Terry Nicholls' Memoirs

The Memoirs of a Western Region Railwayman

A keen photographer he also recorded the contemporary scene, the last of some, the first of others. having now also taken a role in the Control Office first at Bristol and later in 125 House at Swindon.

The Memoirs of a Western Region Railwayman

Terry Nicholls

Terry Nicholls joined the railway as a Clerk at Millbay in 1957. A lifelong enthusiast he worked initially for the Carriage & Wagon Department before transferring to the locomotive department at Laira again in a clerical role. Within a few short years he found himself heavily involved in diesel maintenance and transferred to Bristol where his locomotive experience proved invaluable during the changeover from steam to diesel.

Saltash Auto to HST

This is no ordinary story. Instead it is one of a man whose had a passion for the job he undertook and who describes his times and experiences by someone who was on ‘the inside’.

ISBN 978-1-915281-04-3

Terry Nicholls £24.50

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Saltash Auto to HST

Saltash Auto to HST

The Memoirs of a Western Region Railwayman Terry Nicholls

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© Design and Images: The Transport Treasury 2023. Text: Terry Nicholls ISBN 978-1-915281-04-3 First published in 2023 by Transport Treasury Publishing Ltd., 16 Highworth Close, High Wycombe, HP13 7PJ Turntable Publishing, An imprint of Transport Treasury Publishing www.ttpublishing.co.uk Printed in Tarxien, Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd. The copyright holders hereby give notice that all rights to this work are reserved.

Aside from brief passages for the purpose of review, no part of this work may be reproduced, copied by electronic or other means, or otherwise stored in any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the Publisher. This includes the illustrations here in which shall remain the copyright of the copyright holder.

Unless stated otherwise, all images are by Terry Nicholls

Front cover: HST sets in St Philip’s Marsh, 12 August 1976. Unit nos; 253 005/007 and 001 await their next duties.

Frontispiece: The final year of the Kings at Laira. No 6011 King James I photographed on 15 September 1962. This fine engine was taken out of service just three months later.

Rear cover: Into the sunset...

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Saltash Auto to HST Contents Chapter 1: Formative Years

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Chapter 2: Plymouth Millbay

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Chapter 3: Laira 21 Chapter 4: Laira pictorial - changover from steam

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Chapter 5: Bristol - Locomotive Engineer’s Department

Chapter 6: Bristol and Swindon Control Offices

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Chapter 7: Retirement 97 Chapter 8: Tail Lamp 102

Introduction

O

ver the last fifty years or so I have given numerous slide presentations to various railway societies and camera clubs, often elucidating the question, ‘Why don’t you publish a book?’

and a whole new era of photography emerged. My mother’s 1930 Brownie Box camera was sidelined in 1958 when a Zeiss Nettar was acquired for the grand sum of £8, although at the time almost three weeks’ wages for a young railway clerk. The added attraction of taking colour slides in 1962 resulted in the purchase of a 35mm Kodak Retinette which in turn was replaced by a Minolta SR3, a single lens reflex camera and one of the first with a bayonet fitting lens as opposed to a screw thread. Over the years, a variety of Minolta SLRs have seen regular use. The digital age has never caught on with me and a camera has always been my preference to a computer with a lens attached to it.

With time on my hands during 2020, some serious thought was given to that very topic and which has resulted in putting pen to paper to accompany a selection of photographs taken over the last 50+ years.

Born the son of a former tin miner from St. Just in West Cornwall and a mother from Saltash in East Cornwall, I was brought up in St. Budeaux on the Devon side of the Royal Albert Bridge, moving house three times – always within sight of both the Great Western main line into Cornwall and the Southern (LSWR) main line to Exeter via Okehampton. This is where my interest in railways was first nurtured in the late 1940s, followed by photography a few years later. Leaving school in 1957 these two interests were combined by employment with British Railways at Plymouth Millbay, to be followed by a spell at Laira before promotion took me to the new Divisional Offices at Bristol.

Over time railway management became aware that I was ‘handy with a camera’ and I was often called upon to attend various functions, as well as accidents and incidents. This occurred throughout my forty-year railway career and, combined with my own enthusiasm for recording the passing railway scene, enabled me to build up my own photographic collection from the steam age right through to that of the HST. Having worked at Millbay, Laira, Bristol and finally Swindon, my claim to being a ‘Western’ man is fully justified. The combined hobbies of photography and railways have taken me all over this country, as well as many different parts of the world, but that is another story.

I also became a member of the Plymouth Railway Circle and the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, my photographic interests enhanced by discovering that the BR Staff Association in Bristol had a camera club and a darkroom facility, the latter housed in one of the arches supporting Brunel’s 1840 original GWR terminus with its hammer-beam roof.

Being neither an engineer nor a historian, but having progressed through the clerical grades from Junior Clerk at Millbay to one of the Senior Controllers on the Western Region at 125 House, Swindon, I feel a great sense of pride and satisfaction at being part of a railway family covering some six generations; from the broad gauge in 1870 with my wife’s great grandfather, right through to today with a son, a grandson and a granddaughter all carrying on the tradition as drivers on the WR HST sets.

The RCTS also had a ‘Photographic Portfolio’ which travelled the country, the various entries being commented upon by all the other members. All of these sources of advice and encouragement, combined with inside access to the workings of the railway, led to a very enjoyable situation. Black and white photography was then supplemented by colour slide film 33

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A proud man with one of the nameplates from D1013 Western Ranger. The red background came about as a result of conversations between staff at Bristol and Laira.

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Saltash Auto to HST

Chapter 1

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Formative Years

ome of my earliest recollections at St. Budeaux include seeing the regular Castle, County, Hall, Grange and Manor class engines based at Exeter, Newton Abbot, Laira, St. Blazey, Truro and Penzance, as well as numerous smaller tank engines varying from panniers to the heavy freight tanks used on the china clay trains. The Saltash autos, or motors as they were sometimes referred to, featured on a regular basis with an extensive suburban service and were regularly used by family members visiting other family members living in Saltash.

of tuppence we could get a return ticket to Saltash over the Royal Albert Bridge on one of the ‘Saltash Motors’ (a term still used by the older generations with reference to the steam railmotors that used to work these services). This would be a push-pull working with a 64xx pannier tank and two coaches or on certain services with the engine sandwiched in the middle of four coaches. On the return journey, if the driver in the leading vestibule (now being propelled back to Plymouth) left the door to the passenger compartment open, we had a wonderful view of the spans of Brunel’s 1859 masterpiece as we quietly rolled through this cathedral of ironwork.

On the Southern line, the Devon Belle could be seen with its Bulleid pacific and Plymouth portion of the train on its way to Plymouth Friary. Also the little tank locomotives of the former Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway named Earl of Mount Edgcumbe and Lord St. Levan, plus regular M7s working to Tavistock and the T9s working to Exeter. Laira based Star No 4054 Princess Charlotte was used on the daily exchange trips to Exeter via Okehampton and was always in excellent external condition. This exchange working was to maintain driver route knowledge over the Southern line in case there were problems with the GWR coastal route via Dawlish. A similar working with a Southern loco and crew from Exmouth Junction operated over the GWR line.

By the late 1940s, my family had moved to Fletemoor Road (the spelling is correct) in St. Budeaux which overlooked both the Southern and Western lines and their respective stations at Victoria Road and Ferry Road. We could even see the spans of the Royal Albert Bridge and the line at Coombe-by-Saltash and Wearde in Cornwall. Some of us spotters used to gather in a lane on the south side of the Western line, which enabled us to see all the loco numbers on both lines. The Southern route was farther away, but to counter this the Southern locos had larger painted numbers and were easy to read unlike the Great Western with dark numbers and nameplates. An added interest at this location was St. Budeaux East signal box situated between Keyham to the east and the Royal Albert Bridge box to the west.

St. Budeaux East had a 36-lever frame and the 250-mile post at the foot of the steps, which of course was the GWR mileage from Paddington via Bristol and Plymouth Millbay. The signal box was subsequently renamed St. Budeaux Ferry Road following the closure of St. Budeaux West. In addition to the main line to Cornwall, this signal box accepted the regular trip from the Southern line to Keyham and Devonport Dockyard worked by an LSWR O2 and also controlled the short siding into Bull Point armament depot, normally worked by a pannier tank. It was at this location some time in 1952 that another spotter told me he had seen an engine with the number 70019. Needless to say I did not believe him, commenting there was no engine with that number. Later I had to eat my words when brand new pacific No 70019 Lightning appeared again later in the day on its return from Cornwall. It was the first of several Britannia class engines to be based at Laira and which could be identified from a long way off due to their melodious chime whistles.

Loco spotting came into its own in the late 1940s whilst still at junior school, the Ian Allan ABCs for the Western and Southern regions being acquired from the bookstall at Plymouth North Road station, courtesy of a maiden aunt who was the only family member who ever understood my interest in railways. She always turned up with suitable presents at birthdays and Christmas time. Best of all was her offer to take me to Exeter train spotting if the school scholarship was passed. There could not have been a better incentive.

