520 The four of us in the messroom at Jeumont. We have had a marvellous lunch and
will soon be ready for off after we have been across the Sambre for cognac and coffee.
We have had a perfect meal far, far better than sandwiches and tea.
RH521 Andre, Henri and James, a lovely photo with Andre still wearing his BR cap but
not for long unless he wears it back to front so there is room for the goggles.
RH522 Henri Douillet and Andre walking from the engine to the messroom with lunch
for four!
RH523 Crossing the Sambre canal after the cognac and coffee, this time with Alain,
Andre’s elder son, Henri Douillet, Andre and James.
RH524 Outside the auberge once more, with some of the family and an Aulnoye equipe,
the fireman being young for the SNCF but probably an eleve and certainly very good
looking.
RH525 Henri stands on the cab roof to direct Mimille and the placing of the screened and
pebble sized coal so essential for use in a mechanical stoker. Lumps jam in the screw
beneath the cab and block the feed to the thin white fire. Not only block it but wreck it
which why the class 9s on the Saltley-Carlisle jobs were a failure:no fault of the engine or
fireman, simply the wrong coal and thoroughly bad management at Motive Power HQ.
RH526 A lovely picture of Henri Douillet taking water.
RH527 In the auberge, James, Andre, Henri and Alain.
RH528 Another portrait of Henri, always smiling and cheerful, this time framed in the
side window of the cab of the De Caso S1.
RH529 The driver’s corner of the S1 or 2 but I think it was his own engine,S2.
I’ll do my best to remember the fittings although it is 44 years(2004) since I
was on a De Caso Baltic but much of that last journey is fresh in my mind as I
was the driver from Aulnoye to Paris Nord, mostly in the dark. He thress taps
are the air sand, driving, trailing and back gear. Below the taps is the
application handle of the straight air brake for light engine use, below that and
above the reversing wheel is the big Westo valves which controls both train
and engine and tender brakes.In the cab window, so to speak, is the by pass
used for starting and closed immediately the engine has begun to move when
it goes over to full compound working. The other handle was never used .
Straight down is the Flaman speed recorder right in the driver’s vision, to its
right is the cut-off indicator and then the timings of the journey in a metal case
hanging on a hook. Coming to the right, the lowest gauges are marked”Frein”brake-, the top two are the boiler pressure, and the steam pressure in the high
and low pressure steam chests. The wheels control steam hear and other
functions one of which is the steam supply to the train and another for the
Westo pump.The gauge is the steam heating pressure.
RH530 The Lilliputian Andre prospecting the top of the smokebox of the greatest of all
De Caso Chapelon Baltics, the 232U1, an amusing picture.
RH531 Andre oiling the LH big end and trailing side rod of S2 . Just right for a little man
although the text book says you can do better than that in setting the engine with the RH
big end on the back quarter or am I talking out of the back of my head?
RH532 Mimille ”Roi des Cornichons”, literally ”King of Gerkhins” and meaning
something ruder, at work on his crane and coaling our S001. Note the pebble sized coal
heap, the elderly long jibbed and very useful crane(they have one at Calais for the same
purpose and this coal and NO LARGER is ideal for the mechanical stokers on the SNCF
and anywhere else. If only HQ BR had done the same we might have had a stoker fired
Duchess and that would have been a very fair machine.
RH533 We are at the auberge once more while we wait for our cognac and coffee, James,
Andre and Henri Douillet.
RH534 The S002 in all her glory, a magnificent machine standing unattended at
Jeumont.
RH535 Lastly and for the time being, we shall leave Andre preparing lunch in the
messroom at Jeumont. There is some movement but the potential size of our luncheon
may be noted and now back to Calais.
RH536-RH540 show Colin Morris, the most experienced and respected Motive Power
officer on the Eastern Region, on a visit to France. He was a born deadpan humorist;
one of the funniest yet most serious of men with whom it has been my honour to work. .
RH536 Calais Maritime, 12 Mar 1966, Train 34 with a PLM Pacific on which we
travelled to Rang-du-Fliers and worked our passage. L-R: Alfred George White, BR
(Shipping) interpreter, born of English parents in Bleriot-Plage, Calais in 1920. He spoke
English with a touch of French accent superimposed on what was more or less a
“Brummy” accent. In 1940, his father returned to England whilst his mother remained in
Calais until advised to go south with Fred. They were cut off at Amiens and returned to a
village not far from Calais where they lived under the noses of the Germans for the rest
of the war. RH, Colin Morris, Mécanicien Lucien Ducrocq (a spare driver always
covering in Roulements 1 and 2 and passed to drive the Chapelon Pacifics), and Eleve
Mecanicien Michel Robillard, Passed Fireman and under training for driving.
RH537 The station at Rang-du-Fliers. The entire staff turned out to welcome Colin and
myself and Colin was presented with a long-handled SNCF broom to take home as a
keepsake. Fourth from the left is Mons Marcel Gille, Chef-de-Gare wearing his uniform
cap and a sports jacket. Mons Morris is “bedding plants” in the foreground assisted by
two men who are removing non-existent weeds. The chef-de-poste (signalman) is second
from the right and the “Baton” is in the hands of the “agent” who gives the right away to
the driver, the forerunner of the “bats” used in the UK today. This was a wayside station
with a small yard but when train 27 arrived, it disgorged a huge assortment of returning
shoppers from Amiens or Abbeville.
RH538 Our garden in Surbiton, summer 1966, when Colin and I worked together at
Kings Cross. Ever the comedian, he found Peter’s scooter and this is the result.
RH539 Back to 12 March 1966. Train 27 loaded to close on 650 tons has arrived at
Boulogne Ville with a 141R of the later series with Box-pox coupled wheels and the
Kylchap exhaust. These were thrilling, powerful machines, American design modified
and greatly improved by Chapelon and used all over France. By now, Henri Dutertre was
sharing 231 G42 with René Gauchet who has the engine that day. Henri has worked the
0800 Calais Ville to Amiens returning with train 27 after which the Calais boys took us
out to dinner. The chauffeur is “Little Louis” Lapierre who had fired on 231 E17 whilst
Henri had had E16 and the E9 as his “machine titulaire”. A shovel in Louis’ hands
looked like a salt-spoon. The 141Rs on the Nord were all “stoker-fired” and they could
be thrashed unmercifully if necessary. The next station was Boulogne-Tintellerie on a 1
in 100 gradient on which the engine started 650 tons with no difficulty at all but there
was pandemonium in the tunnels through which we made our start.
RH540 Back to France with Colin Morris who is waiting on the platform at Rang-duFliers for train 27. The station staff have gone about their business; the broom is
unfortunately out of sight but the camera has captured a perfect study of my dear friend
Colin.
RH 541A The E9 and G266. The groups include left to right, Henri Dutertre, Michel
Rock, Raymond Lasquellec, Fernand Chaussoy, the platform inspector, RH and Andre
Corbier.
RH 541B: A similar but better photograph with George Barlow of the Romney, Hythe
and Dymchurch Rly instead of RH. This is a much more cheerful photograph than 541
and is to be recommended. Raymond had a sister who lived in Dunstable married to a
Vauxhall car worker and his hilarious attempts to pronounce Dunstable, St Albans( Sant
Olbons) and Whipsnade (Vipsnard) were memorable and ”Doonstarb” was his French
nickname for the rest of his railway life.
RH 541C: Calais Maritime on the platform after arrival with train 19, engine K65, a
temporary replacement from another depot. We have had a wonderful journey, I have
done the firing but seemed to be cleaner than the other contestants who are Maurice
Vasseur, a well-known character and his long time fireman Louis Sauvage. They were a
wonderful pair and Maurice was the only driver I ever met on the SNCF who shared the
driving with his fireman. Georges Chatillon is the chef du depot and completes the group.
RH 541D: Boulogne Ville – K82 is the regular engine allocated to Henri Dutertre and
Rene Gauchet. On the left is Dick Lawrence an old friend who badly needed cheering up
and his trip to Paris provided him with many happy memories. Henri stands against the
water column and his Eleve Mecanicien, Claude Dantrueil, who was a splendid
railwayman and moved once he was a mecru to Vierzon. Before joining the railway he
had been a miner at Bethune.
RH 541E: Boulogne Ville – another happy group with K22 which was the engine that
came to England and was stabled at Carnforth in the ex BR depot. This time we have the
incomparable Danny Whelan who worked so happily with me in Liverpool and who
missed not a single trick when he was in France. The driver is François Joly and the
fireman with whom I rode many times is René Vaillant, both Calais men and highly
experienced enginemen.
RH 541F and 542: In 1962 I took Len Theobald, the Eastern Region chief locomotive
inspector, to France for the second time. He was a great franco-phile. On 546 he is seen
with Rene Gauchet and his fireman, Emilon Delattre at Boulogne Tintelleries on train 19.
We have just made the sort of stop at the end of the platform that was too perfect to be
true. One application of the Westinghouse brake stopped us at exactly the right position
and this is what the French mécanicien were trained to do and very rarely slipped up. 547
shows me in the centre of the group rather than Len Theobald.
RH 543: Boulogne Ville in diesel days. In the distance is one of the 66000 class of
diesel locomotive, not to be compared in performance with the steam locomotives that it
replaced. Where Jean Querlin has found a penny farthing is a mystery, but here he is on
the platform on a Sunday morning as we wait for train 9 to take us back to Calais.
RH 544: On the same day as 548, we are on the platform at Etaples with Frank Mayes, a
splendid friend who died far too young and originated from Barnsley. I met him when he
came to Stratford as a driver from Kings Cross where he had fired on “Woodcock”,
60029 on the Newcastle jobs. He retired as a locomotive inspector and then became a
Provident Mutual salesman and a very good one at that.
RH 545: Boulogne Ville, this time with an American engine, a 141 R and a group of
Calais characters with Bill Thomas on the left. Louis Lapierre (P’tit Louis), Maurice
Vasseur and my dear friend, Edmond Godry, the chef mecanicien at Calais.
RH 546: For a change, we were taken (Danny and I) to the site of a V2 base at Wattem,
between Calais and St Omer. With us is a group of our old SNCF friends who have all
appeared on the footplate in this collection. After the tour of the V2 bunker there was a
small ceremony in which I took part. Edmond Godry raised the Tricoleur on the flag pole
and I raised the Union Jack and was then asked to say a few words about my French
friends and why Danny and I had come to France.
RH 547: Diesel days again but the same lovely people. All Calais men but we are at
Boulogne. Train 9 has arrived from Paris in charge of Gilbert Sueur (R) and with
Edmond Godry and Frank Mayes is Louis Sauvage who returned to his home town of
Boulogne after he retired. Before joining the SNCF, he had been in the navy and then a
fisherman and then joined the railway at Boulogne before moving to Calais and living in
the little gatehouse between the Maritime and Calais Ville where he kept a magnificent
cellar. As for Gilbert, he was exactly as he looks, a great character always smiling but
took his work very seriously.
RH 548: Probably one of my last journeys on the footplate with Calais men and we had
67616, one of the larger engines that worked across to Amiens from Calais where the
photo was taken, train 34. With the exception of Claud Bomy, Chef Mecanaicien but an
old steam man and the Calais conducteur, the group is virtually the old firm. Henri
Dutertre, James and Peter Hardy and Edmond Godry who had just retired in 1979 as Chef
de depot, a truly worthy promotion.
RH 549:: The effete 66000 class had arrived and we made our journey on the Fleche
hauled by 66196 and in double traction with another. One thing you can say in their
favour is that the front of these engines provided an excellent gallery for photography.
Top row are Edmond Godry, John Shone on his first journey to France( never to be
forgotten for he was a great favourite) although he knew little about the railway. Then the
splendid and controversial Maurice Saison and Henri. On the ground are Georges
Chatillon, Eugene Lavieville now retired and the inevitable Fred White, BR Interpreter.
RH 550: This must have been about 1975 as we had a big 72000, a ponderous but
powerful machine but not to be compared with a Deltic. RH, then Francoise Godry,
Alfred Cordier, Denise Godry and finally dear Edmond himself.
RH 551; Boulogne with train 16 when we went through to Etaples on a Sunday morning
and then to Jean Querlin for lunch before taking the boat home. Frank Mayes, once of
Barnsley, Kings Cross and Stratford and now an Inspector at Liverpool St, Louis Sauvage
now living at Boulogne and having put on weight since he finished with steam and the
inimitable Gilbert Sueur, very near retirement and once in charge of E41 and then E14, a
mecru who like Maurice Vasseur and several others had been chauffeurs for 15 years or
so before asking to be trained as mecaniciens.
RH 552 Calais with a 72000 and Michel Robillard, very much an ex-steam man, along
with Henri now deep in retirement and Douglas Power, then CM&EE of the Western
Region who gloried in his weekend with the Calais boys and his visit to the De
Fumichon’s at Orleans.
RH 553: Another group at the Maritime. The driver is very much one of the new
conducteurs who had never been on steam and was from Amiens whereas the rest of the
group are once more the old firm, Lucien Fasquelle, who served white wine on his engine
before 1000 and red wine afterwards, Edmond Godry, Peter Hardy and Henri, what
wonderful men they were and as I write in 2005, they are all alive and in good form
despite being Frenchmen and professional hypochondriacs.
RH 554: My last journey with Albert Annicote who was being trained by the sinister
looking but charming instructor with the dark glasses from Longueau and it was also Bill
Thomas’s last visit to France where we spent the night in Paris and next morning with
Raymond Garde, by then Assistant Locomotive Supt of the Nord. Raymond was a
lovely man and the last time I met him was in Kaisersbourg in Alsace in 1985. Gwenda
and I had been to the PO to post him a letter and were walking away when who should
come round the corner but Raymond and Madame Garde- incredible. On the photo:
Edmond, Fred White, Albert and James Hardy doing his second summer stint as a
temporary steward on TSS Invicta for the summer.
RH 555: This is also taken at the Maritime and is quite unusual as the entire mob are
members of London Midland Sectional Council B for whom I arranged (at the request of
Bob Arnott, Chief Operating Manager of the LM) a few days from them on the SNCF
and it was an enormous success but landed me in hot water with the Euston HQ diehards
not excluding the new GM, D.M. Bowick. This was May 1971 but it was worth it. In the
cab is Jim Cox of Preston and Secretary, then Dick Waters of Euston, then Jack Davies of
Wolverhampton and finally the Chairman, Alf Milnes in his last year of service and who
was ex Gorton and started in 1927 cleaning 5434”The Earl of Kerry”. Because of this we
got on very well but in general the SC B on the LM carried on very differently to the SC
B of the ER Ernest Porter/Bill Doughty era. They were a great success in France and
covered more miles in a week than they had done on BR in a year!
RH 556: Here are the same four SC drivers along with an enormous collection of SNCF
well wishers on the platform at the Maritime and it was amazing that the fact that they
were coming drew so many men so here is Georges Chatillon, Henri, his old fireman
Arnaud Flament wearing a BR cap as is Michel Lacroix, then Alf Milnes, behind him is
Lucien Ducros, then Pierre Pichel, Jim Cox, Fred White, Lucien Fasquelle, Jack Davies,
Paul Bomy, Jean Querlin and Dick Waters. “Steam in the Blood” came out a week later
in May 1971 and this increased my unpopularity with the LM management of the day.
But that is another story which need not be told here nor anywhere else.
RH 556A: And back to steam and March 1960 at La Chapelle depot when Len Theobald
and I had come across on the Night Ferry and were about to take the Fleche back to
Calais but this engine E23 of Chapelle is ”La Machine de Reserve” in other words the
Pilot to replace an engine that would never,never fail!
RH 557: The same group with the driver and fireman as well as Len Theobald.
RH 558: E23 with M. Vincent, Philippe Leroy and Len Theobald.
RH 559: A later occasion in the same place but this time the Machine de Reserve is E47
with Geoffrey Ford (DMPS Norwich), a wonderful cartoonist who died young and still at
work.
560– 575 are all footplate scenes and worth looking at.
RH 560: March 1960 again, Len Theobald and I travelled back from Paris on Train 19
with the Calais men on E46. It was a wonderful journey and the engine was never worked
hard despite a very heavy train. The driver was Henri Odent and the enormous chauffeur,
Robert Gourdin, and here he is in far from vigorous action as he flicked the coal here and
there in the firebox exactly as required. No effort whatsoever!
RH 561: Here is Alfred Regnier of Calais shortly before his retirement in 1961. His
engine was E5 which was taken over by Pierre Beghin until the end of steam at Calais.
RH 562: Here are another wonderful pair whom we met on our very first journey in 1958
but this is taken in 1961. The chauffeur (left) is Jacques Deseigne, later to be a
Communist councillor in Calais, much to everybody’s amusement for I never came
across anybody less like a councillor of any persuasion. His driver is Emile Lefebvre,
another charming man and a devoted railwayman and they have their machine titulaire
E36 on train 19.
RH 563 & 564: Jacques Deseigne in action. Like the majority of firemen, they fire from
the left despite the driver being on the left himself which suited me because I always fire
that way myself.
RH 565: This was taken in the summer of 1961. Harry Noden, our carriage and wagon
assistant at Liverpool Street had a wagon foreman in Zeebrugge and having crossed from
Harwich, we returned to Paris on the engine with Andre Duteil and thence the next day
with Henri Dutertre from Amiens. Here they are nearing Calais.
