In war time I had a troop train from Swindon Old Town to Southampton that used to run over the Southern Region from Andover down to Southampton Docks.
When we got to Southampton Docks these troops got off and most of them were wearing a kind of straight jacket. They was American troops that had gone ‘loopy’ during the war.
There was a train up from Bristol we used to call the ‘coco’ which was loaded with cigarettes going up to London. The driver ran up the route towards Stratton Green Bridge and went up the route siding where there’s a ‘catch point’ just by the signal. If you went passed the signal the engine would run off the catch point.
The driver did exactly that, of course, bang, bang, bang the wagons went and some of them turned over with cigarettes all over the line. The shunters at Swindon transfer were detailed to go up there to clear these cigarettes from the track. Now there was dozens and dozens of cartons and they was told any loose cigarettes on the ground you could pick up and have, but those in boxes and cartons must be put aside to be collected.
Now some of the men went to far and got the sack for being greedy.
We had what was called ‘double home’ turns, where you would take a goods train from Swindon and from some depots passenger trains and for example, go to Newton Abbot. At Newton Abbot you would get ‘relief’ and stay overnight or through the day sometimes and go to a ‘double home’ lodge.
The GWR had all these ‘double home’ lodges mapped out for you and you would stay overnight at one of these lodges and then work a train back to Swindon the next day. The ‘double home’ lodges were householders paid by the GWR to take in their footplate men as a kind of ‘bed and breakfast’ facility.
“Double home’ lodges stopped when the Second World War began and after the war the GWR tried to reintroduce these lodges, but the Swindon drivers refused to go on these ‘double home’ turns. What happened was that when a Swindon crew were booked on a ‘double home’ turn, say to the Severn tunnel, when they got ‘relief’ at the Severn tunnel, they would get a ride home on the next passenger train back. The crew would only be paid for going to the Severn tunnel, the railway didn’t pay them for coming home because they were supposed to stay and work a train back.
Eventually with the help of the Trade Unions the GWR done away with all ‘double home’ lodge’s.
When you look back, a train crew could work a goods train from Swindon to Bristol, only forty-two miles and then have to stay overnight and work a train back the next day. They could easily have caught a passenger train back the same day and got another passenger train back to Bristol the next day. But that’s what you had to do before the war.
It was very early morning, first stop Newport on the way to Cardiff on the 8.15am, in all winds and weather. Well in our day you used to work 6 days a week on this and I can honestly say this, that as a passenger fireman at the end of the week I was absolutely nackered, weren’t we Gordon, 6 gruelling days.
(Gordon) Do you know what the money was Norman, in 1947, yes, about £5 17s a week. (Gordon) That’s right £5 17s exactly for 6 days to Cardiff. (Norman) That was 6 days, 8 hours a day with no day off and in-between you had to work Sundays sometimes. You did get extra for that, which was time and a half for some time and then it went up to time and three quarters.
(Gordon) We had 12 turns in the top link, and they were all hard work and awkward hours. Those 12 turns of duty (12 weeks) including 3 booked Sundays. One of those weeks was to Leicester and back, the longest run at 9.40pm at night which was the best paid job at Swindon, a double week. With that double week on that 1 turn, the other eleven weeks having all hours night and day with three Sundays of work as well. For those twelve weeks of work I can show you payslips that tally up to £75 11s 6d.
(Norman) That’s why when the British Leyland motor plant came to Swindon, quite a few footplate men left the railways to work in the motor industry to get more money. Another reason that men left was, that as firemen some of them knew that they couldn’t pass for drivers.
(Gordon) What happened is that when they got up where the top was, that sorted the men out from the boys. They were all right in the marshalling yards on shunting engines, backwards and forwards and they weren’t to bad on a freight train, chugging along at 35 mph. But when it came to the sort of work on the top engines, day in – day out until they got to be a driver, then they looked for other work.
There was many, many of our fellows who left the job because of that. You had to be really interested, determined and hard working to stay in the job. The reward was that one-day you would be a driver, if you could pass the tests. If you failed you would end up in the shed doing shed duties. You had three chances to pass, if you failed on the first two you were sent back for three months and then you had the chance to try again. Any driver that passed before you did (fewer tries at passing) would then be senior to you. Most of our shed staff were men that had failed as footplate men.
