False Starts, Near Misses and Dangerous Goods Read online

  Arriva Train Wales unit 150230 runs into Platform 7 at Cardiff Central with a ‘Valleys’ service heading for Barry Island.

  Cover illustration: A scene of locomotive neglect typical of many places with the coming of the end of steam.

  First published in 2017

  The History Press

  The Mill, Brimscombe Port

  Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

  www.thehistorypress.co.uk

  This ebook edition first published in 2017

  All rights reserved

  © Geoff and Ian Body, 2017

  The right of Geoff and Ian Body to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 8189 7

  Original typesetting by The History Press

  eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

  CONTENTS

  Introduction, Sources and Acknowledgements

  Glossary

  A Couple of Near Misses (Bill Parker)

  What’s on Next Week? (Jim Dorward)

  Course Fare (Geoff Body)

  Drama at Chester (Peter Whittaker)

  Tattenhall Junction, 1971

  Chester Station, 1972

  Reprieve (Philip Benham)

  Strike Service (Philip Benham)

  Off the Road – Again (Bryan Stone)

  Nocturne at Haymarket (Harry Knox)

  Less than Grand Openings (Ian Body)

  Not for the First Time

  A Rather Soggy Event

  Train ‘Gapped’ (Jim Gibbons)

  The Show Must Go On (Mike Lamport)

  False Start (Geoff Body)

  North of Shaftholme Junction (Donald Heath)

  A Right Regular Royal Train (Bill Parker)

  Reward? (Geoff Body)

  The BR Representative – for Rabbits! (Jim Dorward)

  Knowing One’s Place (Ian Body)

  Polmont 1984 (Peter Whittaker)

  Joint Road and Rail Office (Geoff Body)

  Anglia Region Control Office (Chris Blackman)

  Honestly, I Want to Pay for a Train (Ian Body)

  Happy Birthday (Don Love)

  No. 1 Pump House, Sudbrook (Geoff Body)

  The Railway Inspectorate (Bill Parker)

  Railway Inspectorate Inquiries (Bill Parker)

  Lodgings and Digs (Geoff Body)

  Britannia Bridge Drama (Brian Arbon)

  Anglia Train Planners (Chris Blackman)

  A Lesson to be Remembered (Jim Dorward)

  One Way Only (Jim Dorward and Bill Parker)

  Putting on a Show (Mike Lamport)

  A Lonely Funeral (Colin Driver)

  In the Bleak Midwinter (David Barraclough)

  Back to Normal (David Barraclough)

  Seaside Summer (Geoff Body)

  Reservation Challenges (Ian Body)

  The Scottish Television Train (Jim Dorward)

  US Railroad Stations and Buildings (Theo Steel)

  New Stationmaster (Fernley Maker)

  On from Northfield (Fernley Maker)

  The Loco (Geoff Body)

  The Great East Midlands Storm (Chris Blackman)

  Scientific Services (Brian Arbon)

  Filming Gaffer (Chris Blackman)

  Quick Thinkers and Slow Thinkers (Ian Body)

  Yesterday’s Tools, Yesterday’s Skills (Bryan Stone)

  North American Interlude (Jim White)

  The Return (Jim White)

  Derailments (David Barraclough)

  Wath Yard

  Doncaster Division

  More Derailments (David Barraclough)

  It Can Now Be Revealed (Philip Benham)

  The Pay Run (Ian Body)

  Winteringham and Frodingham (Bill Parker)

  Royal Moments (Philip Benham)

  Merseyside Reflections (Jan Glasscock)

  Dangerous Goods (Philip Benham)

  Sometimes Almost Fiction (David Barraclough)

  INTRODUCTION, SOURCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Transport is a highly complex business, nowhere more so than in its railway arm. Paradoxically, it is an industry that seeks constantly and earnestly to be routine and orderly but stands no chance of total and consistent achievement of that objective. There is no certainty in the day-to-day operation and the plan, however carefully organised, is always liable to interruption: an unexpected influx of passengers, mechanical breakdown, the vagaries of weather, the acts of trespassers and vandals – the possibilities are endless.

  A great dividend from this uncertainty is that railwaymen are permanently schooled and ready to deal with the unexpected and challenging. Indeed, they have been doing so since the birth of the railway. It follows that significant incidents in a railwayman’s career tend to be etched deeply in his memory and the aim of False Starts, Near Misses and Dangerous Goods has been to unearth a range of these recollections and put them together in a readable and entertaining form that also reveals something of the complexities of the railway business and how the industry is organised to manage them.