RH 566: Another journey, this time on my own with Henri (slightly out of focus) and an
eleve mecanicien by the name of Georges Petit, between Amiens and Calais. Henri is
wearing his BR cap.
RH 567: Yet another photograph of Henri with the reversing gear, brake and speed
recorder in view with another eleve mecanicien, Fernand Veron.
RH 568: This is E41 and we are on train 82, La Fleche D’Or, and a week after a SNCF
strike so that we have on the left Rene Hochart who normally fired for Gilbert Sueur but
on this occasion Jean Guelton is driving Gilbert’s engine. Jean was a very large, gentle
and placid individual and the myth that the French are all excitable was dispelled by the
majority of the Calais drivers and firemen with whom I travelled. The engine is E41 and
it needs a good clean up!
RH 569: An early journey with Henri and his BR cap but with his new fireman, Arnaud
Flament, who was champion billiard player of the SNCF Nord as well as becoming after
a couple of years with Henri, a firing instructor, in French “moniteur de chauffe”. Here he
is with his bright eyes and his tendency was at times to disagree with Henri. James
Colyer-Ferguson, who died in January 2004, took me to France in 1958 and we returned
many times.
RH570: Here we are on E7 somewhere on the climb to Dannes-Camiers with train 19.
We are on Maurice Vasseur’s engine and with him is James Collyer-Ferguson.
RH 571: Harry Noden (C and W assistant Liverpool Street) and Arnaud Flament are
enjoying themselves on the E9 between Amiens and Calais, Henri Dutertre, the driver out
of sight. On the left are (top) the control wheel for the ACFI feedwater heater (a delicate
touch is required). Below that is the lubricator for the pump and the handle protruding
gives you a visual idea of how fast the pump is working. The wheel below is the control
valve for the right-hand live steam injector.
RH 572: A cab view taken from the fireman’s side of E46 in 1960 climbing to Caffiers
from Marquise-Rixent. Note the semaphore signals in both directions this side of the
bridge.
RH 573: On E46 again with Len Theobald (chief loco inspector, Liverpool Street) and
Henri Odent. His hand is on the reversing screw and at the bottom of the photograph can
be seen the clutch that controls whether the screw works the low pressure or high
pressure valve gear. The small lower wheel controls the coal watering pipe and attached
to the body of the left hand injector and the valve at the top right controls, I think, the
amount of steam heating to the train.
RH 574: E46 – Henri Odent again and his fireman Robert Gourdin.
RH 575: A more comprehensive view of the same men which also shows that the
beading round the cab window has been polished as well as the other fittings. The
rectangular box shows the driver’s running times for his day’s work.
RH 576 – 584 take us on to the Est Region:
RH 576: Our first journey (JCF & I) on the Est Region was to Bar-le-Duc on the
common user 241P34. An excellent engine but obviously nobody’s baby. M. Maire was
the mecanicien and here he is at Chalons-sur-Marne
where we took water and
smoking the perennial Gauloise/Scarfalati.
RH 577: While we were taking water, M. Maire discovered that the left big-end was
running warm and the Chief Inspector M. Gabrion, who was riding with us, (an Est
regulation), and M. Maire are dealing with the situation. This is a very rare scene and the
only time such a thing has been recorded by my camera and most other people’s.
Incidentally, the engine came off the train as booked at Bar-le-Duc and we took it back to
Paris without further incident.
RH 578: M. Maire smoking his cigarette as usual and in action on P34. The reversing
gear is in evidence, silhouetted against the cab window, is the straight air brake handle
and to the right of the reversing gear is a big Westinghouse air brake handle for operating
the train brakes. The regulator is almost closed and the handle with holes in operates the
fire door through which the firemen may wish to examine his fire, although he has a
mechanical stoker.
RH 579: M. Maire again complete with oil bottle against his engine and on view is the
ACFI pump and on the gangway and the bridle rod protruding from the cab down to the
Walchaerts valve gear.
RH 580: On the return journey with the same engine and the same fittings in evidence
but including the Westinghouse brake gauges showing the air pressures in the
Westinghouse system. Our driver this time is M. Fritz, also of La Villette depot in Paris
but he was most certainly an Alsatian and proud of it. He is also a chain-smoker as can be
seen in the carefree days when almost every French railwayman seemed to smoke the
Gauloises without any filter nonsense. In the foreground is the train airbrake application
valve. M. Fritz has his right hand on the straight air brake.
RH 581: 241P34 standing at Chalons-sur-Marne.
RH 582: The chauffeur who was very much under the dominance of M. Gabrion, who is
taking water, throughout the journey and James Colyer-Ferguson is in the background as
well as porteurs dealing with luggage and mail in the coach behind the luggage van.
RH 583: M. Maire and M. Gabrion and myself at Chalons.
RH 584: See 582.
RH 585 & 586 are photographs from my collection and I have no idea how I obtained the
negatives or from whom! They are both of Belgian locomotives.
RH 585: This is one of the famous Flamme Pacifics, type 10, originally built in 19101914 and modernised in the 1930s with a Legein double blast pipe and chimney, ACFI
feed water heater and various other modifications. These engines have two fire hole doors
and this one has the original six-wheel tender although some of them were fitted with
bogie tenders off ex-Prussian engines. This photograph was probably taken between
1935-7; it has not yet been numbered on the smokebox.
RH 586: Here are two Belgian engines. The leading one is of the type “McIntosh”,
derived from the original Caledonian engines but built in Belguim to the tune of 809
engines, an ideal freight and and passenger engines for semi-fast work. 307 were
superheated and the rest saturated The basic type was split up into types and this engine
is, I think, type 32 as opposed to similar engines which were superheated and 32S. Both
became type 41 in the end. The second engine is a 060 shunting tank engine with outside
Walchaerts valve gear and a tall, very Belgian square chimney. Type 11 or 12, originally
built from 1888 and converted from Belpaire fireboxes to the round topped type from
1910. I think this one still has the Belpaire box and is therefore type 11 and retains the
square chimney but any expert on Belgian locomtoves will, I hope, put me right.
RH 587-594 These are photographs of my dear friend Walter Owen Bentley who joined
the GNR as a premium apprentice at Doncaster Plant Works in 1906 and became one of
Mr Ivatt’s pupils in 1909. He loved the railway but there was no financial future in it. He
was an exact contempory of A.H. Peppercorn but decided to make his life firstly with the
DFP motor car, then with the design and construction, testing and flying of the highly
successful BR1 and BR2 rotary engines fitted to the Sopwith Camel from 1917 onwards.
Then with his brother HM and some top class engineers, they started Bentley Motors in
1919 until its take-over by Rolls Royce in 1931 after which he had two unhappy years
with that firm before leaving for Lagonda. WO was a legend many times over in his
lifetime and I brought him back to the railway and the footplate and to the new diesel
depot at Stratford. These photos are taken at our home in Burton-in-Wirral in May 1969
and feature WO and his wife Margaret, my wife Gwenda and Jimmy Bidwell-Topham
who owns the 1927 six and a half litre six cylinder Bentley. There is also a photo taken
earlier when we lived in Surbiton, of WO, myself and a school friend of our son, James.
”Harry” Champion by the masters.599 is of the passengers rather than the car; Jimmy at
the wheel with WO and Margaret Bentley and Gwenda nearest the camera. WO died in
Aug 1971. He was one of my heroes.
RH 595 – 626 concern my first three visits to France when I was using the
box camera in 1958/59.
RH 595: On the platform at Lille on the last leg of our first journey in April 1958.
James Colyer-Ferguson and Emil Lefebvre the mecanicien of E36, we had a
marvellous reception as we were unexpected and it amazed both driver and
fireman that they were suddenly to be accompanied by two English railwaymen.
RH 596: Here is Emil’s firemen, Jacques Deseigne, who we were to meet on
many other occasions. On this journey he offered me the wine bottle after I had
completed my first bout of firing. It was he who coined the phrase when he
watched my LNER firing technique, “Quelle panache!”
RH 597 Here we are at Calais Maritime with Emil, Jacques and James in front of
the E36. The train had actually terminated at Calais Ville but they insisted as we
had luggage in running the engine through to the Maritime to save us the taxi
fare. I cannot imagine this happening in this country!
RH 598: The same photograph with myself in the centre of the group.
RH 599: The beginning of our wonderful SNCF experiences. Henri Dutertre
welcomed us to France on E16, his regular engine. We were going through to
Paris on the Fleche d’Or and I had to pinch myself at times to make sure I really
was there. Henri was the perfect host and still is in his home at Bleriot Plage.
Although we have both moved on in age and he is 83, he likes, like most French
men, to talk about his ailments which appear to me to be non-existent(until
recently in 2005!). We had a perfect journey to Paris and I was the fireman from
Amiens. I had done my homework as to gradients and distances and it was this
that sealed our friendship as Henri afterwards admitted that he thought I was just
a mad Englishman who would last about five minutes!
RH 600: Henri at his post looking straight ahead through the spectacle glass.
The engine rides like a coach and he has no need to hold on to anything. He had
been driving E16 since he was 26. His fireman at that time was 21 years older
than his driver and our fireman, Henri Meyns, was also 47 when I took this
photograph.
RH 601: Here is Henri Meyns at work with James in the background. It was very
difficult to take this photograph but considering it was a box camera, it is not too
bad. You can see both lumpy coal and briquettes in the background. The
briquettes were never used on this journey.
RH 602: The second stage, next day, was from Paris to Lille and we were seen
off by Monsieur Leroy who became a very dear friend and was the Motive Power
Superintendent of the Nord. We left at 0800 and the driver, who became another
very dear friend, was the minute Andre Duteil of La Chapelle and his fireman
was Francois Demeurant. We had Andre’s regular engine, the huge De Caso
Baltic 232S002. The firing was my first introduction to a stoker fired engine and I
was put in charge of the operation of the stoker from Arras. They both knew that
we were coming but did not know what to expect any more than we did. A whole
new world opened for us in those wonderful 24 hours. Here we are on the
platform at Lille with Andre smoking a Gauloise, a rarity as normally he did not
smoke.
RH 603–604 show us in front of the vast engine with James and I at Lille before
we left Andre and Francois: the first of many wonderful meetings.
RH 605: Gare du Nord, Paris – E16 and ready to leave with the Fleche d’Or. The
engine is E16; Henri Dutertre took the photograph and here I am with his
fireman, Henri Meyns who retired shortly after the photograph was taken in
Spring 1959.
RH 606: the same position but with Henri Dutertre and his fireman.
RH 607: This is a good photograph for a box camera of the two men leaning from
the cab but with the whole engine as well. The cleanliness will be noted and they
had been busy at La Chapelle before coming onto the train at about 10 minutes
past 12 for a 12.30 departure.
RH 608: The previous day, Andre Duteil and I had a couple of hours in La
Chapelle depot. It was a very educational visit for me as it was a Sunday and
things were quiet with not very many people about. This photograph shows
Andre standing against C66 which was one of the last Super Pacifics built for the
Nord to the designs of Monsieur Collin. The long fire box can be seen and it is
not a bad photograph for a box camera.
RH 609: Andre and the mecanicien from Mitry in charge of 242 TA88, an ex PLM
suburban tank engine based at Mitry. This mecanicien was very proud of this
tank engine but not long afterwards his depot was closed to steam traction and
he became some sort of a conducteur on diesel or electric traction.
RH 610: Myself with E34 which was the machine de reserve that Sunday, and
had been cleaned but the crew were not around.
RH 611: Here is T88 and his mecanicien making ready for the road.
RH 612: Before the Mitry engine left E26 was being prepared alongside with the
same crew that I had travelled with from Calais on the previous day. Rene Sene
is tightening the smoke box door and his driver turned up shortly afterwards. As I
had fired throughout from Calais to Paris, Rene gave me a nice box of cigars
which was remarkable seeing that he had not expected to meet me that
afternoon!
RH 613: The three-quarter view of the Chapelon Pacific E34.
RH 614: Here we have a change of scene; in the background is one of the
original 25 KV CC 12000 “bacon slicers” but in the foreground is Andre and the
two valves and pistons experts at La Chapelle who understood completely the
working of the valve gear of all the locomotives, especially the complications of
the Chapelon Pacifics. They were both charming men and really understood
their craft. The best of running shed fitters.
RH 615: Our first trip to Jeumont was terminated for some operating reason at
Aulnoye where the Belgian engine came onto the train. So we went to Aulnoye
depot for our break before going to Jeumont to pick up the return train. We had
Andre’s regular engine, S002, and here is a view showing Andre in the cab with
his BR cap and his fireman for the day, Eugene Giraud, and on the ground
Andre’s son, Alain and James Colyer-Ferguson. Our first trip on this line with
Andre and I was the driver from Compiegne. Peter Handford with his recording
apparatus in the train and his recording of me making my first start with a 700 ton
train and a French compound locomotive exists but not for publication! I had to
learn compound locomotives were very different when it came to starting such a
heavy train.
RH 616: This is Andre and Eugene in the yard at Aulnoye and we are on our way
to the cabin to have some food.
RH 617 and 618: 231 G266 was in 1959 an Aulnoye or Tergnier engine and
finished it’s career at Calais whilst several of the PO Pacifics were still in
activity.She is the engine behind E9 on 541A & B and was then in the hands of
Monsieur”Dunstable” (see caption). Here she is in the running shed at
Aulnoye(as opposed to the workshop) and I am standing with James C-F on 617
and James on his own on 618
RH 619/620 Two photographs of the S002: 619 is a cab only view and a study of
Andre showing some detail of the rear bogie and the cab itself. 620 is also from
ground level of the LH side of the engine looking forward: andre and Eugene in
the cab; James and Alain Duteil on the ground by the cab.
RH 621 On our next three trips through to Paris in May 1959, we had the same
La Chapelle driver on train 82 who had already come from Lille to Calais having
lodged at Fives depot. Our mecru was Bebert Bethune, a delightful character
who most certainly did not hang about and indeed had a reputation for banging
on a bit! He is being interrogated by James C-F at the Maritime against his PO
Pacific E26 on which we were to travel on our next journey with Bebert and
another fireman. Looking at the camera is Rene Sene who was an eleve
mecanicien and much younger than the average “chauffeur PO”, then Bebert
(French for Bert) is the archtypal French driver with waistcoat minus buttons, cap
on back to front, muffler and dirty overalls. Not only have they worked from Lille
but they have cleaned their engine at the shed, hence their general condition and
I know that Rene was grateful that I was his fireman to Paris. A classic photo.
RH 622 The same trio, either a moment before or after. Good but not quite the
SNCF charisma of the first one.
RH623 A few months later and obviously we know Bebert and he knows us. In
the cab, James and Francois his new eleve-mecanicien, also a charming lad.It
looks as if i have been painting and decorating in my clean overalls.
RH 624 On the same occasion we are to be seen off by Monsieur Leclerc, soon
to take charge at Ternier depot and Henri Dutertre, off duty as well as JC-F.
RH625 The messroom and stores at Jeumont on the Belgian border where the
French engines came off and handed over to the Belgians. There was no
allocation so far as I know at Jeumont but there was a shed driver, the much
photographed Daniel and Mimille, the coalman and ash loader. Enginemen from
various sheds brought freight engines in to turn and for requirements and a PN
break for themselves. If they lodged it was at Aulnoye, about 12 miles towards
towards Paris. In the background is a 141R Americano.
RH 626 Our second day with Andre and this time we are at Jeumont with the
great 232 U1, de Caso’s masterpiece and the greatest of the Nord Baltics
Designed by de Caso but under Chapelon principles who was CME just before
the war. Four of us are eithe balancing on the U1 or propping it up. Eugene
Giraud, RH, Alain Duteil and Andre himself.
RH 627 Taken at the same time but with Andre oiling round and J.C-F watching
him
RH628 A close up of Andre at work smoking a rare cigar with James’s happily
standing by
RH 629 When the work was done, we repaired to the messroom for lunch, a
magnificent feast almost unbelievable to me in those early 1959 days and we are
obviously enjoying ourselves. People kept dropping by to see these unknown
and mad Englishmen from another world. The old box camera did a good job on
a time exposure but not so well as it’s successor recommended to me by Dick
Riley, the Zeiss Nettar.
RH 630 Standing unattended until the shed mecanicien, Daniel, got busy is the
ten wheeled coupled TA 68. I think this was a Nord engine going back to the
Breville or Collin days, a handy machine but seemingly covering work which in
England would have merited a Chatham P class! Maybe it was used on trip work
but there was no evidence of this during our relatively brief stay.
RH 631 Back to Calais for our third trip to France. Our driver for the second time
was from La Chapelle was Bebert Bethune with his new eleve-mecanicien
Maurice X and a very smart Henri Dutertre along with J-CF. The engine is of
course Bebert’s “machine titulaire”, his very own 231E26. This the last of the boc
camera efforts in France.