(Norman) Now Gordon, as you know when I was a bit of a lad in my younger days as a fireman. (Gordon) Norman lets be honest, you’re on tape, you weren’t a bit of one, you were a full blown one… (Norman) yes you’re right, but as I got on and I realised what the job was all about I became more dedicated as a fireman.
(Gordon) Let’s say this, when you put up to represent the men (as a shop steward) you was always voted in.
(Norman) I never got voted off in what was twenty years.
We used to go to improvement classes to learn all about steam engines. The railway used to supply models, mostly in wood, with the valves and pistons and all that as moving parts. The improvement classes were held on Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings in a room just outside the factory at Swindon yard.
When you were off duty you would go to these classes to learn all about various types of engines. The instructors were all volunteer experienced train drivers, who would give up their own time to come and teach us all about the workings of the steam engine. We also learnt all the rules and regulations governing footplate men
The railways never paid us for attending these classes or the drivers who gave up their time to teach us. Gordon Shurmer was a fireman on the top passenger link when I was a fireman down on the lower jobs and although he was only a fireman he was an improvement class instructor. A very knowledgeable man was Gordon Shurmer.
When you had attended these classes for quite a bit and had learnt what there was to know, your turn would come up for what was termed ‘passenger fireman’. What it meant was that you would have to pass a test with a locomotive inspector at a place called Park House in Swindon.
The inspector would ask you a series of questions like, ‘you’re riding along the road and you get two blows, you stop with the big end on the bottom, what do you think it is?’ Well you see sometimes it could be a piston blowing and sometimes it could be other things blowing. This is the sort of thing you had to learn, the inspector would ask you all sorts of questions relating to how the engine worked, what faults you could get and how to remedy them.
These test were very hard and I know that a lot of firemen would pack up the job and go and work somewhere else rather than take this test. You had to devote a lot of time at home with books of rules and things like that. You had three chances to pass this test and fortunately due to a little bit of luck and a lot of hard work I passed first time. I was about twenty six and the inspector who gave me the test was Charlie Pullen who eventually became Chief Locomotive Inspector on the Western Region. I had about an hour and a quarter of questions and that’s a lot believe me.
I passed for ‘passenger fireman’ and when I was twenty eight I went for the test to become a fully formed driver. Once you had passed ‘passenger fireman’ you were allowed to take charge of an engine, which meant you could be booked out as a spare driver (on shunting engines) if they had nobody else available.
The inspector for the driver test was a chap named Bellman. I went up for the test and he said to me, “Norma Wiltshire” he said, “we shouldn’t ‘ought to be long this morning over this” he said, “according to Mr. Pullen’s report” he said, “he gave you a very good report, last time you saw him”. Now because of that I had a little bit of an easier time for the driving test. He asked me about six questions on the engine and half a dozen on the rules, and said, “well, what with Mr. Pullen’s report and the fact that you’ve answered all the questions correctly” he said, “you’re passed as a driver” and I went on up the road into Swindon jumping for joy.
Apart from that test you had to go for a medical every couple of years to make sure you were still fit to drive. A strict eye sight test and general physical health.
On another occasion I was again with Fred Cope on a 72 class tank engine on a freight train from Swindon going down the Badminton line.
Now Fred was a real character, mad as a March hare, well everything was fine and we went down through Chipping Sodbury tunnel or Badminton tunnel as it was then. When you come out of the tunnel you could just see the distance signal, which wasn’t that far away from the tunnel entrance. The distance signal was on so I put me hand brake on straight away, see, ‘cause it was a loose coupled train, Fred put his backup brake on and we still weren’t going to stop at this signal.
So Fred, in his wisdom, he pulls the engine into back gear, it frightened me to death jerking backwards and forwards and all over the place, and just as we got to the signal, he came off (reverse). They was very few and far between, drivers like that and that’s why he was called ‘mad’ Cope, yet make no mistake he was a wonderful mate to work with.