Indeed it was thanks to her that I saw my first blue King at Plymouth North Road (Kings did not work beyond Plymouth) and my first blue Merchant Navy at Exeter, apart from numerous other ‘cops’ of course. It was on this visit to Exeter that I also witnessed my first railway incident which took place at St. David’s. A freight with a Bulleid pacific at the front was in the platform with two bankers on the rear preparing to go up the 1 in 37 bank to Exeter Central. As was the practice, they all whistled up, but the bankers were a bit on the slow side with the Bulleid making the initial move. There was a snatch and the train parted in front of me with the draw-bar pulled out of one of the wagons. The front portion of the freight then came to a stand but this was just as the bankers opened up with the rear portion. There was an almighty crash as the two portions collided, one wagon jumping in the air well clear of the track before crashing back down again without being derailed.

It was around this time that a friendship started with one of the regular signalmen at St. Budeaux, Norman Buckingham. This resulted in an invitation to visit the box on a regular basis, where now my spotting was done from a very privileged position. Many memories come to mind and after being encouraged to ring a few bells and pull a few levers, I progressed over time to more or less work the box. Even so a few incidents of note are memorable.

Firstly, the box was under the supervision of Mr Rouse, the Station Master at St. Budeaux, and normally the signalman would be given the tip that Mr Rouse was on his way when a

Back home, it was around this time that our little group of St. Budeaux spotters had discovered that for the princely sum 5

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Saltash Auto to HST quick getaway was made. On the odd occasion this information was not forthcoming and Mr Rouse was seen coming down the line. The procedure then was to remove three of the floor plates where there were no levers and to quickly climb down into the base of the box lever frame with dire threats not to make a sound. When the station master arrived the usual greetings were exchanged and the train register signed, after which he returned to the station. Of course I could have hidden in the toilet, but what if Mr Rouse was taken short?

delays to the Control Office and proceeded to get a little book from his locker. He then showed me a list of excuses which he had used on various occasions in the past and kept a record for future use.

On this occasion, the selected excuse was he had gone to investigate a sheet of what he thought was galvanised iron on the line (it genuinely was very windy), but which turned out to be cardboard.

The presence of this list never left my thoughts and put a smile on my face when later working in Bristol and Swindon Controls and hearing some very doubtful excuses for various delays.

On another occasion, a summer Saturday, my enthusiasm got the better of me when putting the levers back and the starter along with Keyham’s distant signal was thrown back in front of a double-headed up express. The train screamed to a halt on Weston Mill Viaduct. The signalman waved his green flag out of the box window which was acknowledged by the guard and loco crew and that was the last we heard of that little incident. Needless to say, it was not the last I heard of it.

I always loved the smell of mechanical signal boxes, the coal stove, the gas lighting and the aroma from everything that was being continually polished by very proud and conscientious men.

Other signalmen at St. Budeaux subsequently befriended were Martin Dennis and Bert Arscott. It was also from the steps of this signal box that my first experiment took place with my mother’s 1930s Brownie Box camera in 1956 and the photograph of the driver of a Saltash to Plymouth-bound auto in the leading vestibule of a push-pull motor, as they were still referred to, is what led to the initial part of the title when putting this memoir together.

A third incident comes to mind and started with a phone call from the signalman at Royal Albert Bridge signal box wanting to know why the last up train was taking so long to clear? There were two or three trains at a stand and yours truly had forgotten to give ‘Train out of section’ and put the block instrument back to normal. Norman commented we would likely have to explain the

From the steps of St. Budeaux signal box, a Saltash to Plymouth auto working.

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Saltash Auto to HST

This time we see another auto working but in the opposite direction. St. Budeaux East signal box is on the left where I learnt the rudiments of signalling – and hid from the station master under the lever frame.

Becoming a teenager in 1953 also enabled me to be taken on as a paper boy and the money earned from Mardon’s Newsagents in St. Budeaux Square enabled me to buy a brand new Phillips Kingfisher drop handlebar bicycle with three dérailleur gears.

This enabled me to make regular visits to the engine shed at Laira

with its roundhouse and long shed, which on occasions was host to almost 100 steam locomotives. As an example, on Christmas Day 1957, the following 88 locomotives were recorded on shed, this being the final year of 100% steam operation.

Engines noted on visit:

1010/21 1362/63/64 1408/34 1650 2824/43 3629/39/75/86 3787/90 3842 4077/88 4583/90

4653/56/58/79 4705 4944 5023/28/54/56/58/69/74/89/98 5106/75/93 5531/69 5967/93/99 6000/04/08/13/24/25/26/27 6301/19/28/51/59 6406/07/19/20/21

Family Holiday Runabout tickets later provided a week of train and beach trips with the Devon ticket taking us as far as Dawlish Warren and down to Torquay, Paignton and Goodrington.

Climbing over the South Devon banks with a County or a Castle was a thrilling delight and music to my ears with my head out of the window to spot any loco coming the other way. It was on one of these family holidays on a very crowded beach at Dawlish when a very strange noise was heard coming from the station direction. Something unusual was standing in the station and

6816/21/25/49/58 6919/37/41/45/77/86 7013/14/31/35 7762 7813/20 8426 8709 9433/67 9711/16/70 73027

because of this all the holidaymakers were gradually giving it some attention. By the time it left and roared past us, almost everybody was standing up watching the future going by. It was the new Gas Turbine No 18100 which attained the nickname of the Kerosene Castle. I know now it made very few excursions to the west so I was extremely fortunate to see it. Another rarity was a brand new BR Standard 2-6-0, No 77006, fresh from Swindon Works on a freight heading west. This loco was destined for Scotland, but was heading in the wrong direction!

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Saltash Auto to HST

No 6410 on a Saltash auto passing Royal Albert Bridge signal box on 2 October 1959.

Whilst at school at Coburg Street (Public Central), joining the after-school ‘Railroaders’ club gave me the opportunity to give my first railway talk with the aid of an exploded diagram of a Great Western King obtained from the Eagle comic. We also had a school visit to Newton Abbot Works during a working day. I can still recall hearing the cacophony of sound from the various tasks being performed, including riveting and all the machinery driven by belts operated by the remains of a former locomotive.

After major overhauls, locos were often put on banking turns for freight trains at Aller Junction, climbing the 1 in 37 of Dainton Bank. Another thing I had learnt to look out for on our week's runabout ticket during the summer holidays.

another 20 years before I was able to stand on the top of the spans and rectify this old score.

Other notable ‘cops’ in my early spotting days were the only Bulldog I ever saw, No 3453 Seagull, at Plymouth North Road and similarly Dean Goods No 2411 viewed through the grimy windows of the roundhouse at Laira with Titfield Thunderbolt chalked on its splashers.

North Road Station was a hive of activity on Summer Saturdays with Cornish holiday trains. Double-headed services over the South Devon banks to and from Newton Abbot were another regular feature and I specifically recall a Castle class engine arriving with a very strange number – not a 40, 50 or 70 but carrying the number 111 and named Viscount Churchill. Of course, I subsequently became aware of its history as the 1924 rebuild of The Great Bear, the only 4-6-2 that the GWR had and never really wanted or required. My, by now, rather old and tatty 1949 Ian Allan ABC shows that a total of some 17 Saints and 24 Stars were observed, some of which, during the war, had their nameplates removed. My first diesels were spotted at Exeter Central in the form of 10201/2/3 in 1953/4 and a couple of Eastern Region V2s, Nos 60896 and 60916, were recorded having worked expresses from Waterloo after the temporary

In 1956 when approaching the age of 16 and accepted as a member of the Plymouth Railway Circle with its regular meetings and visits to various railway locations, I recall one of the first meetings I attended was a talk about the Royal Albert Bridge. The lecturer had recently visited two very elderly ladies in Saltash who as children had watched Brunel's masterpiece being built. Accordingly a PRC visit to the Royal Albert Bridge was planned and members registered their interest to take part.

Having lived within sight of the famous bridge and crossed it numerous times by train, I was distraught when my application was refused as I was still one month under the age of 16. It took 8

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Saltash Auto to HST withdrawal of the Merchant Navy class due to an axle fracture at Crewkerne. A similar situation arose on the Western Region in 1956 when the Kings suffered bogie and frame fractures and the whole Class was temporarily withdrawn. A number of Pacifics from the Midland Region were drafted in to cover the Kings and included 46210 Lady Patricia which failed on its first outing to the West with a collapsed brick arch and spent several weeks in Laira long shed under repair. It was recorded as being there on 11 February 1956.

On another spotting day out to Newton Abbot and Exeter, a freight was passed in one of the Dawlish tunnels.