RH 632 This is a lovely study of Edmond Godry and myself in 1969 outside the
dormitory. Steam had not yet gone but the Pacifics had left Calais and the
66000BB diesels were doing the job but with no regularity. On this journey, I had
John Shone, a dear friend from my Liverpool days, with me and we had 141Rs
on every job, to Boulogne, back to Calais, the pass to Hazebrouck in an autorail
and back from Hazebrouck to Calais with Edmond as our guide and what a
marvellous day we had. Our drivers were “Dunstable”, Roger Chabe and Calud
Scrieve.
RH 633 This shows the remarkable reirement gathering always held through
France when a “roulant” retired almost invaraibly at 50 years of age. Here is
Josef Six surrounded by his family abd his old colleagues, most of whom I knew
very well. Frank Mayes and I were invited to cross the Channel and attend, an
easy matter because the engine always worked the early boat train from Amiens
and came to the shed still with the retirement headboard showing “La Quille”, the
sign of retirement, Here is the arrival of the big 72000 and Josef has just
descended from the cab to be surrounded by “ses amis cheminots and sa
famille” Always a great occasion with bouquets of flowers for all concerned and
followed by a considerable party lasting maybe two hours when great quantities
of wine are drunk and much food consumed and held in the Instruction Room,
host to all Amicale parties and dances, the walls being covered with sectional
drawings of various parts of the locomotive and of course, the Westo brake.
RH634 Three of the celebrants, Left is a new one to me, centre is Michel Lacroix
who was chauffeur on all the last Pacific trips on both the PO and PLM types and
the very special run from Paris to Calais with the K82 in May 1971. Josef and his
family remained remarkably sober throughout and indeed he drove them home in
his car after the ceremony.
RH635 Josef and Madame Six are now ready for the road and home which is
near Boulogne and then retirement. Tragically he died at the age of 53, a lovely,
very conscientious engineman who had an extraordinary background. He was
the turner in the machine Shop at Boulogne and he knew that the writing was on
the wall even before the 231G and K left for Calais so he transferred to Calais as
a fireman and then passed his exams for driving the 141Rs and the various
shunting and freight engines such as the ex-Prussian 080s. By 1971, he was on
the diesels and stayed in Roulement 1 until he retired about 1980
RH636 After a very tough crossing of the Channel, Frank Mayes were atken to
the depot and there was a small party of old friends in a side room. Here we have
Lucien fasquelle once of E17 playing the fool, “Dunstable” in the background,
Henri Dutertre caught lookin gormless and left Frank Mayes who loved the
Frenchmen with all his heart. This was the prelude to Josef Six’s party next day.
of my SNCF photos in France which are quite likely to be unique but there are
quite a few to caption(equally so)of the Frenchmen in England and especially on
the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch and after that a relatively small number of
B&
W 35mm
after my retirement in 1982. RH637 Back to 1962, a wonderful occasion. Bill
Thomas and I went to Amiens on train 16 on a Sunday with Edmond and Mecru
Andre Delrue and Michhel Lacroix and because Bill was a fanatical
photographer, I took very few but this I did take after lunch at Amiens- a very
good lunch too. Edmond and the engine had gone off to do their duty and we
were met by M.Corbier of the Control, the little chap in the specs and then by
Henri and Nicole de Fumichon who stayed with us twice at home. They had an
SNCF flat in Amiens, a chateau near Orleans and a chalet at Vallorcine in the
Swiss border which they lent to us for a fortnight in summer 1972. As for the two
tall Englishmen, they had travelled in the train from Boulogne and were none
other than Archie Hastie and Henry Maxwell, both vastly knowledgeable about
railways and the world and both immensely kind to me, the most wonderful
company and both out of the top drawer.
RH638 Another group of old friends on the platform at Calais Ville in diesel days
and shortly off out on one of those evening dinners at Marquise or some such
place. The oldest hand is Marcel Dewevre in the centre in the hand, a great
character who,as a fireman in 1943,near Amiens had his train derailed by the
Resistance Fer, went to carry out protection of the train, ran into a German patrol
who gave him the old one-two and threw him in a ditch for dead. However, he
came to and carried on with his protection as if nothing had happened. He was a
charming and phlegmatic character and it was he that retired and Edmond Godry
took his place. Henri, Lucien, Jean Querlin, James and Edmond.
RH639 Bill Doughty, the giant BR man, next to Monsieur and Madame Gille was
once of Melton Constable and then Doncaster. He achieved fame as a big
ASLEF man in the teeth of the old timers in the Branch Room which included
George Wilson who fired on the Ivatt 4-cylinder compound 1421 before and
during the first war. Bill became a most effective Secretary of Sectional Council 2
until he was 50 when he was pronounced colour-blind, could no longer drive and
so had to come off SC2. So he became a diesel instructor in the school at Ilford
and got to know the Frenchmen when they stayed at Ilford Hostel . He became
their guide and friend and so I took him to France and he loved every moment of
it. Here we are waiting at Rang-du-Fliers for train 27 with the delightful Gilles. He
was the station master but not long after he moved elsewhere for promotion.
RB640 Boulogne-Ville and John Shone with the now retired Louis Sauvage once
the well-known fireman on the E7. He went back to Boulogne where he had lived
as a fisherman before joining the SNCF. Whenever we came through his city, he
was there to welcome us. But like so many of the cheminots, he died quite
young. He was a lovely man John returned on a 141R to Calais, his last visit and
not long before the end of steam.
RB641 Bill Doughty in his element in the cab of PLM K or G. See the brickettes
stacked on the right: cracked in half and they made a noble base for a fire good
enough to sail up Caffiers bank without a qualm.
RB642 Bill Doughty on the outward journey at Amiens and this time we all
lunched in a cafe in the city, never mind the overalls. On the right is our old friend
“Dunstable” (Raymond Lasquellac) and the fireman is Victor Delattre, an eleve
mecanicien and younger brother of Emilon who fired for 14 years on E37 until he
fell out with Rene Gauchet who asked for another fireman whereupon Emilon
went forward for driving. In the hat is the ever-present Mons Andre Corbier
RH643 And who now but the much-loved Bebert. Bert Hooker of Nine Elms is
presented with a broom to give to his wife Rene to clean the flat in Stockwell.
What Rene said is not recorded. Bert was the archetypal Londoner and yet with a
difference. With Henri Dutertre he did a lot of driving and likewise when Edmond
Godry arranged it for him. Like me he never asked but he never refused the offer.
We are, of course, at Rang-du-Fliers where i had also been given a broom to
take home. We kept it for many years, a dear friend.
RH644 In diesel days at Calais depot after having worked train 9 from
Boulogne. We are leaning against our 72000 (the numbers are all the same to
me, the great lumbering things)so very different from the Pos that belonged to
Gilbert Sueur. Frank Mayes came in 1965 and had his one and only PO trip on
E5 and Pierre Beghin, here he is with gilbert and myself next to Henri Dutertre
RH645 This time I must have taken the photo with Edmond Godry in the centre
RH646 About 1975, probably my last visit to Calais depot although it is difficult to
say exactly. The remains of the K82 made us all feel sad for she had beena good
machine and Henri’s titulaire for a time but everybody on the photo has retired
bar me: no doubt Danny Whelan who was with me and I spent the evening with
the Godry’s with Denise’s love for Eddie Calvert and some lovely music to
accompany a glorious meal. She had worked at the shed when Edmond was the
best looking young man passed for driving at 24 years of age and with his own
engine six months later. He retired as Le Patron of what was left of Calais shed
as well as all other engineering matters such as C&W
at the station
RH647 Here for the last time in 1969 are the station staff minus the Chef de
Gare at Rang du Fliers Verton. It always struck me as a fairly hefty establishment
although it does include Bill Thomas(camera) and Edmond. It was the wonderful
day when we came down on 141R428 on 34 and I was two minutes late at
Boulogne with about 700 tons of train. Edmond said that we must reach100kph
as soon as possible and maintain that speed to the top of Dannes Camiers (max
for that class of engine). That meant full regulator and about 50% cut-off and I
have never heard such a row in all my life from those two huge 25”X28”
cylinders. But she was stoker fired and the chauffeur from Longueau filling in for
a diesel sat there and had the needle glued on the red.
RH648 In 1975, not long before Josef Six retired, Peter, Gwenda and I were
returning from a holiday in SW France and our train was taken on from Amiens
by Josef Six and his blunderbus which the Deltic would see off the park. He said
to come at Boulogne and he would give Peter a ride to Marquise, the last stop
before Calais. This he greatly enjoyed and much as he liked Edmond, he knew
the latter would be meeting us at the Ville and would, quite rightly, take no
chances. Peter took the photo of Josef and myself.
RH649 The last six photographs were taken at Valenciennes en route AulnoyeLille and they are interesting as they portray life on one of the original BB12000s
which started the 25KV ball rolling in Eastern France in around 1951(subject to
correction) L-R is Chauffeur Billy and mecanicien Albert Forguet of Aulnoye, Chef
Mec M. Lesur and George Mitchell, Examining Inspector, Eastern Region.
RH650 I much enjoyed my two journeys with the same mechanicien who hailed
from Calais and who went back after his retirement. Here you see Albert at the
controls sideways on to the direction of travel,. At his right elbow is the big Westo
brake valve for the train and above it, the handle of the straight air brake for light
engine and loose coupled work ( actually I think loose coupled work had long
gone in France by 1962). In front of him is the “bacon slicer”, the large wheel that
can still be seen for just that purpose in a butcher’s shop: this was the controller
and each notch was a complete circles. Monsieur Lesur, very agreable company,
is on the right. No notices about smoking in those days for French railwaymen
were mostly addicted To Gauloises or their equivalent. I loved them but to the
tune of a maximum of three a day and I had not inhaled since 1951 when I
stopped smoking to pay for the Austin 7 we bought.
RH651/653 651 and 653 are virtually identical and are taken at Valencienes.
Albert Forquet again, another assistant Conducteur whose name I did not get but
who was a great Tottenham Hotspur fan as I was until I went to work in Liverpool
! The Chef Mec was a Calais PO mecanicien until he moved to Tergnier. His
name was, rather magnificently, Monsieur Belbessier, who had ridden with us
from Tergnier on a K or G which I failed to make steam freely. A grave
disappointment but there it is: however well one did most of the time, there was
always the time you make a mary-ann of the job and are brought down to earth
with a bang. And a good job too!
RH652 and 654 are similar except that Chauffeur Billy took 654 which shows me
ready once more for the Lille-Calais stretch on E22. And that is the end
SNCF CAPTIONS IN FRANCE 658-674.
The Pacifics had been replaced by the 141R and the 66000 diesels were about
but when ever we went on train 16 or 34 or 27, we got a 141R and so much the
better as the 66000s were not up to the very heavy semi-fast trains..
RH 658 Abbeville Train 16 0800 ex Calais Ville Engine 141R 1264 with Calais
men who return with train 27, a very heavy semi-fast Chauffeur Claude Lhote
and Mecru Lucien Lyonne with RH: we had just topped up the tank. These two
men were together for many years, on PLM Pacific K and G work but Lucien
never wished to pass for the PO Pacifics and his mate stayed with him. They
often worked the PO jobs with these engines.
RH 659 Abbeville again train 16 another 141R number invisible ground level and
the enginemen standing by the valve gear. Bill Thomas, a great friend,
Chauffeur Michel Lacroix and Mecru Andre Delrue who looked like a Chinaman.
He was a mecanicien de remplacement on the 141Rs and for some reason was
taken off the job in later years and joined that tragic little gang of labourers in the
shed in diesel days which included the unforgettable Maurice Vasseur who had
fallen on hard times: heart-breaking to see them.
RH 660 141R 1285, Train 16 at Abbeville with Rene Gauchet standing between
the engine and tender uprights. He had been on E14 and then E37 for many
years and after the POs went he shared G42 with Henri Dutertre. This is a lovely
study of a quiet and brilliant engineman.
RH 661 The same day as 660 with James Colyer-Fergusson, Eleve Mecanicien
Albert Faes and Rene Gauchet.. I loved firing and driving those engines. On a
semi-fast train, you could shut the coal supply right down approaching a station
and also the Worthington feed-pump so as to stand absolutely quiet in the
station. On leaving one opened the steam valve and the stoker did it’s stuff
perfectly so one immediately had a full head of steam: Very like oil burning. Only
once did I get it wrong and that is another story!
RH 662 The front of a 141 Train 16 Calais Ville–Amiens-Paris at Abbeville where
there was quite a wait, always time for photography. Mecru Roger Chabe who
looked a bit like Danny Kaye and was Champion Boule player SNCF Nord or
maybe of the Pas de Calais. His chauffeur is the “Michelin man” Emilon Hede,
Eleve Mecanicien whose brother was a mecru de remplacement on the PLM K
and G and Roger had had K22 for several years, always beautifully kept....
RH 663 Train 16 Abbeville Bill Doughty ex Secretary of Sectional Council B
Eastern Region who came off the footplate with colour vision when he was 50
and became an Instructor at the Ilford Training School very successfully. He was
determined to prove that the doctor who failed him at his 5oth medical was wrong
and he passed his colour vision at 60 but by then was in a salaried positiona nd
would never return to the front-end. He had started on the M&GN at Melton
Constable in the mid-thirties and moved to Doncaster as a fireman when the
LNER took over. He was a fine man and loved the French Railwaymen. The
Mecru is our old friend Raymond Lasquellqc(Monsieur Dunstable) and the
chauffeur is Victor Delattre whose elder brother Emilon had fired for Rene
Gauchet.
RH 664 Train 27 Boulogne Ville 141R. Chef Mecanicien at Calais Marcel
Dewvevre. Our Divisional Operating Supt at Liverpool, the late and much-loved
Danny Whelan, Monsieur Doonstable again and Chauffeur La Salle of Calais.
RH 665 Train 27 Boulogne Ville 141R . As 664 but including RH as the picture
was atken by Raymond Lasquellac.
THE LAST STEAM HAULED TRAIN PARIS-CALAIS MAY 15TH 1971 HAULED
BY THE CALAIS K82: AN EMOTIONAL OCCASION. RH INVITED TO
REPRESENT BRITISH RAILWAYS. ALL PASSENGERS WERE GUESTS OF
THE SNCF NORD.
RH 666 The special train was hauled by the ex PLM 231K82 of Calais. Here she
stands in all her glory at Les Joncherolles Depot mid morning before the lunch
time depart from the Gare du Nord. A day to remember.
RH 667 The retired Chief Locomotive Inspector of the Nord Region arrives by
bicycle in his overalls at Les Joncerelles. An amazing character. As a young
Inspecteur in 1937 and in charge of the engine of the ”Royal” train Calais-Paris, a
suburban station out of town, he was presented to the then Duke and Duchess of
York and instead of shaking hands, he kissed the hand of a delighted Duchess
but next day, he got a very strong rocket from his Chief!.
RH668 This is the group who did most of the work on the day if we except the
chap who took the photo! L-R The remarkable George Carpenter who knew
Monsieur Chapelon and worked with him.and therefore is the acknowledged
expert(with the likes of me) on French Steam Locomotive design and
Performance and who knew all the senior SNCF Locomotive Engineers of the
day and he is probably as up to date as ever to this day. Jean Guelton, by then
the senior mecru at Calais who had had E32 and E22 as his machine titulaire..
Michel Lacroix who fired for Rene Gauchet and who was used on most of the last
Pacific journeys along with Michel Rock; my very dear friend Edmond Godry,
Chef Mecanicien, Calais and the retired Chief Traction Inspecteur of the SNCF
Nord.. At Joncerolles before departure for the Gare du Nord.
RH 669 Paris Nord. The crew talking to an unknown guest with others in the
background.
RH 670 On arrival at Calais Maritime-that other great friend and ex Motive
Power Supt for whose kindness I cannot express my gratitude for all he has done
for so many railwaymen and friends from this country-Phillipe Leroy with Edmond
who revered him, Jean Guelton and Michel Lacroix–a perfect journey
RH 671 As for 670 minus Philippe Leroy.
RH 672 K82 and a closely interested group in something.
RH673 M.Oscar Pardo, much loved by his SNCF friends: he had a permanent
footplate pass and each year spent a week or two or even three in Calais. The
youngest son of an ex President of Peru, he was born in France and, in 1936,
had several months as a pupil in Eastleigh Works and later at Battersea where
he got to know a number of fireman who were Running Foremen and Drivers in
my time. So we had several friends in common including Bob Shew, a fireman in
the Nelson gang who got in touch with Oscar again. A man of independent
means and loved and admired by all. With him is the then BR(Shipping Division)
Interpreter, M.Alfred George White born of English parents in Bleriot Plage near
Calais in 1922. A very good friend to me.
RH674 And hereon lies a story. At Amiens and having finished an excellent
lunch in the train, I was talking to Gilbert Sueur and Michel Rock on the machine
de reserve 231K8 nearby when I was hailed by Monsieur Ravenet, the CME of
the Nord and ordered to travel on the engine to Calais. That I was wearing an
excellent and long lived dark suit mattered not one bit, I was under orders. I
borrowed Oscar’s blue smock and got up on the foootplate to find that M
Leisiegneur was already there and in excellent post-prandial form. He was
immediately followed by Oscar who also been ordered aboard so we were six.