Another time I was firing to him on the 6.55 – Swindon to Didcot, stop all stations to Didcot. It was Christmas week and we only had a couple of coaches on. We left Swindon and got to Stratton Park halt, which is not far out of Swindon, a little halt station. There was no signals and no points involved, and we had a ‘castle’ class engine with the two coaches.
Now we had to stop at Stratton Park halt of course, we did, except we ran right through, coaches and all and Fred had to reverse back. Now, not only did he do that on the Monday morning, but on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. On the Wednesday, when we had backed back into Stratton Park halt, the guard came up to old Fred and said “what do you think you’re on, the bloody Cheltenham Flyer?”
That was the type of driver Fred was.
The best mate that I ever had was a guy by the name of ‘Dick’ Haynes who I worked with for five years. Three years on the goods trains, stopping at small stations putting the wagons off everywhere from Swindon to Gloucester.
One particular time I developed a very bad back problem, in fact eventually I ended up in hospital with it. For three weeks to keep me at work, my driver Dick Haynes did both the driving and the firing while I kept my eyes open for signals or anything else.
Then I had a spell with another driver on what we called number four link, which was the bottom passenger link. Then I went up into number three link and low and behold I was back with Dick Haynes again. Now Dick was the one who really taught me how to drive an engine properly and in the end when we were on the Swindon to Paddington run, stopping at Didcot but sometimes straight through to Paddington. Dick Haynes would on occasion let me do the driving from Swindon, but he kept a very eagle eye on me whilst he done the firing.
Dick was in his middle fifties doing the firing to Paddington, then I would do the firing on the return from Paddington to Swindon, because coming back from Paddington to Swindon is slightly uphill which was a little bit harder work.
I was off work twice with a bad back and Dick was a real mate he would come round to see me and my mother, to make sure everything was all right. He treated me as if I was his own son and I used to go round to his house quite a lot when we was off duty.
I remember the first train I drove on the main line when I was on as a passenger fireman as though it was yesterday. I was spare in the shed on that day from 6 to 2 shift and the foreman came round and said, “Norman” he said, “we haven’t got a driver to relieve the 10.15 to Paddington this morning, so you got to go” and I said, “what me?”
I’d never been on my own as a driver, the man in charge into Paddington in my life before. I can’t remember the name of my fireman on that day, but I know he was quite young and not passed as a passenger fireman whilst I was. So I goes up to the station and took over the 10.15 passenger train to Paddington and that was the first time I drove a train into Paddington even though I wasn’t a fully qualified train driver, I was what you called a ‘passed fireman’.
I believe it was the 2.20pm parcel train out of Paddington that we worked back to Swindon. Now, I knew the signals off by heart because I’d been firing up to Paddington and back for years. I was quite pleased with myself when I got home that day as everything had gone very smoothly.
That gave me a lot of confidence and I also remember the first time I took a freight train through the Severn tunnel, a nail biting experience, believe me. Although I’d been through there dozens of times as a fireman and knew how to work the engine with loose coupled trains, where you only had the engine brake, the hand brake on the tender and the guards break behind you. When you enter the Severn tunnel, you go down at about 10 mph with a loose-coupled train.
You go down with your hand break on, because at the bottom of the tunnel you run along for about forty yards before you go up. Now at the bottom you get to a point where half the trains still coming down and half the trains going up, now if you didn’t run through the bottom of the tunnel in the proper manner you could have a ‘snatch’ and a coupling could break.
This happened on two or three occasions that I’m aware of, then they would send the breakdown gangs in to pull the two halves of the train out.
I went down with this loose-coupled train and I was biting my fingernails. It was at night which made it seem worse but I was all right and we got through it fine, because at the bottom of the tunnel you have a set of lights to let you know when you reached the bottom and another set to let you know when you was going up.
Before you got to the bottom the driver would gradually take the hand break off and feel the couplings gradually tighten up, because the guard would have his break on the guards wagon to hold the back end back, whilst you were releasing the front end.
Then the driver would open his regulator and go through there practically with a full regulator open. This way you’d drag the wagons through the bottom, if you didn’t do that you could possibly have a coupling break and have the tunnel closed for hours.