  The writers between them have a good few, strong memories of their own, but this book could not have been prepared without the huge input from its contributors. Most of them are names that have appeared in the acknowledgements in previous books, and to everyone mentioned in the heading for each entry we are extremely grateful. To single out anyone would be an invidious task but, once again, Bryan Stone has done us proud from his photographic library, recalling in his present home in Switzerland the years when his wisdom resulted in a record of the detail of railway working that others had overlooked. New contributor David Barraclough has poured out a wealth of material from his time at Boston, Wath and Glasgow, and this book would not have happened without the efforts of long-term colleague and good friend Bill Parker. For inspiring contributions, his ideas, checking and much other help, thank you Bill.

  As so often before, Amy Rigg and the editorial staff at The History Press have combined efficiency with unending helpfulness. Our thanks to them and the promotion, sales and other folk at The History Press.

  Except where otherwise credited, the illustrations used in the book are all from the authors’ collections.

  The departure board at Basingstoke gives echoes of the past: Burford, Itchen Abbas, Torrington, Bideford, Lynton – stations long gone.

  GLOSSARY

  absolute block

  standard railway signalling arrangement, ensuring only one train can be in a designated track section at a time

  ASLEF

  Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen

  bay platform

  dead-end station platform

  BG

  Brake Gangwayed (guard’s brake van/parcels van with bogie wheels)

  bogie

  the framework carrying wheels which, in turn, is fixed to the railway vehicle

  bogie bolster wagon

  long wheelbase flatbed freight vehicle

  BR

  British Rail

  BRB

  British Railways Board

  BRSA

  British Railways Staff Association

  B
SK

  Brake Standard Corridor (second-class corridor passenger coach with brake section)

  BT

  British Transport

  BTP

  British Transport Police

  catch points

  a safety turnout designed to derail vehicles running back out of control

  CIÉ

  Córas Iompair Éireann (Irish Railways)

  clamping/clipping and scotching

  a clip and a wedge used to immobilise a set of points (often for engineering work)

  conrail

  conductor rail in direct current, third-rail electrified systems

  CP

  Canadian Pacific

  demurrage

  charge made to freight customers when wagons were not released within the stipulated period

  DI

  District Inspector, often seen as the key local ‘rules and operations’ expert

  DOO

  Driver Only Operation (no assistant in the driving cab)

  DMU

  diesel multiple unit

  DTM

  Divisional Traffic Manager

  ECS

  empty coaching stock (passenger vehicles running out of service)

  EMU

  electric multiple unit

  facing and trailing points

  facing points are divergent and allow a change of a train’s direction, while trailing points are convergent

  four foot

  space between the two running rails

  fully fitted

  the existence of braking operated by the locomotive on all the vehicles in the train

  GWR

  Great Western Railway

  hot axle-box

  lack of lubricant on the axle-box, which can cause the metal to overheat and possibly fracture

  hump

  an incline from which shunted vehicles have a free run down into a marshalling yard or sidings

  Hyfit

  traditional open merchandise wagon with train-operated brakes

  IO

  Inspecting Officer

  LDC

  Local Departmental Committee (the basic unit of local staff representation)

  lengthman

  an engineer with responsibility for a specific ‘length’ of track

  light engine

  engine operating without any attached vehicles

  Lowmac

  a flat bogie freight vehicle with a lowered centre for extra height clearance

  merry-go-round

  freight service which unloads automatically while on the move

  MoT

  Ministry of Transport

  off the road

  a colloquial term for a derailment

  out and home

  a staff driving/guard shift involving out and back in the same day – relates to the days when overnight lodgings were not uncommon

  partially fitted

  includes some vehicles that only have handbrakes available

  permanent way/p-way

  traditional railway term for the track and supporting structure

  permissive block

  signalling system allowing for more than one train in a single section

  pilotman

  member of staff acting as the authority for a train to enter a signalling section

  PNB

  Physical Needs Break (guaranteed break in a turn of duty, initially between the third and fifth hour of work)

  PRO

  Public Relations Officer

  right away

  signal given to a driver to start the train

  second man

  additional assistant driver

  seven bells

  ‘stop and examine’ signal sent from a signal box to the one ahead to stop the train because of a defect on it

  slide chairs

  the unit for holding a rail to a sleeper with the additional facility of accommodating movement where points are involved