A glimpse of the loco number in the lights from our coach revealed it was a very rare Mogul, No 6369, which was a cop for all of us except that no-one believed I could have seen the number. However, on our return journey, as we passed the coaling line at Laira, there was the same No 6369 in the long queue of engines waiting to be coaled. For some time after that my nickname was ‘Hawkeye’.

As a young spotter in the mid-1950s, I missed out on what would have been my first visit to Bristol. It was a summer Saturday and our little group of half-a-dozen planned to go to Newton Abbot or Exeter. For some reason or other, I was not able to join them and subsequently found out that they had all been on to Bristol.

If my memory is correct, they joined a double-headed train which turned out to be first stop Hereford. It did stop at Newton Abbot to detach the pilot loco, but only on the through line.

Concerned, they made the Guard aware of their predicament and he decided to detrain them at St. Philip’s Marsh, where he and the loco crew had relief on the Bristol avoiding line adjacent to the engine shed (82B) and escorted them via Bath Road (82A) back to Bristol Temple Meads for their return train.

The Southern workings into and through Plymouth North Road to Plymouth Friary (the LSWR terminus from 1891) were regarded as somewhat secondary when travelling over Western metals. The rather small engine shed at Plymouth Friary (72D) was not visited very often by spotters with its small allocation of regular locomotives and the occasional visitors from Exmouth Junction (72A) as they could all be seen at St. Budeaux or Plymouth North Road stations. I recall one of Plymouth Friary’s four West Country pacifics, No 34036 Westward Ho!, caught fire at St. Budeaux with the local fire brigade attending. The cause was the usual oil soaked boiler cladding catching alight. Having paid witness to the scene, my legs could not get me to Laira on my bicycle fast enough to inform all the regular spotters. Having

No 4950 Patshull Hall coming into Devon across the Royal Albert Bridge on 3 October 1959 with the St Erth to Kensington milk train.

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Saltash Auto to HST Former LSWR O2 No 30193 photographed at Calstock on a trip out, 28 March 1959.

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Saltash Auto to HST announced that Westward Ho! was on fire at St. Budeaux, my thunder was totally stolen when another bright spark announced that 34033 was CHARRED (proper name Chard).

Lode Star and the Dean Goods No 2516, both of which were destined for the old museum near the works entrance; a former chapel for the workers of the GWR and their families. Swindon was always an exciting place to visit as we never knew what we were going to see. On a Sunday group visit, you more or less had a free run of the place, although the original group would have set off under the auspices of Bert Stratford, the regular guide who is recalled as having a wonderful deep Wiltshire accent.

After visiting the shed (82C), the Works yard and the turntable area, it was into ‘A’ Shop where locos were stripped bare and completely rebuilt. The final part of any visit was ‘C’ Shop where the scrap locos received their final call to the cutter’s torch. The location of this spot was at the far west end of the yard near to the old MSWJ line on which were placed signals facing the Works for testing drivers’ eyesight during their regular medical examinations. A daunting prospect for all drivers if any defect was found, as failure meant being confined to local workings or even restricted to shed work turning locos and preparing them for the main lines they used to work.

Apart from visits to all the engine sheds west of Taunton, my own first visit to Bristol was in April 1956 when visits to all three sheds produced 149 cops. This was followed by a couple of trips to South Wales sheds where there were still tank engines in existence from the Taff Vale, Rhymney and Barry railways.

Further visits were made to almost all Western Region sheds as well as many on the Midland and Southern regions. The Eastern Region always seemed somewhat remote whilst living in Plymouth, but a trip to the London area and Stratford shed in May 1957 recorded no less than 190 locomotives. All of these totals would be eclipsed in May 1959 with a week’s Rail Rover ticket for the Eastern and North Eastern regions, starting out behind No 6004 King George III from Plymouth to Paddington and an overnight train from King’s Cross to Newcastle with No 60022 Mallard on the front. The final total was 1,521 new cops out of a grand total of 2,446 locos seen, including 182 diesels.

A true spotter’s bonanza and all for the £9 cost of the Rail Rover ticket. It was only slightly marred on the first day when my companion and I were ushered out of Gateshead shed by a member of the BTP, only to be caught again by the same copper whilst bunking Burrough Gardens Shed!

Further visits to Swindon witnessed BR 9Fs being built alongside the D800 series diesel hydraulics. As an example, on Sunday, 8 March 1959, in ‘A’ Shop D808/D809/D810 and D811 were recorded along with Nos 92203/204/205/206/207, as well as 204hp diesel shunters Nos D2039/40/41/42/43. On the return journey to Plymouth, our steam loco had been replaced by a brand new pair of North British D63xx diesels in multiple, Nos D6301 and D6302, working their passage from Glasgow to Laira.

Back on more familiar ground, my first visit to Swindon Works and shed in August of 1957 recorded 136 locos in the works and a further 53 on the sheds. The stock shed housed Star No 4003

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Saltash Auto to HST Triple heading towards North Road with the new A38 road bridge dwarfing Mr Brunel’s 1859 creation. The locomotives are individually identified but may be seen as a Warship at the head of a pair of Type 2s. On the right is the LSWR route which will soon head north on the Devon side of the River Tamar to Bere Alston, Tavistock, Okehampton and eventually Exeter. Both the GWR and SR had stations at St. Budeaux, respectively Ferry Road and Victoria Road. In the foreground is the WW2 connection provided between the two systems. 15 June 1963.

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On the same day, this time it is a train on the Southern line heading towards Friary with a BR Standard class 4 tank piloting a North British Type 2 on four coaches and a van. We cannot tell if the diesel was working, possibly not, as the usual rule was to couple the steam engine ‘inside’ and so prevent cinders and ash being sucked into the diesel air intakes.

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Saltash Auto to2HST Chapter

Plymouth Millbay

T

he prospect of leaving school after taking GCE exams in 1957 resulted in thoughts of becoming a draughtsman on the railway and led to an application to the District Civil Engineer at Plymouth North Road station. Advice that it would be necessary to go to Swindon for training made me decide against the prospect. Later Swindon would crop up again in what was one of life’s strange coincidences when I was allocated to a post working in Swindon Control following the closure of the Bristol office.

my left ear – a complication from scarlet fever at the age of four.

Becoming a signalman or working on the footplate was thus out of the question, but it did not preclude me from office work. I might add the hearing test involved putting a finger in each ear, but the right finger did not get right into my right ear..!

After two weeks’ training with the previous occupant of the post, the duties of Area Foreman’s Clerk were taken on, at an annual salary of £186. I was told the foreman was to be addressed as Sam in the office but Mr Cooper in front of the men. The duties involved general administration in looking after Carriage & Wagon Examiners, Oilers, Fitters and other staff in the Plymouth area which covered Plymouth Millbay, Millbay Docks, Plymouth North Road, Plymouth Friary, Laira and Tavistock Junction Yards, Devonport King’s Road and Okehampton (Meldon) Quarry. The ordering of stores, mostly from Swindon, was paramount along with Rostering, Paybills and the weekly pay day on a Thursday. The latter also included all the locallybased loco crews who worked the Pilots at North Road, Millbay and The Docks. The old Millbay station itself was originally the terminus of the South Devon Railway opened in 1849, being joined by the Cornwall Railway in 1859. Passenger traffic ceased during the war in 1941 and it was subsequently used for stabling coaching stock until 1969.

Notwithstanding my declining the initial offer, it was clear my interest in the railway had been registered and an alternative post of clerk to the Area Carriage & Wagon Foreman (Sam Cooper) at Plymouth Millbay was offered, and which I gladly accepted; conditional upon passing the clerical entrance examination. This exam was taken (and passed) at Newton Abbot in the station offices of the Running & Maintenance Superintendent, Mr T. (Tommy) R. Hall who was responsible for the area from Taunton to Penzance, including all locomotive depots in the ‘83’ district.

Fortunately, when the school GCE results came out, secured passes in all of my eight subjects meant the railway would have accepted me without taking their own exam. The necessary medical was required which also took place in Newton Abbot and which confirmed something I already knew as I was deaf in

St. Budeaux Ferry Road (GWR) signal box; the Southern lines again in the background. As may be seen from the milepost, this signal box was 250 miles from Paddington but was closed when the area was taken over by the extended Plymouth panel in July 1973.

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The Southern lines climbed to a higher level than the GW route east of St. Budeaux as witness here with ‘N’ No 31838 heading towards Plymouth against the evening sun.

The office was the base of the original GWR signal box situated between the carriage sidings at Harwell/Belmont and Millbay, built of red brick and comprised of a store room at one end, a shunters’ cabin at the other end and the C. & W. Foreman’s office sandwiched in the middle. The sound of the shunters playing dominoes during one of the quieter periods still resonates with me.

found its feet and took the train away, leaving us chasing it to Cornwall Junction.