(Norman) We had the Queen Mother down from Paddington to Campbell airdrome, when I was firing with old ‘Patty’ Hayworth. We had the inspector on board.
Afterwards I had this letter, from the British Transport Commission as it was in them days, thanking me for ably carrying out my duties on this day of bringing the Queen Mother down and they gave me a gratuity of 10 shillings. When they called us into Morgans’ office to give us our envelopes, the driver had £1 10s and he handed me my letter calling me Fred, which he did on many occasions. This was my dads name, he said, “well open it up now Fred, and see what you got”, and I looked at the letter and it said on their “Dear Wiltshire, I got it up stairs, Dear Wiltshire, not Dear Fireman Wiltshire or Norman Wiltshire, just Dear Wiltshire”. I think this was something to do with Morgan. So I reads it, thanking me for this, so I looks at the head foreman and I said, “Well, thank you very much Mr. Morgan”, I said, “but that wont buy me 2 packets of bloody fags”, I said, and walked out. Old Patty Hayworth, he had £1 10shillings.
There was ordinary passengers on this train, but there was two carriages on the back of the train with the Queen Mother. They had put markings on the platform at Reading, Didcot and Swindon to show where we must stop. We had to stop at these markings so that the Queen Mothers two coaches would be off the platform at the back end. We never did get to see her.
(Gordon) They use to have what they called their ‘Royal train Drivers’ for occasions like this, and I can quote this as genuine, Con Mason was the driver and his fireman was Den Turner. They worked up to Paddington and they were waiting at the return with their back working, which was the 9.05am out of Paddington in the morning. On the back of the train was a special coach with Princess Anne in. so they was waiting there and then along came Bill Andriss the chief locomotive inspector at Paddington, and he had a driver and fireman with him.
Now Bill Andriss was an ex Swindon man, and he said to Con, “Con, you’ve got to be relieved this morning”, so Conny says “why” and Bill Andriss said, “Princess Anne’s on the back in a special coach, these London men will take your train to Swindon”. Now Con said “Oh no they bloody don’t, mate”, he said, “if this train comes out of here, whoever’s on the back”, he said, “I shall be driving it”. Bill Andriss said, “you can’t be like that”, and Con said, “well that’s just what I’m like, so you can just bloody well take that driver and fireman away, and whoever’s on the back, I shall be on the front”. And he never came off, that was Conny, that’s how they were in those days.
That was their Royal Train Drivers. The London men were always looked upon as the cream.
The last Royal driver I worked with was a chap named ‘Driver Potter’. He brought down the Queen as she is now, brought her down to Swindon when she was Princess Elizabeth, and she was coming to Swindon Works. The engine on the train that brought her down was engine number 57 the ‘Princess Elizabeth’. Now at the time I was firing to Dick Haynes, and we was told to go up the station and relieve the driver who was Potter, I forget who the fireman was at the time. They was going out to the Milton Road baths to have a bath and change of clothes, brand new overalls and caps and all that.
We had to take it down to the factory, on the turntable and the factory men came out and emery papered the handrails and the engine and all that. Because Princess Elizabeth was going to get on this engine at the factory once she had finished touring the works, and ride up to Swindon Station on the engine.
Well we went down there and the factory men done their job polishing the engine and all that, and eventually we had to take it outside the old ‘hay’ shop. Out came a brand new pair of wooden steps that they made, which was placed down by the cab.
Now I was a bit of a rebel in those days and was always running the Royal Family down. Princess Elizabeth came walking along, we was only a few yards away, and I says to Dick, “cor, don’t she look bloody beautiful Dick”, and Dick said, “there y’are”, he said, ‘you was running the buggers down five minutes ago”, he said, “now you reckons their beautiful”. But she did, she looked immaculate, with a pale blue hat on, and when she came out to get on the engine, we was ordered to get off and the Royal driver and fireman got on and took her up the station.
Before you started a shift, men called ‘fire lighters’ would put a ring of coal in the firebox, then they would light a lump of oily waste (oily rags or such) and then they would chuck this in the ring of coal. The fire lighter would have a layered 9 to 12 inch square lattice (sticks of wood nailed and layed across each other about three layers deep) prepared.