But about two minutes before departure, a steward arrived at the engine and
passed up three splendid steaks with all the trimmings and a bottle of vin rouge,
side plate and glasses, not to mention the same delicious pudding to follow. So
we were six with the principle contestant standing up eating steak and the
regulator was assumed by M. Leseigneur. That left me to do the firing to
Abbeville in my best suit while my magnificent driver collared the wine and did it
justice with mighty draughts accompanied by magnificent Gallic gestures
indicating more speed and coal. I may say that we had in the train some of the
most important Engineers of the SNCF both serving and retired who were luckily
oblivious of the drama being played out at the front end. Passing Abbeville, both
the relief enginemen were relieved by the regular men. and Edmond Godry once
more became Chef Mecanicien. The rest of the journey was exactly to time and
perfectly ordered and so we arrived at the Maritime, elated and emotional. We
were invited upstairs into the grand salon to hear the Directeur en chef of the
Nord give an extremely mundane and boring speech which droned on and on
whereas the so-called phlegmatic English would have risen truly to such an
occasion whether in France or their own country. I am with Oscar and my suit
looks passable but my tie is a disgrace.
CALAIS MEN IN ENGLAND ON THE ROMNEY IN 1965/67/68 AND 1971.
1965
RH 675 “The Green Goddess” was laid up on our second trip in 1965 so we had
”Northern Chief” along with George Barlow and a train of empty stock to Hythe
and back and then to Hythe before the SNCF group caught the boat home from
Folkestone. Here we have the group along with Bunny Collins, the Owner and
Peter Catt, Operating Manager and M.Eugene Lavieville, Chef de Depot at
Calais to the right of the safety valves .L-R Pierre Beghin, Maurice Vassuer,
Edouard Rambure, Lucien Lyon(hidden), Fred White and for some reason Jean
Guelton missing.
RH 676 Always the centre of the party is Maurice Vasseur, Monsieur le President
de L’Amicale des Mecaniciens et des Chauffeurs du depot de Calais. Also
Mecanicien de Route( Mecru) and titulaire de la belle machine PO 231 E 7 AND
A CHARACTER! Getting ready for his turn to share the footplate of the “Chief”
with George Barlow and enjoying a “Coup de rouge” Also on the picture are Bill
Hart and ”Padge” of the RH&D and sitting in the leading coach Lucien Lyon. .
RH 677 View from 1st coach of Maurice Vasseur driving the Chief suitable only
for 51/2”x 31/2” cropped suitably.
RH 678 George and Maurice once more, the latter shouldering arms with a
RH&DR bent dart about 3 feet long.
RH 679 Before departure from New Romney L-R Pierre Beghin(E5), Edouard
Rambure(G70), Jean Guelton(E22), Fred White(Interpreter), Maurice
Vasseur(E7) and Lucien Lyon(G266)
RH 680 The group at New Romney with George and taken from the overbridge.
Nearest to the camera is Pierre Beghin, Edouard Rambure, Maurice Vasseur,
Jean Guelton, Fred White and Lucien Lyon.
RH 681 A very happy picture: George and Maurice Vasseur and back to the
camera “Padge” of the RH&DR. and(R) Jean, Pierre and Lucien.
RH 682 En route to lunch at the Station Hotel but Pierre and Maurice pause for
yet another photograph with the others disappearing into the distance.
RH683 Taken just before 682 particularly as it shows Fred White in the cab. He
must have just had a trip which he did not usually have being a shipping man and
by no means a steam locomotive fan. But he enjoyed his journey with George
and, of course, they could converse in English. We are a lot of cheerful little
boys! The French always used to think the English were terribly reserved but
they know better now for all the visits were full of joie de vivre!
1967. This visit also included Andre Duteil, late of La Chapelle depot and
232.002, one of my oldest French friends and called up as a replacement by
Monsieur Leroy, Motive Power Supt who knew Andre and his love of this
country.
RH 684 Here he is again! Maurice Vasseur again talking to Bunny Collins now
well into his third year as owner along with his Operating Manager Peter Catt
who died tragically young. Maurice is smoking Scarfellati Caporal home-made
fags which soon give way to Bunny’s cigars.
RH 685 This was taken at Tinsley and how on earth did we get there. It was Sept
1967, a few days after Gerry Fiennes had resigned from his position as our GM
for I remember his successor Derek Barrie meeting us on arrival at York wearing
his best bowler that greatly impressed the Frenchmen(chapeau melon) for he
had had plenty to do with the French railways in the war. He had let us have his
Wickham railcar or inspection coach in which unfortunately the engines were
under the dining room table on which we had Henry Kemps’s supremely good
lunch jumping up and down en route Tinsley-York. Yet again you can see for
yourself the true welcome of our railwaymen. I nearly said Englishmen but
remembered just in time that David Scott (L) was a Scotsman ex LMS and DMPS
Sheffield. Then Harry Amos now ADOS Sheffield and later on a much deserved
DOS, Georges Chatillon, Sous Chef at Calais, the immensely tall Henry
Kemp(6ft7), the General Manager’s factotum, then Fred White, at the back a
delightful Sheffield Traffic Inspector, Arnaud Flament, Maurice Vasseur, Rene
Gauchet, George Harland, HQ Loco Inspector, Ron Fareham ex Mexboro whom
I had known since 1941 and another friendly Sheffield Traffic Inspector. The front
four are the two midgets, Andre Duteil(5 ft 01/2”) and Andre Desmolliens(5ft0”),
Louis Sauvage and Frank Harrison( whose father I had known since Doncaster
days until he died in 1945) who had started as a clerk on the orders of his longheaded old father rather than as an engine cleaner and had so far risen to be Div
Operating Supt at Sheffield. What a happy crowd.
RH 686 Taken at Hythe on the last day: Maurice, Peter Catt, Louis Sauvage,
Bunny Collins, Andre Duteil Arnaud Flament, Fred White, Georges Chatillon,
Andre Desmolliens and Bill Doughty who was a magnificent guide and interpreter
although had hardly knew a word of French but he was a railwayman, an
enginemen, a big man in ASLEF and a diesel Instructor at ilford after he failed
with his eyes at 50. So they all thought alike and by gesture and common
understanding bridged all the gaps. This time George is missing from the group
but he soon made up with it and his engine is the “Goddess”, of course.
RH 687 George’s favourite of the SNCF visitors which he called ”The Old Firm”,
a title unknown today but often used maybe of a group of soldiers, sailors or
airmen who had served together and who were great comrades. George and
Maurice Vasseur, two men completely at one with the other yet could not speak a
word of each other’s tongue. But what an example it is of “The Great
Brotherhood of Railwaymen”, the true membership of which transcends all
boundaries of rank and position.
RH 688 Here we are at New Romney with Arnaud Flament, now Moniteur de
Chauffe (Firing instructor) and Champion Billiard Player of the SNCF Nord and
about to settle down into the cab of the Goddess with George.
RH 689 Maurice at Hythe, red wine at the ready!
RH 690 A light-hearted cameo: Maurice, Baggage Master and Fred White
Checker.
RH 691 George and Wine Waiter Vasseur at Hythe and George toasting the
photographer
RH 692 I think this must be at Dymchurch after Arnaud had driven from Hythe.
We had the railway to ourselves so a stop like this to change crews did not
signify. Anyhow wherever it is, the platform is narrow and the group is happy.
RH 693 Changing footplates at Dymchurch direction Romney. Georges Chatillon
and George Barlow.
RH 694 Technical discussion at Romney(after lunch) with the Station Hotel in
the background. Bill Doughty in the foreground. Rene Gauchet and Andre Duteil
in the background by the tender in serious discussion as befits two such
distinguished “Senateurs”
RH 695 Andre Duteil, three years into retirement at 50 and three months and
now back in his “Bleus” and cap as I had so often seen him, with George—old
friends again from the 1963 trip(in colour).
RH 696 Drinks on the terrace before lunch on the terrace at Bunny’s home once
the Howey residence. Rene is now on cigars, likewise Andre Desmolliens and
Louis Sauvage with Bill and Bunny Collins in the background.
RH 697 Rene Gauchet is at the throttle with George and as delicate of touch as
ever. He was a lovely man, quiet, serious and completely dedicated.
RH 698 Louis Sauvage, once a Boulogne fisherman, joined the SNCF to become
a fireman until he retired. He fired E7 with Maurice for years. They were a
splendid pair and, almost unknown in France, changed sides when away from
officialdom. Maurice had been a long term fireman before deciding to go forward
for driving and passing not only to drive G and K Pacifics but also the Pos which
debunks the old myth that you had to be technically trained to be a Mecru. So he
liked to keep fit and Louis benefited no end.
THE 1969 VISIT WHEN WE WERE NOW ON MERSEYSIDE AND LIVING IN
WIRRAL. THAT DEAR MAN EDMOND GODRY WAS IN CHARGE.
RH 699 Ashford Station on arrival from Charing Cross with Fernand Chaussoy in
the background.
RH 700 Here we are again at New Romney L-R along side the Goddess.
Edmond Godry, Maurice vasseur, Fred White, Albert Annicote, Michel Lacroix.
George Barlow, Raymond Lasquellac (Dunstable). Emil Lefebvre of E36 and
retired some years, Fernand Chaussoy and the enormous “P’tit” Louis Lapierre
who fired E17 for years. Yet another happy group.
RH 701 Changing into overalls at New Romney
RH 702 Emil looking longingly at Monsieur Le President’s Gladstone bag full of
bottles of enticing red.
RH 703 Emil again pausing later in the day for ablutions.
RH 704 Everybody so typically happy. Edmond, Fred, Michel :acroix,
“Dunstable” and George, the cause of this amusement.
RH 705 Emil was moved to tears when he first boarded the Goddsee_ he had
retired some eight years before and was quite overcome. Terry Whewell and a
pensive George are quietly in the background.
RH 706 Emil was always a beret man but he has somehow acquired auniform
cap and is now much more cheerful under the influence of President Vasseur.
RH 707 The gigantic P’tit Louis Lapierre, Henri Dutertre’s last fireman mounts his
minute machine but somehow he got coiled up enough to have a comfortable
ride.
RH 708 “Dunstable” as cheerful as ever. He had a sister-in-law living in
“Doonstable” where he and his wife had stayed and visited Les Jardins
Zoologiques at Vipsnarde and also the Cathedral at Sant Olbonz. A loevely man
so cheeful and yet another who died before he was barely sixty.
RH 709 George toasting the Frenchmen with Fernand and Terry Whewell
enjoying every minute.
RH 710 This time it is Albert Annicote’s turn on the Goddess.Albert was the last
of the ex-PO Drivers in the service> He never had his own engine, being a mecru
de remplacement but I went with him on E4 and he was an exceptional
engineman. My last 231K journey was with him and I was the mecru from
Amiens to Calais Ville: that was K8 still en activite.
RH 711 A convivial trio: Maurice, Albert and Little Louis.
RH 712George and Michel Lacroix with Terry looking on.
RH 713 A thoroughly professional examination at the begining of the day. Emil
comparing one Pacific with another, his own E36.
RH 714 Louis, Maurice, Al;bert and Dunstable.
RH715 Definitely after lunch complete with a demonstration by Louis with his teaspoon and Maurice with a tube cleaning rod which bears a resemblance to a
dressage whip. Michel and Albert equally enjoy the moment.
RH 716 Louis yet again at the wine: a good job the glasses were small.
RH 717 George and Albert in the distance. Michel and Fernand had other things
in mind and “The bottle stands by you, Sir”
RH 718 Nothing special about this one.
RH719 A nice picture of Albert Annicote, a most gentle man. He, like some of the
others in this group are no longer with us.
RH 720 That man Louis again but worth a look!
RH 721 A quiet group at New Romney before the last trip or maybe at lunchtime. L-R are Bert Hooker, Edmond Godry, Tom Miller, a greatally of the RH&D
and their Solicitor: crippled by polio, I think and Maurice.
RH 722 I think this must be the last change-over of the day with Maurice, who
usually had his stint at the end, George, Dunstable and Michel
RH 723 And here they go away from Folkestone on the French “Cote-d’Azur”:
what a unforgettable few days for us all with a Liverpool interlude thrown in.
THE LAST VISIT “ON BR, SO TO SPEAK” WAS IN 1971. BOBBIE
LAWRENCE WAS NO LONGER OUR GENERAL MANAGER WHO HAD
BROAD VIEWS AND HIS PLACE WAS TAKEN BY MEN WHO HADN’T.
‘NUFF SAID’. BUT THIS WAS AS GOOD A VISIT AS EVER AND OF THOSE
WHO CAME ONLY LUCIEN FASQUELLE , MAURICE SAISON AND JEAN
QUERLIN HAD NOT BEEN BEFORE SO HERE WE GO!
RH 724 Lucien Fasquelles, the last driver of E17 with George Barlow on the
Goddess. He loved England and he was a great cyclist(his velo). Calais-Moscow
was a piece of cake to him in his retirement. He was near the top of Edmond’s
list, one of the best of the Calais ”Senateurs”.
RH 725 George and Maurice Saison, that scourge of Calais management and
member of the CGT as indeed was “Dunstable”. Maurice had been known to
thump the Patrons’s table which was a terrible crime in France but by no means
unknown at Stewarts Lane, Stratford and just about any shed in the country.
Normally the selection for the visits was nothing to do with me but I liked Maurice
and asked for him to come for he was very English except in appearance for he
resembled a certain well known Australian cricketer of the 1920s.
RH726 George, Gilbert Sueur, ex mecru of E14 and E41 and also chauffeur to
Rene Gauchet when he was young on the E14, a lovely man, strong and friendly
and very conscientious: Bill Doughty as ever a marvellous guide who has little
French but he is one of them: and Henri Dutertre. He and Gilbert were veteran
visitors, Gilbert of the first 1963 group, with two from Calai, One from Fives, two
from Boulogne and one from La Chapelle.
RH727 Lucien again as he looked on his E17 with Fred White and George
Chatillon
RH 728 Richard Batten(RH&DR), Maurice Vasseur, Jean Querlin who came up
from Boulogne as Chef when Marcel Devewvre retired and Edmond Godry
moved up to be Chief Inspector at Calais, a man who could have been Chief
Inspector of the Region had he been prepared to move to Paris. Then George,
Lucien and Henri
RH 729 Travelling “pass” on the 15” gauge: Lucien and the “formidable” Maurice
Saison
RH730 The journey down from Charing Cross to Ashford had been with an
excellent Tonbridge driver whose name I cannot remember but I might find out
with a bit of luck. L-R Jean Querlin, Maurice Vasseur( hidden for once!), Maurice
with his pipe, Gilbert Sueur, Fred White(hidden), Bill Doughty, Henri Dutertre,
Georges Chatillon, now Chef de Depot of which Edmond was to be the last who
carried the full responsibilities including C&W.. Quite a few travelled in the cab
and were entertained by our Tonbridge friend.
RH 731 At Hythe, the standard picture with the Goddess and George and by now
you will know the names: the same as above.
RH 732Before the Hythe trip, Bill Doughty had arranged for the group to stay at
the Training School near Windsor in some luxury. This is the evening before the
final departure: Fred White, Jean Querlin, Bill Doughty and Georges Chatillon
and next day I met them about 0930 at Charing Cross.
RH 733 .And now for the open road. Changing over half way: George and Jean
Querlin.
RH 734 A very friendly photo: Richard Batten, Gilbert Sueur, Maurice Vasseur
and George: Gilbert and Maurice ready for the fray.
RH 735 George and Gilbert Sueur with Henri in the wings and wearing a
RH&DR cap.
RH 736 Where the lettering can be seen more clearly: they are changing over
again out on the Romney Marsh with the sheep in the background: George and
Henri
RH 737 The cap has now been passed to Lucien who is with George with
Maurice Saison wearing my inspector’s overall passed down to me by Marcel
when he retired and now with that distinguished Festiniog and Welsh Highland
driver Paul Ingham.
RH 738 The ”Goddess” Maurice and Richard drinking their coups de rouge while
Maurice stands by in his rather nicely cut suit! .
RH 739 Before the first trip,, another technical huddle and inspection of the
“Goddess”.
RH740 The locomotive inspected, there is a glance for the unbelievable
surroundings in which the Frenchmen find themselves.
RH 741 M. Le President oiling the motion with an unusual lubricant of dubious
quality but she didn’t run hot: no prizes for the grade of oil nor the unusual type of
feeder.
RH 742 Lucien stands by and is doing a spot of cleaning.742 Maurice Vasseur
in suit and beret with Lucien at the ready and Gilbert (whose liver is no longer
outraged as it was said to be first thing)standing by at Hythe second trip, I think.
The perfect Frenchmen
RH 743 Another inspection: this time of the tender. Maurice Saison and Gilbert
RH 744 A close-up from the jetty; unusually we are the same level with the
upper deck: so here they go for the last time: how sad but by 1973, I would no
longer be in a position to entertain as of right being at Railway Board
Headquarters from Oct 1073.Lucien had been in tears when we shook hands:
Fred has his nautical cap and if you don’t know the others by now, you never will
but it is a group of eight very happy men and so were Bill Doughty and I.
RH 745 A lot of photographs were taken in Liverpool by the regular press
photographers but they did not follow us to the top of the new turning tower that
the Queen had recently opened. It is a truly wonderful view across the Mersey
and onto Wales.. This time we had Ben Hervey- Bathurst as the perfect
interpreter and how he loved meeting the French Railwaymen as you will see in
the next series of photographs for he had worked with the Resistance in the war.