On another occasion, the first 350hp diesel shunter, No D3509, was shunting Millbay goods yard and when the driver collected his pay on a Thursday morning, an invitation to come over and have a go on this new locomotive was duly taken up. Driver McCauley was very impressed with it as he did not need to keep taking on water and the loco would also keep going for a couple of weeks on a single tank of fuel.

A good working relationship with all the men soon ensued and a realisation that if you looked after them, then they in turn would look after you. Many of them had nicknames such as ‘Chippy’, ‘Dolly’, and one I particularly recall as ‘Effum’ (so named as that was his response to everyone in authority). There was also ‘Sputnik’ who went around in circles and got nowhere.

Living at St. Budeaux and working in Millbay entitled me to free residential travel into Plymouth North Road with a walk to the access gate at Harwell carriage sidings and a walk down the boards over the point rodding to the office. This latter situation could have led to the early termination of my railway career.

Gravity shunting moves were made with stock pulled out of the carriage sidings by the Pilot loco and then allowed to run down the gradient into the old Millbay station platforms, where they were stopped by the on-board shunter applying the handbrake.

To get to the office involved a walk on boards over point rodding which was against a wall on a high embankment with enough room to walk along between a train and the wall. On this particular morning, whilst walking down the boards to the

The highlight of activity in Millbay and the Docks in 1957/58 was the running of an ‘Ocean Mail’ or Boat Train with the passengers from a trans-Atlantic liner. Normally, a Laira Castle would be rostered to work this train non-stop from the Dock station to Paddington. In addition one of the 1361 class saddle tanks was normally rostered to steam-heat the boat train stock and if requested to give the train a push up the incline out of the docks and on up to Cornwall Junction. On one occasion, a footplate ride on the so-called banker went well until the Castle 16

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Saltash Auto to HST office, a gravity shunt was taking place with the stock rolling past my shoulder. I don’t know to this day what made me turn around and look back, but the end of a buffer-locked and consequently out of gauge coach was bearing down and, having seen it, I was fortunately able to run and keep ahead of it. On another occasion, a gravity shunting move was rolling past the office with the shunter in the Guard’s brake van yelling to the signalman that the handbrake would not hold. We all rushed outside and waited for the inevitable crunch and big cloud of dust when it hit the stop blocks in the old Millbay station.

(District Superintendent’s Office) at Millbay Station, we were taken back to Millbay Station by taxi and escorted to the office.

Another long lasting memory of the pay day was when some of the men’s wives could be seen waiting for the money to be passed out through the railings at Harwell Street. It was on one of these Thursday pay days that an examiner named Norman Spry came in and threw a small half ticket on the desk, by this time the men well aware of my interest in anything to do with the railways and its history. The ticket was dated 20 May 1892, and on the back in very tiny handwriting had been written ‘This ticket was used on the last broad gauge train to leave Plymouth Millbay’. The ticket cost a penny from Millbay to North Road and was cut in half for the one-way journey. If only he had bought a return! Needless to say, it remained one of my prized possessions.

My railway pass enabled me to travel to and from Plymouth North Road on the Auto-fitted push-pull motors as they were referred to, worked by 64xx pannier tanks, which in the morning rush hour were full of commuters from Saltash, including a lot of young girl shop assistants and office staff. One morning, having joined the crowded train, my mother, with her top coat over her pyjamas, was seen by all running down the station slope at St. Budeaux Ferry Road with my packet of sandwiches which she gave to the poor Guard, telling him, ‘My boy is on your train’. He came through the train offering the sandwiches to one and all until I claimed them, at the same time cringing with embarrassment!

Practical jokes were a regular feature and this might be through the parcels service. One such situation was when a heavy parcel was left on the station platform with a pink UVS label attached.

The Foreman, Sam Cooper, struggled getting it to the store, only to find that it contained a cut-off section of rail for the ‘Nicholls Railway Museum’. Some other, shall we say, ‘unmentionables’ turned up, from time to time too.

The ordering of stores was done on a four-weekly basis when the fixed stock items were replenished, various codes used to determine the amounts required, i.e. a single item, a dozen, a score or a gross. On one such order, the wrong code was entered and instead of the required amount a wagon full of nuts and bolts arrived from Swindon. The Foreman quickly arranged their dispersal around the area in the hope that the auditor would not find my mistake. Other items were ordered on a non-stock basis, but most important was the special pink order headed UVS (Urgent – Vehicle Standing) which was for a vehicle urgently needing a particular item.

With regard to practical jokes, one morning on arrival at the office, everything was covered in soot, including the Foreman.

We had a coal stove in the middle of the office which Sam had lit and built it up on what was a cold winter’s morning. Unbeknown to him, someone who was never identified had hung a detonator from a piece of string down the chimney. It slowly cooked until exploding with the said result.

My expertise as a previous amateur signalman at St. Budeaux caused me a problem on one occasion in Millbay signal box.

One Saturday morning after working on the week’s paybills for the C.&W. Examiners, it was my intention to ride on an ECS to North Road and then catch the Saltash motor home. There was time to spare so I made my way up the signal box stairs and was greeted by my friend, relief signalman Larry Crosier, where I enjoyed myself by pulling every lever number he called out.

All was fine until I found myself standing there with my mouth open as my own train, ECS, rolled by the box without me. I had pulled off the signal for my own train which, being an empty stock working, did not have to work to time. Larry never let me forget that.

At this time, Restaurant and Sleeping cars were being converted from oil gas to propane, which was supplied in red canisters from Skewen, near Llandarcy. Orders gradually increased and supplies would arrive in open wagons pulled for hundreds of miles in close proximity to a steam engine...

The store itself and the nearby office were also home to families of vermin, they were dealt with by leaving a drum of grease uncovered at night so that anything trying to eat the grease was likely to fall in. It worked sometimes. Carbide was also provided for lighting the examiners’ hand lamps and a piece concealed in some bread would similarly do the trick, not only with the rats and mice but the unwelcome seagulls tempted to settle on the cabin’s warm roof.

Having joined the Plymouth Railway Circle in 1956, several railway enthusiasts and amateur photographers became lifelong friends; along with Larry Crosier came Mike Daly and Maurice Dart who were all instrumental in furthering my interest in railways and photography. All four of us lived in the St. Budeaux area and regarded ourselves as the ‘St. Budeaux Railway Circle’, much to the annoyance of some members of the Plymouth Railway Circle. We even had some headed notepaper printed as a joke. Being the youngest, I was naturally regarded as ‘The Boy’ and they had taken me under their wing, so to speak.

Pay day on a Thursday was always a pleasure because I got to see all the men, have a chat and joke and keep up to date with any complaints as well as details of their families and social life. The pay packets were collected from the cash office at North Road station and along with a senior member of staff from the DSO 17

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The Southern engine with the longest name, Sir Eustace Missenden, Southern Railway, pulling in to Victoria Road with the Plymouth portion of a through service from Waterloo. What had started off as perhaps a 12 coach train had been cut at least once, leaving just three passenger coaches (BR Mk1 set No 886) and a van. Western Region influence sees the nameboards in WR colours.

Numerous ‘shed bashes’ and branch line visits took place during the late 1950s including railtours to Wenford Bridge with a Beattie well tank, No 30587, one of three 1874-built engines based at Wadebridge, and a superb trip from Plymouth to Penzance and back behind No 3440 City of Truro on 15 September 1957. A grand day out for 13/6d, travelling behind the loco in the front coach with those coupling rods dancing up and down all the way through Cornwall.

railway activity on Summer Saturdays at places like Plymouth, Newton Abbot and Exeter had to be seen to be believed with most trains double-headed over the South Devon banks in both directions. There was the added complication of trains leaving Plymouth in both directions for Exeter and trains leaving Exeter in both directions for Plymouth and London. These all provided many photographic opportunities.

There was, of course, a downside to the late 1950s long before Dr Beeching came on the scene. This came on 1 November 1958, with the closure of the Totnes - Ashburton branch to passengers.

It was celebrated with a five-coach train of non-corridor vehicles and two 14xx tank engines, Nos 1466 and 1470, both based at Newton Abbot (83A). The last train was the 7.25pm from Ashburton to Totnes with 1470 as the leading engine. My GWR privilege return ticket from Plymouth North Road to Ashburton is another prized memento. This closure was followed soon after on 28 February 1959 by the end of passenger services on the Moretonhampstead branch. Here the final day’s services were worked by large Prairie tank No 4117 and, having done a couple of return trips in daylight, was in charge of the 9.15pm from Moretonhampstead to Newton Abbot. This final train was quite a riotous affair with all the locals turning out and the explosion of many detonators. Nearby, the Teign Valley line from Exeter to its junction with the Moretonhampstead branch at Heathfield had

A favourite trip from Plymouth to Padstow would involve a Hall, County or Manor to Bodmin Road, connecting into a 45xx with its ‘B’ set of non-corridor coaches to Bodmin General. Then the walk across the town to Bodmin North station (with fish and chips on the way) to join a Wadebridge based LSWR O2 Tank of 1889 vintage with Southern stock for the trip to Wadebridge, where an ‘N’, ‘T9’ or even a Bulleid pacific would take us on the final leg of our day trip to Padstow. This included a visit to the quaint but delightful engine shed at Wadebridge with its own code of 72F. Four trains with four very different locomotives and rolling stock. What a wonderful era it was with the variety of locomotives and rolling stock and the freedom to get almost anywhere by train.