The lattice of wood would then be thrown on the burning oily waste and when that caught fire several smaller knobs of coal would be placed on top. When all this had burnt through more coal would be added.
Now when the driver and fireman booked on you had this ‘Ring of Fire’ in the firebox already going. Now the fireman’s job when he booked on was to continue getting the fire ready for the road and for this you had an hour for a four cylinder ‘Castle’ class engine. The driver meanwhile would be oiling the engine first on the outside, then down in the pit underneath oiling the big ends, eccentrics, quadrant links and all that.
The fireman would use a long iron bar about twelve to thirteen feet long, with a big hook on the end, to push over the coal in the fire box and add more coal to it. You had a blower on the engine and you would turn this handle round which would give air to the fire, like a set of bellows. This would blow the fire up a bit and you would keep adding coal until you got the fire all over the firebox right under the brick arch. As you built your fire up your head of steam would come up.
When you got on your engine at first the fire lighter would already have got you 50 to 60 lbs. of steam. Eventually you would get that up to about 120 lbs. of steam.
The water was carried in the tender underneath the coal, which had injectors on to feed water from the tender to the boiler. You would turn the feed handle on the tender, which allows water through a pipe running down by the steps of the loco where the water would run out.
Now when you put the injector on, which is steam, this forced the water into the boiler and when the water stopped running out of the pipe by the steps, you knew it was going into the boiler.
Now, you got your water gauge glass on the engine a measured tube to show you when the boiler was half full. One thing you shouldn’t do was let the water get right down to the bottom of the glass which risked letting the lead plug under the boiler melt. If that happened all of the water would come out of the boiler into the firebox and put out the fire. As far as I’m aware this only happened on a few occasions, thankfully not to me.
It did happen especially during the war when the firebox was all clinkered up and dirty. Then you couldn’t get steam for love nor money with a fire like that. If they did drop a plug of course then another engine would have to be sent for.
I remember during the War we had ambulance trains, they used to put them in two sidings behind Shrivenham station.
I remember D-day, when the wounded soldiers were coming back from France by air. They used to fly into Watchfield airdrome and they were transferred by Army ambulance to the sidings at Shrivenham. Now I didn’t actually see any of the cases, but I did hear a lot of screaming as soldiers were being transferred from the ambulances to the carriages. It was terrible when they used to move them onto the train.
They would operate on the soldiers on the train you know, and it was blood curling to hear some of them. We would take the ambulance train as far as Worcester.
These trains eased off when the fighting moved further into France, thank God.
When you first got made a driver you usually went on the shunting engines; they had four shunting engines up the ‘transfer’ and two station ‘pilots’ on three shifts. There was also the factory shunters and there were about half a dozen of them shunting round in the factory all the time.
You could go out on the main line if you had knowledge of the route, for this you had to sign the ‘route knowledge book’, to say that you knew this route.
When you first started as either a driver or a fireman you started on what was called the ‘factory link’ which was all these shunting engines. Then you would progress into the ‘transfer link’ and then into the ‘van link’ which was workman’s trains mainly and you would go to Shrivenham, run round your train and couple up and bring the workmen in, stopping at Stratton Park Halt, pick up more workmen. We also used to go to Chippenham, Wooten Basset, Kemble, Perton and back to Swindon all the time picking up factory workers.
From the ‘van link’ you progressed into the ‘goods link’ which was the local goods train stopping at all stations from Swindon through to Bristol, dropping off station wagons which were wagons for that particular station. At these local stations there was a man that was called the ‘shunter’ and it was his job to uncouple and couple up any wagons at that station. Sometimes you had to shunt wagons out of the local yard to couple up to your train.
After the ‘goods link’ you would progress on up to what was called the ‘vaccum link’, which was trains that had vaccum brakes on some of the wagons. Perhaps a dozen wagons on the front of the train whilst the rest of the wagons were ‘loose coupled’, with a guards van on the back. These ‘vaccum link’ trains were passenger/goods trains from Swindon to Bristol, Severn tunnel or Acton in London.
Then from the ‘vaccum link’ you went on to the ‘passenger link’ or ‘number 4 link’ which was mainly stopping passengers from Swindon to Bristol or Reading stopping at all stations or a parcel train. You then progressed to ‘number 3 link’ which were passenger trains that would go into London, Gloucester or Bristol.