SNCF CAPTIONS 746-795.ALL FRENCHMEN IN ENGLAND
RH 746 In later years, Peter, our younger son and I visited France and we took this
picture of two “Sons of Boulogne” who had worked at Calais and were now deep in
retirement. Louis Sauvage(L) and Josef Six(R). Louis fired on E7 for many years, Josef
was a fitter and turner at Boulogne and about to be made redundant, came to Calais,
passed to drive the 141Rs after a period firing as a chauffeur de remplacement (spare
man). I often laugh at these two dear men who, Peter says, look like members of the
“Boulogne Mafia”! Peter can’t talk as he is wearing a “Donkey Jacket” which makes him
an honorary member.
RH 747 (Copy of official SNCF photo 1964) Andre Duteil’s retirement after working
CC40103 from Aulnoye Paris Nord or maybe from Brussels. Andre is wearing the
”Quille” and holding Madame’s flowers. The”Honneur aux Retraites” board will have
been carried throughout and another quille is on the LH buffer beam of the engine. Annie
is their daughter with another Andre .her husband(L), Madame as buxom as Andre is lean
behind him and two other members of the family. Before long, there will be a
considerable party either at the Gare du Nord or at La Chapelle depot. Andre was a very
popular man
RH 748 A profile of Monsieur Phillipe Leroy in the cab of the Blue Deltic travelling
between Grantham and King’s Cross. How much do we all owe him, a wonderful friend
to all of us BR men.
RH 749 Driver Piggins of King’s Cross, Phillipe Leroy and George Harland, Chief
Locomotive Inspector ER with the Deltic at Peterborough.
(Barry When you print this one, please do it horizontally. You can cut George off at the
midriff, it won’t hurt him.)
RH 750 Visit of Andre Duteil and Henri Duteil to England in 1961 at Dover Marine with
Driver Jack May of Stewarts Lane and the late David Kirby, Shipping Manager at Dover
who would rise to great heights on BR. The engine is one of the 73000 electric
locomotives heading the Golden Arrow.
RH751/752 We visited Stratford Loco on a Sunday afternoon and here are Andre and
Henri much interested in the V & P of this LTV N7 and equally so in a very old”Black
Goods”, steam brake J15. They marvelled at it’d simplicity and that of the little “Buck”
in the distance still with its wooden cab roof, both very old engines and I think that 5361
was the last of the breed in 1961 and lasted to the end of steam a year later. She was built
in 1889: “well done thou good and faithful servant” George Mitchell, Examining
Inspector, who travelled with both men in France came with us.
RH 753 Andre Duteil at the regulator of a West Country somewhere around
Brockenhurst. Thumbs up, he says but he did not care for Mr Bulleid’s steam reverser
and I don’t blame him: they were Bert Hooker’s guest for the day and they made the most
of it
RH 754 At Bournemouth West there is usually time for a photograph. Here is the
legendary Bert Hooker in his best overalls washed by hand no doubt time and time again:
he is a travelled man, many times on the Eastern Region and he wears his overalls in the
Eastern style with the top or top two buttons done up and the Southern and Western style
of overall trousers which needed braces rather than the bib and brace of the ER and LMR.
.Andre and Henri wear the standard French industrial and agricultural overall available in
shops and in the Economat near Calais Ville and Andre wears the SNCF goggles, a great
help but absolutely essential with stoker fired engines.; what a remarkable difference in
style those 25 miles of sea crossing do make yet all three men drawn close together by
the great bond of the railway fraternity.
RH 755 On another visit with the Chef de depot, M.Eugene Lavieville in 1965, Henri has
hold of 34052, a rebuilt West Country somewhere south of Brockenhurst: very
determined!
RH 756 And on the platform at Southampton Central, Bert Hooker, Eugene and Henri
against their engine.
RH 757/758 757 has RH on it at the expense of Basil de Iongh and this was a wonderful
gathering organised by Gwenda: we had the two Frenchmen Eugene and Henri and our
three great Francophile friends, James Colyer-Fergusson next to Eugene, then George
Carpenter and Basil de Iongh. On the R is Madame Franco, Russian by birth, lived in
Tunisia, spoke French perfectly and taught it but had never been to France! Gwenda
looking elegant on the right and also our three Anthea, James and Peter in our garden at
Oakhill Crescent, Surbiton probably about 1962.
RH 759 Edmond Godry with our Peter, Francoise Godry and her Mother Denise on the
Eastnor Castle Estate steam roller in front of Eastnor Castle, home of Ben and Elizabeth
Hervey-Bathurst. A happy happy visit for us all where the Godry’s were given an
amazing welcome in 1975.
RH 760 The Eastnor Traction Engine with James H-B with Michel Robillard and Paul
Bomy both from Calais double-manning the Bathurst’s venerable machine.
RH 761A splendid side-on view of the old engine and it’s intrepid operators in vigorous
if doubtful action.
RH 762/763 I feature on 762 at the expense of J H-B and James is on 763 L-R apart from
RH are Paul Bomy wearing my overalls LNER fashion, Ben very serious in one and
actually smiling in 763, Jean Querlin from Calais and a friend of James’, Gervais who
looks remarkably like Gordon Pettitt of BR! Michel on the footplate working out what’s
what for he will be at home if the old thing is a compound. Ben makes a point of looking
serious when involved with steam traction engines so he said! The same venerable
machine.
RH764 Here she is again but with a different equipe: this time Lucien Fasquelle once of
231 E 17 and one of the best of the splendid Calais “Senateurs” along with Josef Six, a
perfectly well matched pair. Josef died at the age of 54 but Lucien is still going strong,
the same age as me, He says 1923 was a good vintage.
RH 765 Ben looking like a real steam man with Lucien, Josef and James H-B
RH 766 Blowing off steam, this won’t do at all especially with French enginemen.
RH 767 This is the best of all. Here is Josef Six, hand on the throttle, assistants convulsed
with laughter, making a good three mph and heading straight for a tree. Grimly
determined and concentrating hard, he fails to hear until almost two late the calls for him
to alter course. Her winds the wheel gently as he would notching up a PO and nothing
happens, then frantically and the great machine veers to the left and promptly heads for
further obstacles. Everybody(except for Josef) is weak with laughter. It seems all wrong
to a railwayman to have to steer! Such wonderful days with the Bathurst’s at Eastnor. .
RH767A After the visit to Eastnor Castle, we stayed in a hotel overnight and called on
Alun Rees, then the Locomotive Engineer of the Severn Valley Railway next morning.
We had a thoroughly happy day and here is Lucien Fasquelle, Alun Rees and Josef Six,
proving the point!. It is sad to think that after Josef retired at the age of 50, he died within
the next two years. He had a Workshop background at Boulogne, made redundant on
closure, did two years firing at Calais and then passed for driving on the diesels, the
72000 and 66000 class that worked Calais-Amiens. Lucien is still going strong, the same
age as me and we were both born on 1923.” Now it is supper time, long past and then
two hours writing to come and sadly I shall look at Match of the Day to watch
Liverpool’s tragic loss in the last minute of the game. Now the only thing they can win is
the FA Cup Quarters v Stoke at home where they consistently draw as they were doing
today.
RH 768 Now the visit of Andre Duteil on his own to stay with James in London. We are
in the splendid dining room at Eastnor in the Bathurst’s apartment upstairs. Some
historical paintings as a back drop to an artistic Andre talking to Denis Brandt. Andre has
yet to change for lunch. He is wearing what had been Marcel Dewevre’s chef mecs
overall which he had given to me. Marcel was a rotund 6’ 2” and Andre just five feet tall.
.
RH 769 Lunch is over: one of Mrs Onyons best. Her son had been on the footplate and
then transferred to the signalman’s grade and was at Ledbury where he had also been
based on the bankers Ben is on the left, Andre is sitting, James Colyer-Fergusson and
Ben’s half brother home from America. Ben and he was a magnificent pair.
RH 770 Again Andre, his grandson Thiery and James C-F with Denis Brandt and his sons
in front of the Castle and with the old Foden tractor as the backcloth.
RH 771 Relaxed discussion before going home between a retired French engine driver
born in Angouleme and the very best stamp of a patrician Englishman completely at
home with one another. Andre and Ben.
RH 772 This is the summer of 1980 when Jacques Vidal of Troyes, a very remarkable
man still going strong as I write on 20/5/2008 aged 90. He had been an apprentice on the
C de F de L’Est starting in 1932 aged 14: then fitter, leading fitter during the war in
which he served in the Resistance Fer: later appointed Foreman Fitter on shift work. He
then went to Abysinnia as Head of the Workshop in Addis Ababa but his Wife, Jeannine,
could not take the climate and he had to return to France. He restarted on the SNCF and
was successively cleaner, chauffeur de route(when I met him in 1961), eleve mecanicien,
meru, chef mecru and then returned to the Troyes Workshops as Chef d’Ateliers. Here he
is at Eastnor Castle: he was without doubt a Patriot but his greatest hero is Winston
Churchill to whom he listened during the war. He never forgets his visit to Eastnor and I
shall never forget the drive from the station at Ledbury through the streets but Jacques
and myself crammed next to James H-B and James C-F behind us. Jacques had been in
the cab for about 15 seconds and suddenly pronounced with great emphasis “MACHINE
COMPOUND”. He missed nothing.. James C-F is on the left, Peter Brandt
on the
right and a woolly friend in the middle.
RH 773 Here is Lisa and Peter Brandt and Nicholas with James, Jacques, James C-F and
Ben and the old Foden yet again as the backcloth.
RH 774 Two super profiles in conversation- one very French and the other very Englishone who never dreamed of visiting an English castle as a guest nor meeting an English
family like the Bathurst’s: both had much in common and were completely at ease with
one another.
Incidentally, 763-774 were Stewarts Lane engines when I was there and we will conclude
with 791-795 which were also ours! Happy memories!
RH 775 Another family group at Eastnor Castle: the family Peter Brandt, Lisa, Peter and
Nicholas with James and Elizabeth and Ben H-B and Jacques Vidal in the cab where he
belongs.
RH 776 At ours with Jacques on our own Huyton seat before it went to our James and
Irene in London.
RH 777 We are somewhere on the “Norf Kent” with Bert Hooker and Jacques’
memorable journey long, long, after the days of steam(1925) to Charing Cross and
Sammy Gingell’s “Norf Kent Splash”. It could be Dartford maybe?
RH 778 By this time, Jacques had got used to our EP brake of which the brake
application positions were the exact opposite to the French Westinghouse. His first
application however had brought the luggage off the racks but after that all went well.
Bert Hooker in his penultimate year of service was extremely happy at Slade Green
where it took more than two years to work through the roster! His father had started there
in SECR days, in 1915. The present day men were the friendliest crowd with whom he
had ever worked, many of them being ex “B.Arms Barstards” from the Old Kent Road.
This applied to SECR sheds as a whole as well I know.
FINALLY THREE MORE “ONE-OFF VISITS” TO THE RH&DR
RH779 At New Romney and ready to leave for Hythe with Peter Catt and our old friend
Marcel Dewevre, the then Chef Mecanicien at Calais: he always had that enigmatic smile
and he had been a Chef since 1949 having had it tough in the war. On one occasion, he
was protecting his derailed train which had been tipped over by the Resistance. He was
found laying detonators by the Germans and after they had finsihed with him, he was all
but left for dead. He was at Amiens at the time as a fireman. Both he and Peter are
smoking Marcel’s small cigars for he would not touch Les Gauloises
RH 780 One of the few photos at Dungeness for I think that we were on a service train on
both these occasions with just two visitors.: no I am wrong, it was a special train(see 781)
but we went to Dungey just the same! James C-F, Peter Catt, George Barlow, Henri
Dutertre and Marcel., a happy group against the Southern Maid.
RH 781/2 Tom Miller’s family( but where is Tom such a good man to us all and to the
RHDR) Marcel, Bert Hooker just arrived form London, James, Henri and GAB(781) and
RH(782). At Hythe with the Southern Maid and the special Calaisian headboard.
RH 783 Henri very much in charge of Southern Maid and very much the Mechanicien.
RH 784 “Lucky Miriam” She was George’s Wife and here she is with her arms round
her husband and Henri and nearly off the ground. Johnny Wootton and Peter Catt are in
the background at New Romney facing Hythe.
RH 785 Josef Six came with Lucien Fasquelle on the last French trip to Romney in 1976
and they are with John Snell who was to become General Manager for many years and in
the background is the Krupp Pacific whose name is cannot remember at the moment. I
think it was “Der Rosenkavalier” but I am not sure until I can check it.. We are standing
at New Romney.
RH 786 The Romney had sorted out that old German Krupp and it became an excellent
performer. This is George Barlow and a splendid portrait of the calm and immensely
satisfied Josef Six.
RH 787 Another lovely picture of the three contestants including Lucien who was
Edmond Godry’s choice as the very best of the Calais Senateurs. Those in charge all had
their ace-men and they never agreed! Which was good.
RH 788 In 1975, we had Jean Querlin, Paul Bomy, Michel Robillard now a Mecanicien
just in time to get some steam driving as did Paul Bomy whilst Jean had been Chef Mec
at Boulogne and then came to Calais when Edmond moved up.as Chef de Depot. He
retired in 1979 and we saw him off with Denise in the Senior Officers mess at BRB
Marylebone chartered for the occasion. Here they are with that ”Sammy Gingell” of the
RH&DR, Eric Copping who was ex BR Colchester and loved the Romney as much as he
loved a ”Little Sprint” as old Sam used to say. The engine is the ”Typhoon”, Eric’s
regular and at Romney ready to depart. NB 789 is the best photo for those who like the
whole of the engine
RH 789 The same group at Hythe soon after George Barlow had retired although he put
his overalls on later in the day!
RH 790 Paul Bomy on the platform at New Romney maybe a picture of interest to ear
specialists as he was the only man I have ever met who could walk about with his outer
ears safety tucked into the ear itself! The picture shows this spot of magic. Looking at the
picture, I cannot see how it was done
RH 791 Another very cheerful picture of the same folk.
RH 792 The send-off at Romney before the group returned to Calais from Hythe and
Folkestone. I am not sure of the names of the two RHDR folk at each end but perhaps
somebody will put me right someday! GAB, Eric, Paul, Michel, Jean. Peter Hawkins and
John Snell. Peter must still have been
General Manager and John is Operating manager.
RH 793 Where are we? Somewhere on the ex LNWR by the look of the signal-box: we
have an Edge Hill driver and second man on the old Wigan Baby Sulzer D 5206, Driver
Bob Sankey and Passed Fireman Dixie Dean still going strong. Anyhow, we have Andre
Corbier second from the right with two of his Controllers for he is Head of the
Permanance at Amiens, ie Chief Controller for the Amiens District. Otherwise, L-R is
Johnny Connolly, Bill Cooper who has come out of retirement for the ride, Bob Sankey,
Ken Lord, the two SNCF controllers, Danny Whelan, Dixie, Andre and Bill Coffey,
Traffic Inspector vice Bill Cooper.
RH 794 A French visit to Liverpool on a small scale. Edmond Godry still Chef
Mecanicien in 1971 accompanied Jean Ringot, The Mayor of Calais and a mecru at
Calais. Amongst many other things, I took them to see the Lord Mayor of Liverpool,
quite an occasion and we took them out in the inspection saloon another day for a tour of
the Liverpool Division. Danny Whelan, David Lowry, a friend for way back, Edmond,
Jean Ringot, our pilotman from Birkenhead, I would think for George Fitzpatrick being
an Edge Hill man knew everywhere on their side of the Mersey. Then Ken Lord, Peter
the Dutch cook of the Civil Engineers dept , George Fitzpatrick in the extra Link at Edge
Hill and a splendid railwayman, his young mate and Bill Coffey.
RH795 Henri and Lucien came to Liverpool about 1977 to go to Anfield nor where they
disappointed as most of the Calais men in those days supported Liverpool and maybe
Man United as a second choice. There they are at Euston with Driver Cyril Lewis of
Edge Hill and they were most impressed with the journey An 86 was a much better
prospect when matched against the 72000 diesels they drove between Calais and Amiens.
They were magnificent machines. I travelled on the 81s and 85s but never the
”Supersonics” which were kept off the expresses, class 84.
MISCELLANEOUS NEGATIVES
796-917
RH 796-799 These are pictures of Ex Driver Alf Murray of Stewarts Lane and of very
happy memory who transferred at the end of steam at SL to Leatherhead where there was
a signing-on point ultimately closed and he then went to Dorking North. He was 65 when
he retired but actually carried on as a legendary rail-man at Ashtead until he was 80.
These photos show him during his last week of BR service in 1983 and he had started at
Battersea shed in 1917 as a cleaner. He was a Nelson fireman in the late thirties when he
was passed for driving in 1939. He did a great deal of special and troop train work
throughout the war which, of course, included the Evacuation from Dunkirk when
Southern railwaymen worked wonders..
796 With his famous bike on which he always came to work
797/8 are standing on the platform being photographed, 798 being the best.