In the summer of 1958, a Zeiss Nettar camera had been acquired which took 120 film, producing 2¼” square negatives. The 18

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Saltash Auto to HST previously closed on 7 June 1958, the final service here hauled by small Prairie tank No 5533 bedecked in wreaths and flowers.

If we had only known these closures were but a prelude to what was to come under the Beeching plan just a few years later.

hydraulics were just arriving from Glasgow (North British) and Swindon, but steam was still King and Castle and almost everything was still Great Western in all but name. Indeed, at times Laira (83D) had more Kings allocated than either Old Oak Common (81A) or Wolverhampton Stafford Road (84A) and should really have been in the (83A) of the Newton Abbot district, but that goes back to the days of the South Devon Railway.

In January 1959, the District Running & Maintenance Office at Newton Abbot decided to transfer me to the loco shed at Laira, a move which delighted me no end. The first of the new diesel

City of Truro on the occasion of its Plymouth to Penzance trip of 15 September 1957. Terry travelled in the front coach on the outward journey and no doubt looked out of the window on several occasions; hence his comment about the coupling rods.

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Millbay signal box with its 115 lever frame. It was here one Saturday that I was so engrossed in my amateur signalling that I pulled off for my own train, forgetting to board it first!

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Saltash Auto to3HST Chapter

Laira

T

he name Laira was an original name for a creek on the River Plym, reclaimed from the water and which became the site of the GWR engine shed; the latter supported on arches because of the soft ground. This steam shed comprised a roundhouse with 28 radiating bays around the turntable and was opened in 1901. An additional long, or as it was known, ‘new shed’ with four tracks was opened in 1932, as well as a coal stage, stores, plus a 50-ton hoist. A diesel fuelling point was added beside the long shed in 1958 replacing what was originally provided for oil-fired steam locomotives in 1946. Two roads inside the ‘new shed’ were initially used for servicing diesels, later changed to all four roads as the number of diesels increased, but which again reverted to steam when the new diesel depot opened in 1962.

The steam shed was full of characters with a wonderful variety of jobs being undertaken both day and night, including footplate staff, fitters, boilersmiths, tube cleaners, fire droppers and the coalmen on the coal stage.

time of the day or night with over 300 drivers and firemen as well as the shed staff booking on and off duty. The time office as it was known was situated between the Running Foreman’s office and the Chief Clerk’s office and opposite the Shedmaster’s abode – the inner sanctum. Recalling some of the working practices from the steam age some 60 years ago is now a bit blurred, but some incidents have stuck in my mind over the years.

The changeover from night to early turn took place at 7.00 am and to get there meant travelling on the St. Austell workmen’s train from St. Budeaux, which was crammed with workers from Cornish stations going to Devonport Dockyard, all either asleep or smoking. When the train got to Plymouth, it then went empty stock to Laira carriage sidings. This was my usual means of transport, requiring just a walk across the running lines to reach the shed. One morning though I fell asleep between Plymouth and Laira and of course the guard did not see fit to wake me. I came to two hours later at 9.00 am, meaning a rather late start to the early turn shift and regular reminders as well as suitable comments from my colleagues.

As a shed clerk, my duties included timekeeping, rostering, stores and a new post entitled ‘diesel documentation’ which was to play a large part in my future career with the railway. Timekeeping was, without doubt, the most rewarding, being in touch at some

Other times I might secure a footplate ride whenever good terms

On transfer from Millbay to Laira at the age of 18 and three months, my annual salary was £309.

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Saltash Auto to HST existed with the footplate crew. Being the one who booked them on and off duty helped. There were a considerable number of light engine movements between Laira and Plymouth North Road as well as Plymouth Millbay. On summer Saturdays in particular, many locomotives were coupled together in order to reduce track occupancy over the main line section. A convoy would include pairs of locomotives off Laira for Up trains from Cornwall and incoming pairs of locos of Down trains heading for the shed at Laira. An incongruous combination occurred when the Millbay Dock 1361 class saddle tank made its way back to Laira for weekend servicing. It would be coupled up to any other locos going to the shed and on occasions could be coupled to a King, the tank engine only about half the size of a King tender. One Saturday, a driver and fireman were booked on and given their loco number which was No 4905 Barton Hall. When I asked for a ride into North Road where they were taking over a train to Penzance, I was told to stick with them and they would slow down and drop me off at St. Budeaux. This they did whilst the driver was reading the bible. On arrival at home my mother said ‘You are early….where have you come from?’ and when the station was mentioned, she knew the workings and said ‘That train did not stop.’ Needless to say, a severe ear-bashing followed and it was never repeated.

The Laira carriage sidings were adjacent to the double-home hostel where Old Oak Common, Bristol and Westbury men were accommodated. The Old Oak Common double-home men with their Cockney accents always used to raise a laugh or even an eyebrow when booking on or off. It was the time clerk’s duty to obtain an explanation for any time lost en-route, with one driver stating a minute or two lost at all the places with the longest names like Keinton Mandeville and Norton Fitzwarren plus Bishopsteignton. Young staff were always a target for the older hands.

With the arrival of the first diesel hydraulics, the Running Foreman was interested in the opinion of the crews and would ask any driver booking off if there was anything wrong with his diesel. My memory of an OOC man’s reply on one occasion still rings in my ears as I write this. His reply in a deep Cockney accent was ‘Guv’nor, there is only one effing fing wrong with that effing diesel and that is every effing fing!’ Clearly a steam man through and through.

Bristol men were always referred to as ‘Bristol George’, presumably a reference to Georges Brewery which was a prominent feature in the Bristol area. A recollection of the Foreman asking if Bristol

No 1361 complete with shunter’s truck and the latter displaying ‘Class A’ headlights! The train is an Ocean liner express at Millbay Docks on 17 September 1958

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George had booked on yet for his return trip home also comes to mind.

Every chit had its loco number on it and one morning a chit had the number of a rare mogul. A prompt tour around the shed was made to see if the engine was still there to ‘cop’ it! Needless to say, it was nowhere to be seen. On returning to the stores, the Stores Manager, Jim Maddocks, and the two stores issuers were standing with big smiles on their faces. They had had a look at my Ian Allan ABC and picked out a loco number which was not underlined.

Some of the men were also enthusiasts and just loved their work, one fireman, Jim Mathews, known to book on an hour or so early to prepare his engine, which would be in perfect condition when his driver arrived. Another enthusiast was a fitter named Dick Harvey whose 1930s Great Western spotter’s book is still with me. He would go and sit in the cab of an engine in the roundhouse to have his midday snack in preference to the fitter’s cabin - and one day I joined him. From Dick I learned he had worked at the shed all through the war and was sitting on an engine having his snack one day when he heard a scratching noise and realised it was coming from the firebox. He got down from the engine and went and sat on another engine with a view of the cab of the original one, only to see one of his mates appear and go off around the turntable. A few minutes later, one of the female employees, who was possibly employed as a cleaner or even a ‘fitter’s mate’, appeared and got down from the same footplate...!

Another stores job was to go out each day and meet the daily shed trip working on its return from Tavistock Junction with twenty or so loaded wagons of coal and remove one label from each wagon to record the wagon number and tonnage, etc.

The other label would be removed by the men hand-coaling the incoming locomotives on the coal stage with 10-cwt. fourwheel tubs and was used to calculate their pay according to the tonnage they had shifted. Incidentally, the clinker and ash from the fire boxes was loaded into wagons by a steam-operated grab and sold to local contractors for hard core, etc. The fine smoke box ash was kept separate and sold to the Electricity Board by the wagon load for burning at a power station. This little trip working was worked by the shed pilot or coal stage pilot which was normally one of the 1361 class saddle tanks, the same as worked in Millbay Docks. On one occasion, whilst collecting the labels, a coal stage shunt was being made up the steep coal stage incline. The little saddle tank was propelling both a 16-ton and a 21-ton mineral wagon at full regulator until about two-thirds of the way up when it was overpowered and came back down still in full forward gear and crashed through the stop blocks, well and truly ‘off the road’.

Working in the stores was a repeat of my earlier position in Millbay, only there was a lot more of it. There were two stores issuers during the day and the two that come to mind in particular were Bill Webber and Harry Terrell. Bill was a greencarded man approaching retirement and Harry was a former fireman. Harry became aware that I was handy with a camera and asked me to take a picture of him one day.