Next was ‘number 2 link’ which was a bit higher up passenger train that used to go to London and down to Cardiff. Finally the ‘top link’ was the fast train to Leicester and back. As a fireman on the ‘top link’ you were a senior hand which meant that you were the next in line to become a driver.
In the early days on the GWR if you were the senior fireman and had just made driver and was in Swindon, if the next vacancy was in Wales that was where you had to go. You could transfer back, but only when there was a vacancy at Swindon and this was the same all over the GWR.
I enjoyed every minute I was on the footplate although I was a bit of a lad.
We used to work long hours and I remember once going to Didcot after booking on friday at 7.15pm on a goods train being held up in the sidings at a place we called ‘Nighton loop’ just the other side of Shrivenham. We was in there for about ten hours, we never moved, because of the bombing in London.
We eventually moved on up to Didcot and caught the 10.45am ‘stopper’ back to Swindon and booked off at 3.25pm Saturday afternoon, 20 hours.
We used to get a lot of that, long hours, sometimes twenty or twenty five hours on duty all at once. But you always had to have twelve hours off duty between booking off and back on. So if you came off at 3.00pm in the afternoon, the clerk would say “come back at 3.00am in the morning’, and you would have to book on then.
Well, I was a bit of a rebel and sometimes I wouldn’t have it and I used to leave my train. I remember once, I was in Shrivenham siding just by Shrivenham station and I went up in the signal box there, I’d been on duty for about fourteen hours.
Now, I’d had enough being a young bloke, so I called up Swindon control and asked “how long are we going to be here”, I said “we’ve already been on duty for fourteen hours”, and they said “oh, you’ll be there for at least another four hours”.
Now I said “well, you might say that, but I can tell you”, I said “I won’t be”, I said “can’t you send up a light engine with a set of men on, so we could change over and take the light engine, and let those men work the train on”. The reply was “oh no, we ‘aint doing that”, now he didn’t say they never had the men, he just said we can’t do that!
So I said “well that’s it”, and went back to my driver Harry Taylor and I said “Harry, let’s toss up”, I said “we’re here for another four hours, let’s toss up who’s going, you or me”, I said “I’ll be fair with you”. Harry said “I’m not going Norm”, a so I said “I am”, so I got me food box and jacket, got off the engine and there was a stopper passenger in the link, and I knew this, so I got in the train and went home.
I got two days suspension for that. The superintendent from Bristol came up to Swindon on that one.
I was fireman during the war to a driver named Alex Withers on the Swindon transfer, going down the Badminton line. When we got round by Wootton Basset the signal was on and gradually we pulled in and the signalman had a red flag out the signal box.
We stops outside the signal box and the signalman shouts out, “air raid warning, red”. So we went round on the South Wales line through Brinkworth on to Little Somerford and then Halvington where they stopped us and we went into the loop siding towards the signal box. I got off the engine to go up to see the signalman to find out just how long we was going to be there.
As I got off the engine I saw all these ‘chandelier’ lights coming down which was either Chippenham or Bath area. I said, “good God, what’s that” and I went up to the signal box and as I climbed up to the door the bombs started.
The signal box literally started shaking with the force of the bombs. In the signal box they had a steel cabinet and I found the signalman in they’re shaking like a leaf, so was I mind.
I went over to him and said, “you’ll be all right mate, there not bombing here” I said, “there bombing over Chippenham or Bath”. It was the night they blitzed Bath and Bristol.
Anyway eventually we had the all clear to leave the loop siding and we went on through Badminton tunnel towards Chippen Sodbury where the open signal was on and we gradually pulled in to Chippen Sodbury signal box and the signalman said, “driver, there’s some bombs been dropped down the line, they don’t know where, but we believe it’s beyond Westerly Junction”. “But from here we want your fireman to stand on the front of the engine and look forward to make sure the bombs haven’t dropped on the line”, which is exactly what I did.
We got to Westerly Junction and the signalman was there and I said to him, “everything was alright between here and Sodbury mate” and he said, “yeah, but between here and Colbert Heath is where I think they dropped”.