799 Clipping a lady’s ticket at the barrier. He was, of course, well known by all the
Western Section Motormen some of which had started at Stew Lane and had even fired
for him.
RH 800 and 800A are of our first gathering of Stewarts Lane men in 1986 at East
Croydon arranged by Denis Finch and John Lunn and those present on 800 were as
follows:RH 800 L-R back row and standing:- John Lunn, Trevor Finch, Jim Williams, Teddy
Champion, Peter Bailey, John Greenfield, Peter Grant, Ken Bradford and Roy Cann. .
Sitting Ted Phillips, Denis Finch, Reg Wilks, Percy Abeydeera and Alfred George Pink.
800A includes RH , back row next to Jim Williams and excludes John Lunn.
RH 800B is the following year 1987 at the same venue
L-R Standing Trevor Finch, Ken Bradford, Ted Champion, Alfred George Pink,
Jack Clingham, Jim Williams, Reg Wilks and John Greenfield.
L-R Sitting Billy Reynolds, Peter Grant, Denis Finch, Jock Niverson, RH, Doug Ballard,
Peter Bailey and Alf Murray by then 87 and he lived until he was 94. Who took this I
cannot imagine.
RH 800 is virtually the same minus RH and John Greenfield sitting between Denis Finch
and Alf Murray
RH 801 now at the George near Victoria about 1992 Peter Grant(Ping), Doug(Bing)
Crosby and Art Clingham
RH 801A John Humphries, Reg Wilks, Alfred George Pink(Pinky) and Jim Longley
given to dancing on pianos: what marvellous characters all these men were and became
even more so.
RH 802 Harry Ince who now runs the party which was started by Denis Finch who died
in 1990 and then Reg Wilks who died in Oct 2009, the day of the October meeting. With
him is Geoff Minton who rarely comes up from Swindon these days.
RH 803-805 not filled
RH 806 What a classic photo of Reg Coote, Eric Cox, Ted Champion and Les Wood.
Eric said to be the best fireman at Stew Lane: I would not know and they were all
excellent on the top gangs with only one or two exceptions.
RH 807 Yet another classic. Alfred George Pink looking more than ever like a cross
between a Stockbroker and a Bethnal Green Enforcer with Jim Longley, Reg Wilks and
the ever smiling Doug Ballard.
RH 808 And finally Johnny Wilson, Newman Ashworth and Stan Ridgewell. Newman
was the Guard of the train that Johnny was driving when he had a heart attack at
Bromley. He turned out to have started on the footplate at Newark and then at Stratford
reaching the top link for firemen on the Norwich jobs and Britannias when he left the
railway restarting years later at Victoria to become a guard. Stan Ridgewell was a first
class fireman and despite serious disabilities, come to all the Stew Lane and Eastern
section gatherings.
RH 809-811 are of John Greenfield who loved to have four days on the Festiniog
Railway in the early 90s. He never had much room for preserved railways until he came
with me to Porthmadog and met Paul Ingham and he soon changed his tune.
RH 809 Paul persuaded John to take Blanche across the Cob to Boston Lodge and here
he is doing his stuff a little apprehensive perhaps for he rarely if ever had hold of a steam
locomotive whatever he may have done on the electrics on his journey every day from
and to Goring by Sea. He never seemed to get tired for he had great energy but he had
heart trouble on and off but lived to retire due to this and enjoy life until he died about
1998
RH810 We are standing at Dduallt waiting for the up train to cross us, we have the
“Blanche” and with John on the left are Paul Ingham, still driving there today(2010) on
both WHR and FR and one of the best in every way. Also there is Gordon Rushton, then
of BR and an ex Management Trainee at Liverpool and a friend of his acting as Guard.
RH 811 John Greenfield and I are at Penryndaedraeth on the Linda with Evan Davies
and Glyn Whitehurst. She is just the engine for a torrential rain and hail storm leaving a
very bad rail. Glyn was training as a driver but we would never got through the woods
had not the late Evan Davies(L), the booked driver and a much-loved FR character, sat
out on the front gang way with a full bucket of sand which he carefully sprinkled on the
rails. We had slipped to a stand in the woods and that enabled Evan to get up in front.
After that, thanks to his efforts precariously balanced on the buffer beam, we never
stopped again and won through to Tan-y-Bwlch more or less on time. This left Glyn in
charge and his old stoker i/c the oil burning department and how I always enjoyed trying
to get the best out of oil firing and applying the lessons I learned on that old WD 3152 in
1947 between Whitemoor and Temple Mills. I think one or two tricks were new to the FR
and the odd word of “not too gentle reproach” was dropped but never by my regular
driver, Paul Ingham.
RH 812-815 These four photos are of the Stirling 8’ single No 1 at York Museum in the
1980s.. 812 and 814 are head-on views(814 being a better picture) with Clive Farr on the
left and a younger Bob Meanley on the R. They took me for a little jaunt down the yard
and one might as well have been on an old B engine in the cab apart from a very old type
of vacuum ejector which was unusual to handle. Time fades but a rare occasion. Another
8 footer in the year 1985 as we shall see!
813 shows No 1 alongside 4468 Mallard minus streamlining and asbestos lagging on the
boiler and firebox and I wonder if Asbestos Annie was still alive: in Doncaster Crimpsall
during the war, she put the asbestos blocks on the boilers and firebox and was covered
with the stuff morning, noon and night yet I dare say she lived to be a hundred for she
was as tough as any man in the Crimpsall and that is saying something. And 815 shows
No 1 moving down the yard with the taps open.
RH 816-833 are all taken in Hyde Park opposite the Albert Hall and near to the Albert
Memorial. I was co-opted by Major Olver of the Railway Inspectorate to train and pass
out the enginemen drawn largely from the volunteer staff of the Kent and East Sussex
Railway to handle this remarkable machine and I co-opted retired driver Bert Hooker of
Nine Elms who had just lost his wife, to join me and to do his stuff of “training” while I
did the job of “passing them out”, not a very arduous duty, I am glad to say. But it did
Bert a power of good. at a sad time All this took place between Sunday March 31st and
Saturday April 6th,1985, Easter week. The pictures are not in chronological order. What
a sensation that huge engine and it’s enormous chimney must have created in 1851. The
speeds it went and of course, there was no continuous brake and no brake on the engine
so the driver and guard had to act pretty quickly if you were knocking on at 70 mph.
To put things in the right perspective, the boiler was off an 18”Austerity six coupled tank
engine, as were the cylinders, crank axle, Stephenson valve gear reversed to create the
Gooch fixed link gear whilst the carrying wheels came from an 08 diesel shunter.
Incidentally there is a wonderful book of the Revd Malan’s photographs largely of the
Gooch 8 footers and their crews and the latter point makes the book so compulsive to me.
The driver of “Timour” ultimately became Chief Locomotive Inspector at Swindon
covering Royal duties and receiving the MVO for his services. As a driver, he was a wild
looking character and he is one of a remarkable photo of a group of men taken at Bristol
where he was based
RH 816 We are at the western terminus with our single coach, in steam but not rightaway Swindon so there was no need to make smoke. This picture simply sets the scene
and shows engine, tender and coach and, of course, the broad gauge track.
RH817 We are approaching the eastern terminus and just cast your mind back to 1851
and imagine you are right away Swindon or Temple Meads. Nothing wrong with the
view but think what it must have been like in deep mid-winter with not the slightest
protection for the enginemen above the waist until you hid behind the firebox but, of
course, then you could not see where you were going. There was no Firefly in 1985 with
which to make a comparison. This is on the fireman’s side, of course.
RH 818 Definitely the first morning as the engine(standing in the Western terminus) has
no safety valve cover and there you can just see, the Ross-Pop safety valves which were
rarely allowed to lift and the onlookers had begun to gather. It was marvellous to see how
many old friends turned up.
This is RH 819: RH 816 and 818 are 3/4s front right and this is another from the right but
looking down the tender side. She is on the boil but not going anywhere yet awhile.
RH 820 The CME at York Museum was John Bellwood who had not been too keen on
this particular project nor had he involved himself in it but nevertheless he made a special
journey to London to run the rule over things. An excellent start had been made when he
arrived but it was obvious to me that he was not best pleased with the turn of events for I
had known John very well since he started at Doncaster Plant Works as an apprentice a
couple of years after me. Anyhow and immediately he arrived, he took hold of the Iron
Duke and contrary to what was expected found nothing wrong, indeed he was able to
praise it’s appearance, performance and technical accuracy. Here he is with the regular
driver and fireman on the left. Of the driver, my friend “Billy-Boy”, I could tell a good
story and it might just creep in later on as ”Billy-Boy was a splendid railwayman. John
has just opened the regulator and is watching for movement, the time to ease the regulator
in case of a tendency for the 8ft drivers to slip.
RH 821-2. These are virtually the same except in detail but I would recommend 821
rather than 822 if only because the head-on view of the engine is absolutely central and
out of the four gentlemen present, three have smiles and the fourth is a most distinguished
visitor.
So L-R John Butler who was Works Manager of Resco Engineering so had a great deal to
do with the actual construction of the engine: the distinguished W.O.Skeet, once a
Doncaster apprentice who became a water engineering specialist but encyclopaedic on
locomotive matters, Tony Hall-Patch who was very much the originator and developer of
the whole Iron Duke project and last but not least, David William Harvey who had retired
from BR some time before as Shedmaster Norwich and who was the most remarkable
practical steam locomotive engineer within my experience.
RH 823-824. This picture 823 is slightly better than 824 and was taken on the first
morning when folk in general were wondering why I was there and taking a photograph
was as good a way as any of breaking the ice so here we are:L-R Mike Hart, Managing Director of Resco in North Kent whose firm built the engine
and tender to drawings prepared under the direction of Tony Hall-Patch who stands on
the footstep wearing his old Royal Engineers cap: and to his left are Bert Hooker who had
just arrived and John Higgins who, with John Sinclair and others, actually built the
engine. However the tender, coach and the track were built by BR WR. This was so
sensibly approved by the General Manager, W P Bradshaw whilst John Butt CM&EE
made the arrangements and Ted Steally “project managed ”the vehicles at Cathays..
RH 825.On the ground is another of the K&ES men, Christopher Landi who came later in
the week as a driver. He was a splendid young man whose hairstyle and beard might well
have been just right in 1851. On the tender, the late and much loved David Ratcliffe of
the Bluebell Railway and, on the footplate, Bert Hooker, very much the driver that he was
in his clean 1945 Southern Railway overalls and with sponge cloth to hand on an already
spotless handrail.
RH 826 A view looking down from the tender where the pressure gauge is visible and to
the left of Major Olver, a gauge glass, one of two as the other column is close(on the
picture!) to his left ear. L and R of the Major on the firebox front near the top are the
steam keys for the injectors and probably for the vacuum ejector and blower. Not one of
these fittings existed in 1851 and the engine would, I believe, have had two crosshead
pumps to fill the boiler. Now L-R are:- Mark Stutchbury at that time a CO4 in BR’s
Clerical grade and I wonder where he is now. Major Peter Olver who found things to his
liking and immediately began to enjoy himself and there, happy and smiling, is Peter
Wensley of B.Arms and Slade Green and what a pedigree that was for it matched that of
the other great South Eastern and Chatham shed of Stewarts Lane to which I was very
much attached from Aug 1952 to Jan 1955 as Shedmaster, Both sheds were amazing
places where men performed miracles during the busy times and where young men got
many opportunities to drive on express services when just passed out at 24 years of age
.Oh, I forgot to mention that other place down Brooklands Road, Battersea, they were
pretty good too but in their own way!
RH 827 The naming ceremony took place on April 3rd and was a great success with
everybody from the Duke of Wellington onwards enjoying the occasion. For me, the
great bonus was the presence of the splendid band from the village of Aston Tirrold in
which Bill Bradshaw played the tuba. Bill Bradshaw had recently left BR having been
General Manager Western Region and would surely have reached the very top but it was
not to be. On the other hand he pursued a very active academic career keeping very close
links with the railways and was eventually raised to the Peerage, as Lord Bradshaw. He
was a great loss to the railway industry. He followed me as Divisional Manager
Liverpool and, thirteen years younger than I, built on all that was good and improved
many things that needed attention. Anyhow here he is in his band uniform along with
Bert Hooker up on the engine and Peter Fitzgerald, the Museum Assistant for Marine
who was a great practical help to Tony and his men. The great engine stands in the
background with the name plate covered and ready for the occasion.
RH 828 An excellent close-up of the firebox front showing gauge glasses, regulator,
pressure gauges and four brass taps, probably two injector steam valves, another the
blower valve and the last for the vacuum ejector. Very simple these days, much more so
in 1851. Mike Hart and Bert Hooker both in good form
RH 829 Very similar to 826 but with Peter Olver and “Billy-Boy”(Peter Wensley) in
deep conversation and Mark Stutchbury looking happily at the camera.
RH 830 Bert rests his hand on the vacuum-brake, another luxury which I seem to think
operated the tender bakes only there still being none on the engine. Tony Hall-Patch had
six blocks fitted instead of the original three on one side only, again a very sensible
move. Bert is just coming to a stand with the regulator in the closed position.
RH 831 Later in the week, we have Bert doing some training probably of Christopher
Landi and his fireman Howard. Taken from the tender as usual.
RH 832 Bert Hooker again: returning to the western end with the reversing lever in back
gear, a formidable instrument. Bert again has his hand on the vacuum brake.
RH 833 And finally my oldest grandchild, David, then seven and taken on the Sunday
when the engine was dead and on show and he stands against the great driving wheel
with the name in polished brass: ”Iron Duke”.
The Iron Duke was a wonderful machine and through being asked to become
involved, I had the pleasure of meeting Tony Hall-Patch. He did a remarkable job as did
those who worked with him and the detail is set out in an article “The Iron Duke re-born”
written by Tony in his capacity as Assistant Keeper in charge of Transport at the Science
Museum, South Kensington.
RH 834 and 835, the latter being the recommended print. It shows Tom Tighe who has
looked after the old “ Prile of Sevens”, Sir Lamiel since the 1980s. She was always a
good engine when she was at Dover in my time on the Southern, good for a heavy relief
boat train down the Maidstone East or over the Chatham, both heavy roads. The picture is
taken on the Settle Carlisle in the southbound direction where we had stopped for water.
Tom is surrounded by his crew and stands tall at the back. So L-R:- Peter Gregory, Gerry
Garside, Edward Matheson, Train Steward, Tom Tighe, Bob Phizackerley, Bob Dewhurst
working for FSS and i/c of the train excepting the guard, of course. Drivers John
Finlayson of Carlisle and Paul Kane the latter doing the firing, the work that he loved.
The train went through to Leeds and maybe beyond and the new crew got into difficulties
with a strange engine round about Keighley. Finally Inspector Jim Baker also of York.
Paul Kane had a heart attack on 60019 near Stevenage on Dec 18th 2010 and was
pronounced dead on arrival at the nearby Lister Hospital, aged 72. He was one of the
best.
RH836 Brian Axtell, an old Neasden man who had fired on the L1s when new and
thought the world of these much-decried engines and on his own regular engine. As a
driver it was a pleasure to ride with him as indeed it was with all the Neasden men who
ran the steam engines in the 80s on the Stratford-on-Avon jobs The Green Arrow 4771
stands in No 4 platform at Marylebone and it is after an organisational change when the
LM Traction Inspectors were replaced Western men, in this case by Mick Jones. And
finally there is John Bellwood, CME of the National Collection who had spent most of
the day on the engine. His colleagues gave him the nickname of ”Locktite”. Once on, you
could not get him off! Sadly John, who had started at Doncaster two years after me, died
in 1988 His funeral was at Poppleton outside York on a glorious September day with the
church-door open and the distant sounds of the railway.
RH 837 The “Prile of Sevens”, 777 King Arthur class N15 and one of the best.at the
buffer stops at Marylebone on return from Stratford on Avon in the late 80s when
Western Region inspectors had taken over from the LM men. I forget why this was so.
The old engine had done a great job as it always did on the GC section.So standing on
high we have Jim Arkle and Tom Tighe.and across the buffer beam L-R Norman Moore,
Tony Lever, Driver Bob Cotterill of Marylebone and now a DBS driver at Didcot,
Inspector Mick Jones, Driver Joe Bint of Neasden, Lisa and Phil Ginger an ex LM man
from Willesden who came across to the Southern as a driver at Waterloo, then David
Wheeler and Peter Hartley whilst sitting/squatting on the buffer beam is Peter Gregory
and John Street.
RH838 Again the Prile of Sevens this time on the SR years later when the driver was an
ex Nine Elms man and the fireman John Pilcher as far as Hastings whence we had
Tonbridge men. I had done my spell on the front from Victoria to Redhill whereas the
latter part of the journey up from Hastings with these Tonbridge men was a delight.
Further more it was a first-timer for them on the steam for many years.
L-R Inspector David Godden who came from the Western to Grove Park on the juice and
then became an inspector on all forms of traction. Driver Ken Hodson of Tonbridge
depot, the cheerful Fireman(normally driver but stoker for the day), Dave Weddle who I
met years later at the Rainham SR retired enginemen’s gathering, Richard Thistleton,
Tony Lever, Barry, a Bluebell Railway volunteer, Tom Tighe, John Street, Peter Starks of
BR, John Harmsworth and kneeling, Paul Bryant, Jim Street John, now with Roland
Kennington and Gerry Garside who has been with Tom for many years, one of the best.