He said he had been on the footplate, but had never had a photograph taken there. He was duly photographed preparing a King and when he was out of earshot, Bill was asked why Harry had to come off the footplate. Bill’s reply was, and I quote, ‘Come off the footplate? He was too bloody fat to get on it.’ Apparently, he could not get into the cab of a tank engine even though he was one of Plymouth’s all-year-round swimmers and had a fine voice, too.

Whilst working in the office one day, there was the sound of an almighty crash coming from the roundhouse and everyone went to see what had happened. A 45xx 2-6-2 tank engine was observed with its nose in the turntable pit and standing at a 45º angle. Apparently, there were two of these 45xx tanks standing side by side and somehow the turntable had been set for one and the other one driven out. This did not do the turntable any good and also blocked the roundhouse for the rest of the day. Needless to say, a camera would have been useful. Another incident

One of the boring little jobs in the stores office was to add up all the old oil issue chits every day so that stock could be replaced.

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The MemoirsSaltash of a Western Auto to Region HST Railwayman involving the turntable and the shed wall took place long before my time there. I was aware that a section of the roundhouse wall had been rebuilt and asked if anyone knew anything about it.

The answer came when I saw a retired driver named Don Lee at a Plymouth Railway Circle meeting. He burst out laughing. ‘It was me’ he said, recalling how as a young fireman in 1948 he was moving an Austerity WD 2-8-0 out onto the turntable and could not stop it. Apparently, it ran across the turntable and pushed one of the Hemerdon bankers, No 3187, through the shed wall.

It was during my time at Laira that the centenary of the Royal Albert Bridge occurred in 1959, preparations for this being made well in advance. Terence Cuneo was commissioned to produce a celebratory poster which would be displayed all over the railway network. As part of the preparation for the painting, No 5028 Llantilio Castle was despatched to Saltash and used to pose on the bridge for Mr Cuneo to outline his basic sketch for the poster, which apparently he did from a rather precarious position.

The engine portrayed on the final poster though was No 5021 Whittington Castle, obviously a favourite of Mr Cuneo’s who was also a fervent fan of Brunel and the GWR. Special tickets were issued for the centenary and the whole structure of the bridge was illuminated in a most attractive blue light. My friend Mike Daly and I witnessed the switch-on from the overbridge adjacent to the Royal Albert signal box on the St. Budeaux side of the River Tamar on 2 May 1959 at 10.15pm.

Whilst working at Laira and still recording every locomotive as a spotter, one day I had great satisfaction in settling an old score with an Inspector from the Newton Abbot office. He had on more than one occasion in my senior school days thrown me out of the shed, even when the Running Foreman had not objected to me going around. During my lunch hour whilst working in the stores office, a tour of the shed was made to list all the locos and, on occasions, muck in with the cleaners or put a few shovels of coal in the firebox of an engine being prepared to go off shed.

On the actual day of the centenary, the RCTS ran a special train from Paddington to Saltash hauled by No 7001 Sir James Milne.

After a local rail tour using auto loco No 6420 sandwiched in the middle of four auto trailers, into Millbay and on the Yealmpton Branch plus LSWR O2 No 30182 on the Turnchapel Branch, members returned from Plymouth North Road to Paddington behind one of Laira’s best Castles, most appropriately No 5069 Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The special train carried an RCTS headboard which was also my introduction to the Railway Correspondence & Travel Society. At the time some local enthusiasts referred to the organisation in rather cruel terms as the ‘Royal Corps of Train Spotters’, safe in the knowledge that the nearest branch was then based in Bristol. However, joining as a founder member of the Exeter Branch under the auspices of the photographer Peter Gray resulted in being a member of the Society for 60+ years.

One day, whilst walking between the rows of locos in the long shed, Inspector so-and-so was observed wagging his forefinger in my direction with the instruction ‘Follow me’ and, as instructed, I duly followed him - straight to the Shedmaster’s office. That Inspector’s face was a sight to behold when, having whispered in the Shedmaster (Harold Luscombe’s) ear, he was abruptly informed that, ‘He works here’. Needless to say he never spoke to me again. Conversely there was another Inspector, Harold Cook, who was the opposite type, a real gentleman and well liked by management and loco crews alike. Whilst working as the time office clerk one day, he came into the office and asked me if he could sit on the opposite side of my desk and eat his lunch. I dutifully agreed and cleared a space for him, it was only later that I realised he was not actually asking me, but instead telling me he was going to sit there anyway.

Whilst working at Laira, I decided to use one of my free travel passes to go on an overnight trip to Scotland, having never been north of the border before. On Friday, 30 October 1959, the Saltash auto first took me into Plymouth North Road and connected into the overnight ‘North Mail’ to Manchester London Road station. From here I travelled across to Manchester Victoria where I boarded a Liverpool to Glasgow express – 14 coaches hauled by Britannia No 70052 Firth of Tay. Later, whilst taking water at Carlisle and chatting to the driver, mention was made about working at the shed at Laira in Plymouth and as

Mentioning the cleaners reminds me of a discussion between some cleaners about the BR logo of the lion and the wheel.

One young cleaner asked in all innocence why the lion had its tongue hanging out, to which the old hand in charge of them replied, ‘Well, it’s like this, my son. If you had been standing over a spinning wheel and had your wedding tackle worn away, you would have your tongue hanging out’.

1 November 1958 and the last day of the Ashburton branch. Nos 1470 and 1466 were involved, the pair seen at the branch junction at Totnes with a well patronised last day working.

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Saltash Auto to HST this was my first visit to Scotland, was there any chance of a ride over the border on the footplate? The driver, a Polmadie man based in Glasgow, looked up and down the platform to see if there was any ‘brass’ about and told me to get on and hide myself in the far corner of the cab. Sometime after we had crossed the border and my objective had been achieved, the fireman was in the tender having trouble with the steam coal pusher. He was heard shouting to the driver who put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Sit there and if you see anything other than green, shut the regulator and shout!’. The driver then also went back into the tender to help his mate and the young clerk was left on the footplate. ‘14/451’ was chalked on the cab roof – 14 coaches for 451 tons – and my memory recalls thinking what if the passengers were made aware that a teenage clerk was actually in charge of their train. Fortunately, it was only for a few minutes and all the signals were green. The driver had not been told any lies about me working at Laira but I suspect he imagined I was a cleaner or young fireman rather than a clerk.

by new diesel multiple units. On this particular day, the first one had arrived for training purposes. The shunter on duty was Charlie Fuge and it was also the first time any railwayman had seen a DMU. Charlie knew Larry was an enthusiast and came up the stairs into the box to impart what he thought was some valuable information, ‘Here, Larry, you want to know all about these new units…? I have been and had a look and the driver tells me that the wheel in the cab (actually the hand brake) is for helping them get around the sharp curves on the Cornish branch lines.’ Without hesitation, Larry replied, ‘‘Not quite Charlie, it is actually for lowering the water scoop.’ Charlie looked bemused for a moment before turning to leave, muttering to himself, ‘Thanks Larry, I knew that ...driver was having me on.’

With the arrival of the diesel hydraulics and the gradual conversion of the long shed to a diesel servicing depot, a new job was created to deal with all the new diesel documentation.

This involved keeping records of the various examinations and failures, etc, which were dealt with under what was known as the ‘Casualty Procedure’. Robert (Bob) Burrow was the senior clerk and I assisted him as the workload increased as more and more diesels arrived. One of the unpleasant jobs was climbing on top of the fuel tank in the yard to check what fuel had been used and ensure we always maintained sufficient supply. We would lower a rod which recorded the fuel level although every time my hands would reek of diesel fuel. The same tank had originally been built for oil-fired steam engines just after the war. The office accommodation for both the mechanical and electrical supervisor and the clerical staff was two former push-pull auto coaches placed off track at the side of the shed. In 1960, the new diesel depot was being built and the long shed reverted to steam when the diesel depot opened in 1962.

Fast forward to the 21 January 1960, and almost some three months later, this very same loco was involved in a serious accident at Langcliffe near Settle. Whilst working the 9.05 pm overnight sleepers from Glasgow St. Enoch to St. Pancras, its right hand slide bars became detached, releasing the piston and connecting rod with disastrous consequences with several coaches overturning.

The accident happened at 1.48 am and the derailed coaches were struck by a northbound freight, resulting in five passengers being killed and another eight injured. The Ministry of Transport report on the accident states that No 70052 had been reported on nine previous occasions with loose slide bar bolts and I still wonder to this day if those same bolts were loose on the day I had my footplate ride over the border. My day trip to Glasgow was duly completed and my return journey on a through coach got me back to Plymouth on the following Sunday morning.

Just for the record, D600 Active was first recorded at Plymouth North Road on 19 March 1958, and D800 Sir Brian Robertson at Millbay on 10 July 1958. North British Type 2 No D6300 was first seen at Laira on 29 January 1959. The first DMU was a three-car cross country set which was tested over the south Devon banks to Plymouth on 21 January 1959. Occasionally today I think back to the opportunities for photography that could have been taken at what were historic moments and just never were. At the time the view was diesels were going to be there for evermore and we did not waste expensive film on them, especially when everything I had grown up with was beginning to disappear.