So I stayed on the front of the engine, holding onto the handrail and I found three craters in a field on the right hand side and two in the left-hand side of the track, missing the railway altogether.
I remember one occasion when my driver Alex Law changed turns with another driver named Sid Cannon who was the Union Branch Secretary at Swindon.
We set sail and got to a place called Colworth Junction just the other side of Banbury, around the north eastern just above Banbury.
Now at Colworth Junction there was signals on the fireman’s side. He stopped us at these signals and I was looking over the side, pitch black it was, right in the heart of the country and I was looking for the signal to come off and say, “right away” so’s off we’d go. Now Sid got down on his side and got on the ground, which I wasn’t aware of ’cause I was looking out for the signal.
Eventually I hears this clatter and there’s a couple of spanners he’d chucked up on the footplate and this voice said, “hey, pick that up” in an abrupt manner. This voice then said, “oye! pick those spanners up” and I turned around and I said, “are you talking to me or that cow in the field” and he said, “I’m talking to you” and I said, “you can bloody well pick them spanners up yourself” I said, “you put ‘em there and you can pick ‘em up” and I made him pick them up.
Now this was a test, this is what Sid wanted me to do, he knew if I could stick up for myself he had a good mate.
So then the signal showed clear and we went on to Leicester. Now on the way back the weather had turned bad, it was thick fog, absolutely thick, it was. We arrived to a station called Hayford, which is not too far from Oxford.
The signal box was on one end of the platform there and as we approached Sid said to me, “can you see the outer home signal” and I said, “no, not yet Sid” as it was thick fog. Eventually we saw the inner home signal and we pulled into the station very carefully to avoid any accidents as we had not seen the outer home signal.
Sid shouted up to the signal box, which was on the platform, “signalman, we never saw the outer home signal” and the signalman said, “the reason why you didn’t see the outer home signal is because it was taken out of service six weeks previous”.
When we looked in our ‘K2’ book, which is what we should have looked at, before we booked on duty it was clearly marked as out of service. In our defence, you only got ten minutes to check all this before you were booked on.
Another thing I remember in the war. I was firing to a driver by the name of Harry Taylor, who was actually the first driver I fired with on the main line, I was about seventeen and a half at the time on the shunters but as they were short of men they put me on the main line.
We had a German prisoner of war train, full of ‘SS’ men, which had to go to Abervagenny. Now Harry only new the route to the Severn tunnel junction so we had what we called a ‘pilot man’, another driver who got aboard to take us on to Abervagenny.
When we pulled into the station at Abervagenny, a station that I’d never been to before, we used to keep a couple of spanners in a dish above the fire box door in our tea can.
Now they got these German soldiers out on the platform, they were all big tall blokes about six foot tall, and marched them up and one of them spit at us on the engine. Although I say I was only young, I was a big lad and I wasn’t afraid, I picked up a spanner and was going to chase after this German.
I was half way down the footplate and Harry caught hold of my arm and said, “don’t you do that” he said, “you’ll get into one hell of a trouble”. “Well” I said, “he spat at us”, and old Harry said “it don’t matter about that Norman”, he said “you sit down and be quiet”. That was the only incident I can remember from the German prisoners during the war.
At the start of a shift you used to book on at the ‘running’ shed and have ten minutes to read your notices in the ‘K2 book’ as we called it. This would have any speed restrictions, signal alterations and things like that, on the route that you was going on.
If you had to walk to Swindon transfer you was allowed 20 to 30 minutes walking time, from the Swindon running shed to the Swindon transfer, which was the goods depot. The guard would be waiting there for you, because the guard’s depot was at Swindon transfer in them days.
You knew most of the guards, but you never had a regular guard, you had different guards all the time. Some were better than others but most of them was pretty good. Make no mistake about it, on them lose coupled trains a good guard was worth a lot. The guard was on their own in the back and if you pulled into a loop siding for a time because a passenger train needing to go by, the guard would walk up to the engine and you’d pass the time of day with him. But guards were generally loners having to spend most of a shift on their own.
Guards would never become firemen but could progress to station inspector over time.