RH 839 Tom Tighe has been at the game since the 1970s and we are now in 2010. He
has turned out and run a Black 5, 70013 in recent years and above all Sir Lamiel, a
favourite wherever it goes if they know the tricks of the King Arthur trade. The old ”Prile
of 7s” has done some wonderful work. Tom was a Doncaster apprentice in the earlier
diesel era and eventually left the railway although he has always been a Railwayman
through and through. Here he is looking round and oiling his engine ready for the BR
men to take on but where we are, I cannot remember?
RH 840 This driver on the tender of 777 is no ordinary Carlisle man but he is a Scot not
from Edinburgh like Jimmy Lister who came to Canal from St Margarets shed only a
mile or so from the Waverley and started on the railway at Corstorphine in 1937: No, this
driver comes from Kittybrewster GN of S and LNER and transferred to Kingmoor after
that ex-CR and LMS depot became part of the Scottish Region BR. This enabled Willie
Alexander to transfer southwards first to Kingmoor and later on to Upperby. He looks a
real Scot and he was a grand engineman and mate. Nice to think that he must have done
many miles on the old Great Eastern 1500s, class B12 and un-rebuilt, not to mention Mr
Pick’s and Mr Heywood’s splendid little D41 class masterpieces, not unknown in the
South East of England between about 1900 and 1926 where they did very well. They
were referred to as “Them Bleedin’ Caledonians”: the only thing wrong with them was
that they were left hand drive and the SECR was entirely RH until after the grouping
when the Drummond T9s and L12 Bulldogs came across, not to mention some Brighton
types also left hand drive...
RH 841 Steam on the Met in May 1993, my last year as a driver or fireman having
reached 70 in Oct 1993. We had 6441, the Beet’s little Ivatt class 2 and a wonderful little
machine. She would run, pull and steam and at that time we were still going to Harrow as
well as Watford(Met). We are in the upside sidings once the Goods Yard at Amersham
and here is the Beet’s entourage and what a pleasure it was to work for them. L-R is
Graham, Chris Beet who is now Chief Mechanical Engineer of the National Railway
museum. Then with him in the cab is his Mother, Barbara who is still very active in their
group, then standing with specs is the one and only “Trumpet”, Brian Coulbeck, then we
have Andy Lister with whom I had a very pleasant day working a school special to
Amersham whilst on the Saturday we had the Silver Fox with us. Once a Nine Elms
driver, he finished his career as General Secretary of ASLEF. Bryan Gibson and I were
together, always a pleasure and we wore our ASLEF badges, mine Honorary and his from
his days when he was a fireman and passed fireman at Holbeck. Then Doctor Peter Beet
who did so much for us over those two weeks and very proud of his machine. He was my
fireman on his last trip and had the old girl on the mark where it mattered, climbing to
Amersham with a heavy train and the old Met Electric on the back. And then the late
Bryan Gibson, one of the very best who knew the job inside out.
RH 842 “The Old Firm” Bryan Gibson and myself. We worked in perfect harmony
sharing the work 50:50 and kept in touch right through the SLOA days until he died in
2009. We look happy and we were!
RH 843 and 844 Sept 26th 1987. Choose 843, the better picture of the cab end and the
crew. My first trip on a King and what an engine she was. She was so strong and yet,
despite being that great 6000 KGV, she was unlike any engine I had been on. They had
kindly brought an Eastern Region shovel, (a tea-spoon to an GW man) for me to use but
first I watched the carry-on of a splendid fireman Stan Reynolds of Hereford and his
equally good driver, Tony Shaw, who was ex-LMS. Both men were completely on top of
the job, GWR fashion. We started from Hereford and Stan took the flame scoop out of
the firehole with his enormous GW shovel, laid it on the footboard and filled the back
corners up and then rebuilt the great “tymp”(haycock) in the middle of the fire at a point
where nobody but a GW man would dream of putting coal. However, there we were and
there was the old engine sizzling on 250psi and the injector on. After that back went the
flame scoop and the firing was continuous to the front and sides, lifting the flap between
each shovelful which added to the work but they fired the same principle on the Gooch
8ft singles back in Victorian times. After a while I had a go and the tymp helped me no
end as the shovel slid along it’s side for the coal to reach the front of the longest firebox
in the country.. We had 250 all the time with a very heavy train. And with us was Angus
Brymer, the Hereford loco Inspector: whenever he was in charge, the job went well for he
was all an Inspector should be and it is a great pleasure to keep in touch with him and
meet him from time to time. Three men with whom it was a joy to work as has so often
been the case down the years and as long as I can remember.
RH 845/846. These two are almost identical and, of the two, 846 is marginally the best.
We have arrived at Shrewsbury and here is the support crew of KG5 withou whose
efforts the present day job would not be what it is. On the front gangway are Tony Shaw
and Stan Reynolds and to the extreme right is Angus Brymer. Bernard Staite to whom so
much is owed by us all is fourth from the left and between the headlamp and the bell is
Eddie Taylor.. How I should love to know the names of the rest of the crew and maybe
whoever reads these notes can help me. There was a fair amount of dirt in the fire but no
time to clean it effectively and they had a bit of a struggle going home.
RH 846A This is the support crew for 60009 Union of South Africa running under the
name of Merlin for what reason I cannot remember. John Cameron’s engine and John
Cameron’s splendid men. This picture shows the late Dave Murray, John Lynch, the late
Lindsay Spittal very much in charge, Bill Andrew of Crewe then a Locomotive
Inspector, still going strong at the time of writing, then RH, two representatives of the 8E
Society who came to coal and water and did a good job and then Glyn Jones, the
Holyhead Loco Inspector while on the ground in front is our old friend from Llandudno
Jc, Jock Flavin ex polmadie and, I believe, Nine Elms(the JCB), once of Polmadie, Nine
Elms and Llandudno.Jc
(Barry: there are now three pictures numbered 847 which we had better sort before you
go on line.
RH 847 There are two pictures bearing this number. Both pictures are of the LNER V2
4771 at Princes Risboro with the York Museum Support Crew which includes the late
and much loved Kim Malyon, second from the right.. The driver is John Whittington ex
B.Arms( a good old B.Arms B------d who transferred from London Bridge to Marylebone
to get on the steam: alongside him is the booked driver Gordon Reade, very much an old
Neasden man as was his father.
RH 847A and 848 Go for 848, a more cheerful picture. Merlin again: with Little Nick on
the left, a real ball of fire, then Dave Murray, John Lynch, Lindsay Spittal, Bill Andrew
and our friend from the 8E. What a pleasure it was to work with this gang and now sadly
two of them have passed on.
RH 849 and 849A They are almost identical and a very good picture of Paddy Smith of
Moberley, a wonderful man and a very good friend who owned 5407, the splendid Black
5. Paddy died a few years ago and the engine fetched up at Ian Riley’s in Bury. He had a
splendid crew and took a very personal interest in each of them. Here they are at
Holyhead having come from Crewe in perfect form.
L-R “Pat the Nose” of Carnforth, Bill Ashcroft, author of many articles in Steam World,
Bob Meredith, Paddy, Joe Singleton, Allan Scott and Mike Frank. What happy time
Gwenda and I had with Sue Smith and Paddy. He was for Lancashire at cricket and Man
City at football and had a wonderful wine cellar.
RH 850 I am not sure what all this was about. I know that Steve McColl got himself
involved in shunting for hours on end and tearing about far too fast with the old Adams
Southampton Docks shunter “Normandy”. I was his fireman and was relieved by an ex
B.Arms Loco Inspector about 1300 and left Steve to his own devices. It was an enjoyable
day and the man behind it all stands second left, Roger Cruse and one of the best and has
in 2008, completed and set to work his magnum opus, the reconstructed and rebuilt
34059 BoB to be found on the Bluebell Railway. L-R john Blundy, Roger Cruse, Steve
McColl, David Foale, David Cox and Ian Wright, some of whom are true blue Bluebell
men..
RH 851/2/3. 851 and 853 are similar in that they both show excellently Don Dutton, Jack
Beaman and John Robinson(Robbo) but 853 is the best bet as it shows as a splendid
background, the LNER K4 3442 “The Great Marquess” in apple green livery at that time
based on the Severn Valley Railway, in perfect condition in every department. To have a
day with these three splendid railwaymen was an annual event. Standing on the platform
near the stops are L-R Don Dutton, a volunteer who spent had many happy hours on the
footplate as John Robinson’s fireman as well as days in the Workshop, then in the centre
is Jack Beaman still on BR as a Saltley driver and the Chief Loco Inspector of the SVR
and then John Robinson(Robbo) who was then the Mechanical Foreman at Bridgnorth
and had a driving turn from time to time I was very much at home on this LNER engine,
both driver and fireman but I still owe Jack Beaman, serious as to his job but full of joiede-vivre and Brummy humour, five bottles of whisky, one for each time,3442 lifted her
safety valves for she would steam on a candle.. In March 2010, back on the SVR, she was
a very different engine and never got near to lifting them. Maybe my being 86 made a
difference but not that much.I realise now that the Scottish fireman seemed rather keen
for me to have a go which of course I did with minimal success: later we found out how
much dirt there was on the grate. ” ‘Nuff said”.
RH 852 includes three quarters of the engine and most of us and includes myself and it is
a jolly photo of us with the engine in the background. We did two round trips and we had
a day to remember whilst 853 is a close up of Don, Jack and Robbo.
RH 854 The Director of Inter City, Dr John Prideaux organised a journey to Stratfordon-Avon to which Gwenda and I were invited and 3440 City of Truro was involved. Her
enginemen were from Leamington the older one being Gordon Bartlett who was I believe
a GW man The Inspector originated from Barry and was based at Bescot, Cyril Rist, one
of the best. I wish I had travelled with him more, especially on 4498 the A4 to which he
was much attached. The passed Fireman I never saw again so his details are missing with
regret
RH855 A nice portrait of Cyril and myself probably taken by Gwenda although why I
did not take one of her I do not know. We had a lovely day out and John Prideaux did this
sort of thing(and many very important matters) very well indeed.
RH856 Slightly out of focus. Julian Riddick’s support crew of the 80s and 90s beside
their beloved 4498
L-R John Graham, Gordon Pope, Terry Wealeand, Peter Wint(Loco Inspector), Brian
Axtell ex Neasden driver and at his very best on 4498, Roger Barker, Norman Hugill,
Ruth, Roger Pride and Julian Riddick and taken at Marylebone.
RH 857 Green Arrow’s smokebox side and nameplate and two of her support which
includes the late Kim Malyon and also Dai Rees from Holyhead.
RH 858 Slightly out of focus. Self and John Whittington who had been booked as.the
fireman having just transferred to Marylebone from London Bridge where he had done
years on the juice, found he was tired and was glad to delegate to me from time to time. I
remember the homeward journey very well. I inherited a very full boiler at H.Wycombe
and had to ease up firing and then a perfect trip running in with the fire barely covering
the bars. I remember John Graham coming through the tender and his amazement nay
agitation as he looked at our thin little fire as we went by Canfield Place.
RH 859 Appleby and most of Julian Riddick’s normal team back in the early 1980s. The
A4 4498 is in the yard at Appleby having worked from Carlisle and will work forward to
Hellifield. A perfect trip although Julian was at the throttle part of the way and he was a
rough handful when he was performing. L-R Robert Riddick, Terry Whelland, Julian,
John Graham, Norman Hugill, George Gordon, Chief Loco Inspector at Carlisle on his
last steam trip before he retired, Eddie Gibbons, Ian Howson(head next to nameboard and
fireman), Davie Hine(Driver),the PW ganger at Appleby, Ben Hervey-Bathurst and my
guest and RH about to work his passage.
RH 860 The A4 support coach crew after Hellifield- engine and support coach en route
Carnforth.
L-R Julian and a friend, John Graham, Joan Jackson, Robert Riddick, Ruth Riddick,
Terry Whelland, Eddie Gibbons: Norman Hugill must have been on the engine. As good
a crew as you would ever wish to meet.
RH 861 Here is John Pilcher at Ramsgate and round the coast to Canterbury and then up
via Ashford in 1997. I travelled in the support coach and he was the Inspector for the late
and Dennis Donovan for the early turn. The Drivers were Colin Kerswill on the up and
John Neale on the down. It was impossible to get a footplate pass at that time from
Railtrack and the American firm EWS were at sixes and sevens over steam working. All
very difficult behind the scenes.
RH 862/863. Not much to choose between them but 862 is marginally better. . L-R
Driver Colin Kerswill, RH, Driver John Neale and ex B Arms as is Denis Donovan all in
front of 35028 Clan Line, a splendid engine,
RH 864 and 865 Both good pictures of the same men without me. Clan Line carries the
Golden Arrow plaque and flags just like old times.
OVER TO FRANCE: EX STEAM MEN NOW ON THE 16000BBs.
RH 866 and 867
Both good but I would choose 867. An adventurous young gent has crept up and silently
inserted himself between the departure foreman and Danny Whelan, our Div Operating
Supt in Liverpool.It was Danny’s second trip to France and how the French admired him
as I did, a supreme railwayman. So here we have the Foreman, the face, Danny Whelan,
Madame Leroy, Monsieur Philippe Leroy to whom we all owe so much and the charming
La Chapelle conducteur de route, Alfred Bernard, once a mecanicien PO and therefore a
“senateur”.
RH 868 Gare du Nord Train 19. Maurice Oudry, DMPS Amiens after Henri de
Fumichon , Andre Duteil, Basil de Iongh, Group Captain RAF and to the Calaisiens, M le
Colonel! This nickname went back to 1959 when he was by no means the equal of a
Colonel but had been deputed to go to Bleriot Plage to represent the British Ambassador
for the 50th anniversary of Louis Bleriot’s crossing of the Channel. He travelled on the
engine on train 9 and no doubt had a very good wash somewhere before doing his stuff.
RH 869 Same occasion as 868 but this time, Andre Duteil, M. Oudry and Roger
Descamps who was I think a La Chapelle Mecru on the S class Baltics
RH 870 This is a wonderful Gallic silhouette: precision, concentration, left hand on
straight air brake to get the exact speed of 15kph on the recorder for an emergency track
repair. Remember that the Flaman will have a record of his speed and that 9.2 mph is
very slow on a locomotive to be maintained over a distance with a heavy train on level
track. The Conducteur is Amadee Gosnet from La Chapelle, one time Senateur PO and
had been getting the very best out of his magnificent 16000BB, a remarkable locomotive
which had to be DRIVEN, nothing boring about handling these Machines.
RH 871 Paris Nord yet again. 21.July 1960, my first journey from the Gare du Nord on a
BB16000 as far as Amiens. Train 19. We are the object of considerable interest in the
background! The Chief Conducteur or Inspector at MP HQ. This is M. Bisieux and he is
next to his Chief, M. Phillipe Leroy and Geoffrey Ford DMPS Norwich stands next to the
relatively young conducteur and his second man no doubt ex chauffeur.
RH872 20th July, our first run from Amiens to Paris Nord. An Amiens crew and very
friendly the sunglasses being a sign of the times for such things were unheard of on
steam!
RH 873 BB16501 This is smaller and by no means as powerful as the BB16000 that
stands behind it on the new roads electrified at La Chapelle. Standing by are M.Magnier,
Sous Chef du Depot and Geoffrey Ford. How sad that Geoffrey died so young about
1966. He was in the middle of one of his famous cartoons of Colin Morris and I engaged
in opening a bottle of wine on the footplate of a PO at speed.. He wrote to say that he was
terminally ill and would never be able to finish the cartoon in all it’s glory.
RH 874 We are standing at Compiegne and Andre Duteil now Conducteur de route for a
mere twelve months, is in charge. We went as far as Aulnoye en route to Lille and steam
with a 231G from Tergnier. Andre had settled down with the new form of traction: his
second man had never been on the steam and things were changing rapidly for very
quickly it will be single manning with shunters as now to do the hooking up at stations.
Monsieur Compagnon is the Chef Conducteur, then Andre still dressed for steam(SNCF
never wasted money on smart uniforms for tractionaires), the second man and then
Stanley Sears who took me to Brighton twice on his 1901 Mors, very much a French car
at a time when the French led the automobile world until along came Mercedes to sweep
the board in 1903. Stanley also owned a four and a half litre mini-sports-racer Mercedes
built in 1904, a very useful and up to date little machine..
RH 875 BB 16016 with Andre, Geoff Ford, Monsieur Leroy, ex Chauffeur
Delaplace and Conducteur Roger Lemaille both of Fives depot, Lille. Again the best of
company.
RH 876 Gare du Nord and the usual happy send-off with Train 19. Chief Inspector Len
Theobald, how he loved the French and what great company he was: holding Andre’s
shoulders and then Philippe Leroy to see us off The Chef de Train stands between the
Fives Second man M. Bedard and Conducteur Albert Dancoigne, yet another very
friendly railwayman.
RH 877 This must have been a very long Fleche d’Or as the engine is right up near the
overbridge and yet another group at the Gare du Nord L_R Andre Duteil, Maurice Oudry,
the Fives men whose names I never noted and my old friend the legendary Bill Harvey.