Steam was the endangered species and the minority of diesel photographs in my collection from that period in history now list among some of my favourite images, certainly in terms of nostalgia.

To finalise the Laira story, a visit to Laira Junction signal box during my lunch hour was always an enjoyable experience, often when Larry Crosier was there together with a booking boy. This was a busy box covering not only the main lines, but Laira yard and the loco shed, not to mention the 4’-6” gauge horse-drawn crossover of the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway, still used on occasions to maintain a right of way. The box also covered the Laira carriage sidings on the north side of the main line.

The last named sidings were normally used for stabling the Saltash auto push-pull trailers which were soon to be replaced

Opposite top: The finished Terence Cuneo painting of the Royal Albert Bridge and with No 5021 Whittington Castle shown instead of No 5028 Llantilio Castle which had been used to pose on the bridge.

Opposite bottom: No 5069 Isambard Kingdom Brunel at North Road ready for the centenary special to Paddington, 2 May 1959.

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Saltash Auto to HST D800 Sir Brian Robertson attracting interest at Laira on 19 March 1958. R Burrow / collection T Nicholls

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Saltash Auto to HST Under the hoist is No 6002 King William IV but undated.

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Chapter Saltash Auto to4HST

Laira pictorial - changover from steam Top: Nos 4574 (minus its rear driving wheels) and sister engine 4567 at the hoist at Laira.

Such outside work was typical of the steam era but would soon change with the diesels. A late Laira view, 11 March 1962

Bottom: No 6954 Lotherton Hall at Laira coaling stage, 15 September 1963. Note the accumulation of ash remaining on the smokebox step.

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Inside the roundhouse at the start of March 1962. County No 1003 County of Wilts, Hall No 6988 Swithland Hall, 4658, 4555 and a Modified Hall in the 69xx series face the turntable Facing the shed, (L to R) Nos 7909 Heveningham Hall, 6826 Nannerth Grange, 5014 Goodrich Castle and 6019 King Henry V on 11 March 1962.

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Top: Outside the long shed at Laira on 22 April 1963. Left to right are a 49xx, 69xx and 68xx; the other types not identified Bottom: Tasks such as these (at Laira) would disappear with the elimination of steam.

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Saltash Auto to HST ‘Yours truly’ attached the headboard to No 4564. at Bugle.

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Top: (Unofficially) driving No 1363 on the PRC railtour of 3 June 1961.

Bottom: The ‘Cornish Minerals’ tour of 28 April 1962 seen here at Bugle. This was the event that first saw two engines, Nos 4564 and 5531, coupled bunker to bunker. Alongside is No D6323.

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Above: A Plymouth North Road to Tavistock auto seen at Laira Junction with No 6400 in charge. Laira Junction signal box is dominant with the carriage sidings on the right and locomotive depot on the left. It was in this box that signalman Larry Crosier achieved his famed leg-pull of the shunter when the first DMU sets had arrived in the carriage sidings. Incidentally, the bell code for this service, taking the branch at Tavistock Junction, was ‘3-1-3-1-3’.

Opposite top: The new diesel depot. North British Type 2 No D6346 reposes in the sunshine.

Opposite bottom: And brand new in close up, 10 June 1962. The engine had arrived at Laira just two days earlier and would spend the first three years of its life here until moving to Newton Abbot. It was transferred to Old Oak Common a few months later where it would spend the rest of its short life, being withdrawn when less than seven years old.

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A new workplace - Bristol. This is the approach to Temple Meads full of contemporary road vehicles parked on the approach to Temple Meads; the cost – 3/- (15p) per day (and every one built in the UK).

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I

Bristol - Locomotive Engineer’s Department

n 1960 it was clear the writing was on the wall for steam and I made the decision to apply for various other clerical jobs on the vacancy list. A vacancy was advertised for Bristol and I secured an interview on 18 November 1960, at Transom House in Bristol; the new Divisional Office for the West of England. I had no idea how it had gone but kept fingers crossed. Subsequently, whilst working nights in the time office at Laira, a sneaky look in the letter bag one night enabled me to see the letter telling the Chief Clerk (Cecil Elson) that I had been appointed to a Class 3 post in the Divisional Locomotive Engineer’s office at Transom House in Bristol.

With my promotion to the Bristol Divisional Office, one of the first things to get my head around was the Bristol ‘L’. It soon became clear that any word ending in a vowel would have the Bristol L attached to it in conversation. Even the city’s name was Brigstowe before it became Bristol and I found myself referred to as having come up from ‘Lairal Locol’ and now working in the Bristol ‘areal’. At the queue in the Staff Association canteen, a request would be made for an ‘extral potatol’ and if the woman serving was called Vera, you had three additional ‘Ls’ in a row.

Apart from this, the local dialect was a pleasure to listen to with the ‘Wurzels’ being a fine example. Often repeated was a quote, supposedly from a road sweeper to a lorry driver, which went ‘Thee’s got’n werr thee’s casn’t back’n, hasn’t?’ ‘Ow bis goi’na get’n outa therr?’ Being a Devonshire Dumpling with a Plymouth accent, it came as no surprise to hear my voice imitated somewhere in the office background. ‘What was the number of that loco again, Ter – Foor Fav Fav Foor’!

The interview was taken by the Divisional Locomotive Engineer, Mr D. C. I. Reynolds, and his Chief Clerk, Mr Cyril Fido, who was the son of a former Swindon station master and had come to Bristol from the Chief Mechanical & Electrical Engineer’s Department at Paddington. Looking back, I later found out that it was my knowledge of the diesel hydraulic locomotives that clinched the day for me. At the time Laira was the only depot on the Western Region with a diesel fleet!

One highlight of my early days in Bristol was the chance of a cab ride on the then new Blue Pullman to Paddington. I was disappointed when we got to 90mph and the driver threw his hat over the top of the speedometer. Top link drivers allocated to work the Blue Pullman were supplied with white overall coats and white caps which became the butt of many jokes and comments, referring to them looking like ice cream salesmen and asked for a threepenny cornet or a wafer accompanied by shouts of ‘Stop me and buy one’. The Pullman sets suffered some severe damage in the winter of 1962/63 due to water in the cooling fans and pipes freezing.

My new railway life in Bristol commenced on Monday 5 December. Behind me was a four-year ‘apprenticeship’ during which time I had acquired an intimate knowledge of how the real railway worked, together with an appreciation of the men who really did run the railway. Every railwayman had a part to play from the junior boy to the senior man, but it was the signalmen and the train crews who actually ran the show. Sometime later that month my move to Bristol was questioned when a pea-soup fog enveloped the city and I could not read the number on the bus taking me to my new digs in south Bristol. Every household was burning coal, no doubt added to by the steam locomotives from St Philip’s Marsh (82B) and Barrow Road (82E). Bath Road steam shed (82A) had closed in the September of that year and was in the process of being rebuilt as a major diesel depot. That smog took me straight back to a night shift at Laira on a Sunday night in November, when almost every loco in the roundhouse was being lit up for the Monday morning and there was no wind to take the thick smoke away, or indeed the fumes from the new diesel locomotives which were increasing in numbers on a steady basis.

A re-organisation of the old Running & Maintenance Department in 1963 split the staff into two new sections, namely Movements and Maintenance, and I was allocated a post in the Maintenance Section. The Maintenance Engineer’s Office was sub-divided into four sections – Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon, Plant, and Road Motor. The majority of staff were former GWR men with the senior clerk on the Plant Section having begun his career in the 1920s. He spent most of his time dealing and obtaining stores and materials from Swindon and Derby, but when instructed by a new young engineer from the Eastern Region to contact Doncaster for a particular item, he innocently wanted to know who Don Caster was?

I was seconded to Bristol Control when the first Diesel Traction Controllers on the Western Region were appointed and to Bath Road when the new diesel depot was opened. The Control work involved tracking all the diesel workings and allocating the hours in traffic on which the regular locomotive examination programme was based. The Controllers then arranged loco examinations according to my calculations (and a bit of added guesswork). My secondment to Bath Road encompassed the same diesel documentation procedures which I had dealt with at Laira.

I found myself responsible to the Locomotive Engineer for allocations and engine history for all depots in the then Bristol area covering as far north as Worcester, west to Penzance, as well as locally at Swindon and Westbury. I also had the former S.&D. depots at Bath Green Park and Templecombe. It was an interesting but sad time as steam was being withdrawn, replaced by diesel. Steam was now the poor relation and decisions were often left to clerical staff – a position enjoyed by me, on behalf of the Locomotive Engineer. As an example the shedmaster at Bath Green Park might ring up complaining he was short of power 39 39

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Opposite top: D2080 Falcon, working this time, arrived at Temple Meads on the 11.45 ex-Paddington, 19 December 1961.