  SLW

  Single-Line Working (two-directional train operation over a single set of rails)

  SNCF

  Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (France’s national state-owned railway company)

  Special Traffic Notice

  list of services that have been planned outside the standard regular timetable

  sprag

  a piece of wood put through the wheel spokes to prevent movement

  switch and stock rails

  stock rails are fixed while switches move to facilitate a change of direction

  TA

  Traffic Apprentice (long-running training scheme to fast-track individuals to senior management)

  tail traffic

  freight vehicles attached to a booked passenger service

  ten foot

  the central space on a four-track railway (which may not actually be 10ft)

  Tipfit

  fitted brake wagon designed to be unloaded by tipping

  TOPS

  Total Operations Processing System (a national system for managing the use of freight vehicles)

  TPO

  Travelling Post Office

  track circuit

  simple electrical device to detect the existence of a train on a particular stretch of track

  trap points

  similar to catch points but usually designed to divert vehicles into a sand trap

  TSO

  Tourist Standard Open (open second-class coach (non-corridor))

  Up line and Down line

  used to differentiate lines by the direction of travel and not related to inclines

  vacuum brake

  vehicle-braking system where the maintenance of a vacuum keeps the brakes off

  Vanfit

  brake-fitted box wagon

  Weekly Traffic Notice

  temporary advice of amendments to operations

  wrong side failure

  failure of a piece of equipment that compromises safety

  A COUPLE OF NEAR MISSES

  Bill Parker was to encounter some new and rather unexpected experiences at one of his relief stationmaster postings

  As a young, summer-relief stationmaster I spent most of one summer in the early 1950s covering the stationmaster’s vacancy at Claypole, a small station in a rural area on the East Coast Main Line just south of Newark. Despite the few passenger trains stopping there, the passenger activity could be fairly busy, particularly in the mornings and evenings and on market days at Grantham and Newark. There were three sidings in the goods yard together with a cattle dock and a goods shed. Quite a few parcels were dealt with and there was some freight traffic, mainly agricultural and coal. It was a good station for gaining all-round experience.

  I had visits from the district passenger manager and the assistant district operating superintendent, both of whom had been on the selection panel that had appointed me, and both giving me a thorough but encouraging grilling. The district inspector (DI) also made several visits and tested my signalling abilities by watching me work the signal box and the heavy, wheel-operated level-crossing gates. The district wagon inspector checked my daily wagon returns and the demurrage position in connection with the raising of charges for wagons not emptied within the stipulated free period.

  One morning I was less than pleasantly surprised by a knock on my office door and the appearance of a tall, barrel-shaped, red-faced man in uniform who entered and announced, rather aggressively, ‘I’m the sack inspector from Lincoln sack headquarters.’ I was aware of letters I had received demanding ‘sack returns’, but the whole sack business was a mystery to me. At the time, the railway companies provided free grain sacks for the conveyance of corn by rail, but these were supposed to be accounted for and charges should have been raised for loss, damage or non-return within the free period allowed.

  In my defence, I had eventually found and sent off some of the completed earlier returns when prompted by the third letter, but could find no book of regulations about sacks –
most unusual, as there were regulations about everything on the railway – and my neighbouring stationmasters were less than helpful about what they considered a matter of minor importance. The more recent returns I had compiled using my mathematical skills, along with a measure of inventiveness. Now, however, nemesis had arrived and the inspector’s visit was clearly to chastise me for the delays and check my recent submissions.

  The gods must have been with me that day, for just before the serious interrogation started I had a telephone call from the signalman saying that there was a hot axle-box on one of the wagons of an up freight approaching Claypole. I had been ‘saved by the bell’ – in fact, the seven bells ‘stop and examine’ train signal. My inquisitor accepted that my priority now had to be dealing with the emergency on the main line.

  I was soon occupied with the business of detaching the defective Vanfit wagon into our goods sidings and arranging for its freight sundries contents to be reloaded into an empty van that happened to be in the goods shed. By the time I returned to my office the sack inspector had gone, leaving a note saying that he ‘would be back’. Fortunately by that time I had moved on to another appointment!

  My time in this job involved an on-call responsibility, which required me to lodge locally on alternate weeks. My landlady was typical of her calling, with the house impeccably clean and myself hugely overfed, necessitating the lengthy bike rides to and from the station to help control my weight. Although I spent long hours at the station, especially working the signal box in the evenings, I needed other interesting activities.