He loved the French and their railway and spoke pretty good French with some
formidable gesticulations!
RH 878 Andre Duteil smartly dressed with muffler in mid-May whereas daughter Annie
has a rather smart blazer and white gloves. The first Fives man with whom I rode I think,
the charming Ernst Duquesne and his second man dressed a la mode for electric traction.
Ernst had been a Mecru PO, one of the elite..
RH 879 Yet another foreman/inspector in on the photographic act. How I got copies to
them I do not know but they must have received them somehow. Andre as ever after our
lunch at his home which started at 0930 and finished in time(just) to catch the 1151
Epinay-Gare du Nord. Never once was this train even a minute late which gave us time to
walk across the tracks to the front of train 19. Edwin Howell enjoying himself and Jean
Aspeele of Fives.
RH 880 Dick Lawrence who had a great time and really needed such a break, Emilon
Bertaux, Jean Aspeele again and Maurice Oudry seeing us on our way.
RH 881 ; Roger Descamps of La Chapelle, RH, another very cheerful group on the
platform before departure with train 19. Roger Descamps of La Chapelle and a great
friend of Andre’s, RH, Albert Haouw (try pronouncing that), Maurice Oudry and Andre..
.
RH 882 This is a very good copy negative of an official photograph. It shows the cab of
the engine working the last steam hauled train from Gare du Nord to Calais Maritime, an
unforgettable day in May 1971. The picture was taken at the Gare du Nord and shows the
Chef Mecanicien , the much-loved Edmond Godry and the highly competent mecanicien
Jean Guelton and the equally so chauffeur Michel Lacroix, all of Calais. Yes, a day I
shall never forget for I had to fire K82 from Amiens to Abbeville in my best suit but that
tale has been told elsewhere, I think..
RH 883 Bill Bradshaw in his office at Paddington after his appointment as General
Manager of the Western Region, the job he cherished above all others but who could
have one day become Chairman of BR. Many folk will disagree but he had it all. Others
did not think so and at 50, he left the railway to pursue a distinguished managerial and
academic career and eventually to become Lord Bradshaw, a Liberal peer. At the House,
he was without doubt regarded as an expert on transport especially on railway matters.
Good for Bill: at the age of 37, he was thirteen years younger than I when he followed me
at Liverpool as Divisional Manager.He developed and improved where he could, he did
not alter things without good cause and he was a man in every way after my own heart
for whom it had been a pleasure to have things straight up when he took over. His trouble
later on was that he was too good for lesser mortals of greater influence but that’s life.
RH 884-885 Here are two ladies standing against 4771 Green Arrow. They stand on the
ballast well off the platform at Stratford-on-Avon as are several other would be
passengers and photographers in the days before H&S. My Gwenda is on the right and
her lifelong friend Pat Carden on her left. They had come to Stratford from High
Wycombe behind 4771 to soak up culture whereas I had come to work my passage. 884
shows the engine and part of the tender and is the one if you want the whole show
whereas 885 is a close up of the two ladies against the cab, .
RH 886 RH on the NMYR on the hottest day of the year on a locomotive designed for
maximum discomfort. Keith Gays and I had three round trips, two of them complete
rounds from Pickering to Grosmont and back and out and home LE. The load was either
six or seven bogies and that strong little engine aided by it’s middle-aged operatives
worked the job throughout. Tight turn rounds, tea sitting on the platform. It was before
H&S came along as the only way to empty the smokebox on disposal was to put a plank
across the buffers, stand on it and shovel out the ashes and we never gave a thought as to
whether it would bear one’s weight. Bulleid’s Charlies were as bad but nobody seemed to
worry at the Lane where the ashes were probably raked out from ground level: I never
had a complaint from anybody. For all that, Keith and I worked hard, ran to time
throughout and got steadily blacker and hotter as the photograph of me bears witness.
RH 886A Here is my companion for the day, Keith Gays now deep in retirement. We
actually said we must be quite mad to enjoy our day but we did.
RH 887/888 There are not many pictures of what is an illegal device for raising steam on
overloaded or shy-steaming engines. This is a “Jimmy”, otherwise known as a razor or,
on the GE section at Ipswich as a ”Spike” Quite illegal but a vital piece of equipment if
the ”Little Black Goods” were to be constantly overloaded and run to time. It’s purpose
was to increase the sharpness of the exhaust which in turn produced a marvellous white
hot fire and a firework display at the chimney top as well as a constant supply of steam at
maximum pressure. And all for half a crown paid out of the back of the hand and in this
case, to the Blacksmith at March Loco in 1913 by Fireman John Lilley of Parkeston who
gave it to me at an ASLEF Dinner at Parkeston in 1960. This work of art was made out of
the company’s material and in the company’s time and fixed across the blast pipe
whereupon the two lugs fitting inside were locked into place by the thumbscrew with the
safety chain as a back up. It’s so called razor sharp V section bar across the blast pipe did
the trick by increasing the smokebox vacuum thereby drawing the steam producing fire
ever whiter. Illegal but it made those old J15s steam very freely. When John Lilley deep
in retirement gave me the jimmy, he also gave me a blow by blow account as to how it
helped him to maintain steam with a “Little Black Goods” on 45 of bacon from Parkeston
to Spitalfields. This took nearly as long as the journey and was John’s swansong for I
never saw him again.
RH 889. On the platform at Scarborough. This was a special outing arranged by John
Prideaux, Director Inter City using Mallard from Doncaster to Scarborough and back to
York. Two remarkable people:- Stuart Currie was not only Chief Civil Engineer of the
ER but he was also a mechanical engineer and I had some hand in signing his papers
when he made his application to join the I Mech E in the early 1980s. On the right is ”Mr
Toad” alias Julian Riddick always to be linked to 4498, “The Blue ‘Un” and he looks
well in the straw hat provided by a thoughtful management!
RH 890 My Gwenda alongside the nameplate of “Mallard” at Scarborough. I would go
so far as to say that they were two lovely ladies!
RH891 When I retired in 1982, a number of kind people who were not necessarily BR
but other railways and folk who had an understanding love of the railway, railway work
and our job decided to give me a present to mark my retirement. In fact I had been able to
give them permission to travel on the footplate, visit signal boxes at busy times and so on.
James Colyer-Fergusson organised the evening and Basil de Iongh had a wonderful
whisky decanter cut by an excellent firm in North Walsham. It is a much treasured and it
carries the inscription:- RICHARD HARDY
RAILWAYMAN
1941-1982
From his Friends
Underneath the above is a representation of a Britannia with a likeness of the famous
David William Harvey leaning against the buffer-beam. How much I treasure this gift.
And now three photos of the Ratty at Ravenglass. The connection I have with the
Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway is that when our daughter Anthea got married, she and
Jim lived near Ravenglass so it was natural that we should go to the Ratty now and again.
RH 892 shows Ron Clarke, Driver and Graham Withers Traffic Manager and Signalman
outside the signal-box on as perfect day as you could ever wish for in that lovely part of
the country.
RH 893 shows Ron and his regular engine “River Mite” on it’s train and Ron about to do
a spot of oiling round. In both 893/4, the cab fittings are clearly visible as the sliding part
of the cab roof has been removed. This makes sense at any time except in the rain.
Cleaning and polishing can be carried out just as on a BR engine that had it’s regular
crews, In fact everything required of the driver for firing duties is easier performed
without the cab roof!
RH 894 was taken a minute or two later with Ron busy with his handy little feeder.
I first met Ron when he was a rising forty year old passed fireman at Carnforth BR Shed
on Flying Scotsman. I know that I did a fair amount of the work but, at first Ron quite
naturally thought I might make a Mary Ann of the job but as I had been brought up with
wide fireboxes and letter-box firehole doors on GN Atlantics, Pacifics and V2s, I
managed quite alright. The next time I met him, he had left BR and joined the Ratty
where he worked happily ever after as a first class engineman and a splendid ambassador
for the R&ER as of course was Graham who also came from BR and was a signalman at
Salisbury and Reading so he had considerable experience of the practical side of railway
operation. Whenever I went to the Ratty, I was sure of the warmest welcome from these
two good old friends who are now long retired.
RH 895-917 are all Festiniog Railway pictures mostly taken in the middle 80s so the
young men are mostly knocking on to middle age by now.
RH 895 Here is Blanche at Boston Lodge and against her stand a good cross section of
the Locomotive Department , both permanent staff and volunteers I had ten years on the
FR Company Board from 1977-87, an unforgettable experience and by no means an easy
ride. So here are the following L-R:Clive Gibbard, a member of the permanent staff of great experience as a craftsman and
engineman. Colin Dukes, son of Paul who served the railway for many years. Paul
Ingham with whom I pared up for four days as his fireman and we really had a splendid
time together. Oil-burner firing fascinated me having had experience many years before
of the old Austerity at March in 1947. Then Alwyn Jones, a Volunteer of many years
standing as was Jo Clulow behind him and whose father was one of the Company’s
Doctors. Jo gave a great deal of time to the railway not only on the engines but on the
Operating side and in the Control. Then John Davis and Colin Sudland who were both
Volunteers at Boston Lodge: the little chap next to him is “Shadwell” who was a
Welshman with very Welsh names which defeated many of the English staff- Llyn
Aploto so he was know as “Shadwell”. These days I understand he runs his own
Engineering business and that there is a copy of this picture in his office. And if I have
got the spelling wrong, will somebody please correct me! Then comes Roy Harper, a
volunteer at the.Lodge and finally Andrew Arrowsmith who was, I think, known as ‘Arry
which went well with his surname.
RH 896 This was after as big a soaking as I have ever had so a Sunday evening when
Gwenda and I were enjoying a week in the Company’s cottage, Borthen Bach which
belonged to the very well known Williams family. So here are John Halsell who typically
brought out some waterproof clothing for us but got soaked into the bargain. John had
been a BR Traffic Inspector in Liverpool and left about the time I went there in 1968. He
was on the permanent staff of the FR many years and was one of the best in every way.
As was Clive Gibbard, for whom I did my stuff that evening as the rain teemed down.
Next to Clive is Mark Tanous and his Father Christopher, both of whom volunteered
from time to time and whom I knew very well and was indeed Mark’s God-Father.
RH 897 is the same group minus Christopher and including a thoroughly wet and dirty
Hardy.
RH 898 This time Paul Ingham and I had the ”Blanche”, a lovely little engine, strong for
it’s size and we had a good day while on the last round we had two guests from the
Severn Valley Railway, two great friends, John Robinson is, I believe, not far off
retirement at Bridgnorth(as I write in 2011) where he has been a tower of strength to the
railway for many years: and with him, apart from myself on the right is Jack Beaman, a
Saltley driver of 1948 vintage and Chief Locomotive Insoector of the SVR. Jack is a
great character and a man of great experience. Happy days with splendid comrades.
RH 899 Myself and Ozzy in the shed at the Lodge. What Ozzy did I have no idea for I
do not recall him at work!
RH 900 My first of many days(in 1984) with the bearded Paul Ingham from Leicester
and his mate for the day, John Rowlands. Both of them were extremely competent and on
my firing turn we went over the top with steam and water to spare, load 6 bogies. The
little engine was worked to the limit throughout the climb. Paul shook my hand on it as
we turned the top which was a gesture I shall not forget, the first of quite a few happy
days at work with Paul on the FR. To triumph against the odds on the FR is a wonderful
feeling almost as strong as on the main line.
RH 901 The Blanche inside at Boston Lodge after a good days work and well cleaned for
a good start tomorrow.L-R Glyn Whitehurst, quite young but an up and coming driver,
Paul Ingham, my mate and Steve Mc Cullom on the permanent staff who did just about
everything and eventually left the FR to work on the Channel Tunnel project. A very long
headed young man.
RH 902 The messroom at Boston Lode with Dave Yates: yet another of the Boston
Lodge men who were extremely capable, Paul Ingham and John Greenfield from BR, one
time cynic of the FR and completely converted by the staff and the way the railway was
run. I believe that Dave’s son is a member of the FR Permanent Staff these days..
RH 903 The Prince, a very old timer dating back, I think, to 1863, a very good strong
little engine, a bit cramped to work on but none the worse for that. This was the day I had
my first day with Paul Ingham and my second day with the Prince. Day to remember! I
am on the footplate and we are standing at the Harbour Station with the Control office up
above in the station.
RH 904 Again with the Blanche as background at Boston Lodge, this time Glyn
Whitehurst, RH and Steve McCullum
RH 905 Taken from the road just inside the fence this time with Paul looking after Glyn
and John Greenfield on the Prince who is assisting the Mountaineer. I believe that was
the day that I was firing to Paul Lewin, the present General Manager with whom I made
some very early trips during which he taught me many of the tricks of the trade. He must
have been all of 17 at the time and his cruising speed on those long legs was about 6 mph.
Being GM of the FR is hard enough at times and having much to do with the Welsh
Highland marvel as well is no picnic I can assure you. Good luck to you Paul you are
doing a grand job..
RH 906 Blanche yet again at Boston Lodge with Paul Ingham, John Greenfield and a
young fireman whose name I cannot recall. Sooner or later, I will find out and include it
in the caption. The trouble is he’ll be 45 or so now.
RH 907 A delightful head and shoulder study of John Greenfield and Paul Ingham in the
cab of the Linda
RH 908 See 916 which is a slightly better photograph
RH 909.With the Mountaineer as an incomplete backdrop’ is Paul Ingham. This was
taken in 1985 and we had the American engine four all four days and she did a great job
every day: all the steam we wanted, easy to work on in every way. With us we had a
splendid companion who was a volunteer and I think he was an American from
California. Anyhow we had a good time together: his name Don Shiparo and his nick
name Fidel Castro.
RH 910 A good photograph of Mountaineer between trips at the Harbour station with
Paul oiling round.
RH 911 Another good picture of the Mountaineer this time at Boston Lodge and this
time we have three stalwarts of the permanent staff, real railwaymen. L-R Phil
Girdlestone who handled the Linda in her gas producing days about which a book could
be written and a very interesting one at that: then Clive Gibbard on many of my pictures
and Fred Boughey, a great character too. I remember well when I joined the FR Company
Board in 1977, I was asked to go down one weekend and show myself at Allan
Garraway’s Sunday afternoon weekly meetings with his heads of staff. My goodness, the
pot was boiling for the FR was in one of it’s mini-turmoils which it became my job to
help to overcome over the next 10 years and I certainly enjoyed my association with the
old railway and it’s personalities as I did in the Board Room which was quite an
experience and it was far from easy at first but fater a few years immensely rewarding..
RH912 Paul Ingham and ”Fidel Castro” taking the air before we left Boston Lodge on
our first round
RH 913 Linda at work with her stovepipe chimney but her gas producing equipment
removed. I think this is my last trip(for the time being) with Paul Ingham and John
Greenfield’s last visit before illness overtook him. After this trip Paul and John went over
to the Prince and Paul Lewin came with me on Linda. She was off the boil a bit that day
and you had think and scheme to keep on top. On the second trip, we had the General
Manager and two friends lined up across the front of the tender. We gave them a run to
remember but I had to say that today mine was not a talking job as I had to concentrate
the whole time on the oil firing which is not the bobby’s job some people think and like
using a mechanical stoker with small coal, needs utter concentration for every move the
driver makes the fireman has to act in unison. We are at Blaenau on the first round and
ready for the return, Glyn Whitehurst, John Greenfield and RH
RH 914 Paul, John Robbo and Jack Beaman from the Severn Valley and RH at the end of
the day when Jack had had a go at driving the Blanche with comical results. He gave the
impression he was off to Carlisle from Saltley with a class 9 “Space Ship”!
RH 915 Jo Clulow must have taken 914 as he is on this one. Like Paul, Joe has served
the FR since he was a youngster and in a wide variety of jobs from driving to Controller
and probably more than ever. He will probably have been in Boston Lodge in some
capacity as he is wearing a boiler suit. Paul, Robbo and Jack Beaman complete the
picture.
RH 916 Blanche again at the end of a day but a different clientele at Boston Lodge. John
Greenfield, Peter Dennis who if my memory serves me right was much involved with the
passenger and catering sides, Steve McCallom, Evan Davies who lived over the station
and had been with the FR as a boy and became a fitter, fireman and driver. Unlike many
of the staff and volunteers, he was a Welshman who had fitted the FR like a glove. Sadly
he died quite a few years ago and relatively young. Then Paul Ingham, Chris Richardson
ex BR holding the wine bottle(who brought that, I wonder) and finally Greg Fuchs, then a
young man who may well still be with the railway.
RH 917 Much of the days work is done as we are standing at Dduallt waiting to cross the
last up train of the day. We have the Mountaineer with Paul, Fidel Castro(Don Shipiro)
and Glyn Jones who maybe still works for what was BR. It is possible that he worked in
Manchester and that he goes to a bi-annual Railway Lunch that in fact I started in 1969
when I was Div Manager Liverpool. But there are an awful lot of Glyn Jones’s in Wales,
North or South! In the background is a young man with longish black hair and festooned
with a ticket issuing machine. Anybody who knows him will hopefully get in touch with
the TT so that we can have the omission corrected.