Opposite bottom: The other prototype of the time, D2060 Lion, sometimes referred to by railwaymen as ‘The White Lion’ due to its colour - it certainly stood out but was hardly a practical colour for a railway environment. The engine is seen here at St. Anne’s Park on the outskirts of Bristol with a trial run incorporating the WR Dynamometer car. The test was from Didcot to Bristol via Bath returning via Badminton, 2 August 1962.

Above: Inter-regional steam working west of Taunton on 9 June 1962. No 5071 Spitfire with 1V31 from Nottingham to Penzance. (See comment on p43).

Peter Gray / collection Terry Nicholls

whereupon I would make contact with the Mechanical Foreman at Barrow Road. He would select the best visiting Black 5s which would then disappear down the former S.&D. line for a week or two, or maybe more.

trains via Oxford and Basingstoke, he phoned with a special request. What would be the chances of getting Evening Star allocated to Bath so as to work the last ‘Pines Express’? S.&D. crews already had experience of the 9Fs and knew how well they performed on the S.&D., removing the need for double-heading.

At the time No 92220 Evening Star was allocated to the Cardiff division so I made the call to my opposite number in Cardiff, Derwyn Thomas, asking him the same question. Only a short time later Derwyn called back with the news that a little brown

As a result a good working relationship was established with Harold Morris at Bath Green Park. He too got to know me as an enthusiast who was handy with a camera. I recall one day in 1962 after it had been decided to reroute the S.&D. through 41

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No 92220 Evening Star on the last down ‘1025’ Manchester – Bournemouth ‘The Pines Express’ at Bath on 8 September 1962.

label marked ‘Bath Green Park’ had been tied to the handrail on Evening Star and it would be worked over to Bristol where relief would be required. Job done. Subsequently, it was established that Harold Morris had initially been approached by Ivo Peters regarding No 92220 to work the last Pines Express – they were both members of Bath Railway Society!

Smith and Fireman Aubrey Punter, the same crew as had worked the final Up Pines Express with 92220 Evening Star from Bournemouth to Bath Green Park back in 1962, were guests of honour and posed for many photographers. Also on the platform was Ron Hyde who, along with Peter Guy, had worked the last Down train with No 92220 Evening Star. Chatting about old times with Ron Hyde, I made the mistake of referring to him as a ‘Bournemouth man’. He looked me straight in the eye and sternly stated, ‘Branksome’. Having been firmly corrected, my thoughts turned to the consequences of calling a ‘Laira’ man a ‘Plymouth’ man.

A visit to Bath on 8 September 1962 enabled me to photograph No 92220 Evening Star on the last down train at Bath Junction handled by a Branksome footplate crew. It was my first picture published and the ‘Railway Magazine’ supplied me with a free copy.

No 92203 Black Prince worked the 50th anniversary specials in fine form, but it would have made a nice finishing touch if the 9F could have masqueraded as No 92220 Evening Star on this festive occasion, but apparently the request was turned down. For many years, I maintained a contact with No 92220 in the form of its

Fast forward some 50 years to the 6 October 2012, at Minehead, where a 50th anniversary commemorative Pines Express was planned using David Shepherd’s No 92203 Black Prince as a through train to Bishop’s Lydeard and return. Driver Peter 42

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Another through working seen at Bath Green Park the same day had arrived behind No 45639 Raleigh, this time having worked the 07.45 from Bradford and also destined for Bournemouth.

original smokebox number plate which was proudly displayed in the lounge fireplace of a close friend and fellow photographer who is no longer with us. I often wonder where that plate is now?

to 20 feet deep. Bristol had snow on the ground for almost three months. Some photographs were taken, but how we all wished in later years that we had taken a few more. We have never had a winter like it since.

In the early 1960s whilst travelling back home to Plymouth for weekends, the obvious route was via the Taunton and the Western main line. On occasions, a more leisurely route was taken from Temple Meads to Bath Green Park and on down the S.&D. line to Templecombe, changing trains into a Salisbury to Exeter Central stopper, or even a Waterloo through train to Exeter, possibly with a portion through to Plymouth via Okehampton and the northern edge of Dartmoor. This would enable me to get off at my home station at St. Budeaux Victoria Road.

On Saturday, 9 June 1962, the 1V31 07.48 Nottingham – Plymouth was my train home to Plymouth and travelling in the front coach provided the ideal position as usual to listen to the music from the front end. The engine was No 5071 Spitfire and at the top of Wellington Bank, approaching Whiteball Tunnel, stood my long-term photographer friend and mentor Peter Gray amongst the bluebells. Subsequently a copy of his colour slide was obtained to add to my collection with myself visible in the first coach. When we got to Exeter St. David’s, a Laira crew were taking over and the fireman, a friend from my Laira days, beckoned me to join them on the footplate. This was a great experience, passing by the sea wall and over the South Devon

In the severe winter of 1962/63, the Southern route west of Exeter and past the fringes of Dartmoor suffered from the effects of serious drifting snow which filled many cuttings with drifts up 43

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A week later, No 2882 was seen in charge of an Engineer’s train, being ‘looped’ at Cullompton on 16 September 1962.

banks, that is until we were left with the final downhill run of Hemerdon Bank. The driver just let the engine go until we were shaking and banging with the engine lurching to one side and the tender lurching the opposite way. We went through Plympton at an alarming rate which was well in excess of the line speed and if it had been intended to give me a footplate trip that would never be forgotten, he had certainly achieved his objective. The engine certainly lived up to its name. I learned later certain drivers had their own speed restrictions…

vans into Millbay and down to the docks. The engine was a saddle tank, No 1363, now preserved at Didcot, and the driver was Les Kingwell. At some stage he invited me on to the footplate and when we got to Millbay, said, ‘You know this area so you might as well do the driving’. All went well until the return trip where we were held at a signal at Cornwall Junction on the approach to Plymouth North Road. When the regulator was opened, the leading brake van passengers were showered with sooty water and looked like the proverbial pack of dalmatians. Guess who had forgotten to open the cylinder drain cocks. This was duly reported in the local newspapers, as well as a photograph taken at Millbay Crossing, clearly showing me in the driving position complete with tie and white shirt. We thought there might be some questions asked, but nothing was ever heard.

Another travelling home day which will never be forgotten involved a similar set of circumstances at Exeter with Laira men taking over from an Old Oak Common crew. The engine was one of the big 2-8-0s of the 47xx class with the original and relief driver having a discussion about the loco’s behaviour coming down from Paddington. We set off from Exeter and had to take on water at Exminster troughs a few miles down the line. As we approached the troughs, the fireman got ready to lower the water scoop and promptly climbed on to the coal in the tender.

The driver was standing on his seat in a crouching position and waved at me to do the same on the fireman’s seat. No sooner had I done so than water gushed out and flooded the footplate.

Now I realised what it was the Old Oak Common man had been communicating to his relief.

Another tour by the PRC the following year was on 28 April 1962, entitled ‘Cornish Minerals’. The whole tour was a great success, in no small part down to the planning and organisation of Larry Crosier. My small claim to fame was that an approach made to Harvey Copeland in the Diagramming Section at Transom House in Bristol resulted in two 45xx tanks, Nos 4564 and 5531, being diagrammed bunker to bunker, this so that we always had a chimney leading for the photographers. Several rail tours later copied this arrangement including the ‘Exmoor Ranger’ in March 1965, with Ivatt 2-6-2 tanks Nos 41206 and 41291, then both based at Exmouth Junction.

On 3 June 1961, the Plymouth Railway Circle ran a local tour of former GWR dock lines to Sutton Harbour and Millbay Docks.

The trip started from Plymouth Friary and visited the Sutton Harbour Branch before making its way with its string of brake

The summer of 1962 saw the acquisition of a Kodak Retinette 35mm camera and my introduction to taking colour slides in 44

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Saltash Auto to HST Oops! No 46220 Coronation which had somehow arrived at Bristol but here impounded at St Philip’s Marsh on 8 February 1963.

addition to my sturdy Zeiss Nettar black and white negatives. In September 1963 an overnight excursion took me from Bristol to Blackpool for the annual illuminations. This was worked throughout by Barrow Road men and a Barrow Road Jubilee and must rank as the longest working for a Bristol engine and loco crew. The engine on this occasion was No 45685 Barfleur.

The loco was photographed on Blackpool Shed amongst others that had worked similar excursions from various parts of the country, including Scotland.

could have stopped short. A rotten apple was found in a desk drawer and thrown, destined for the river but instead hit the metal window frame and exploded all over the Chief Clerk and his papers. This was Cyril Fido, the bowler-hatted son of the Swindon station master who had interviewed me when I first came to Bristol. Despite the incident he retained his composure, the mark of a true gentlemen.

By 1964 spotting had become a lost cause as withdrawals were taking place at an alarming rate and the decision was made instead to concentrate on my photography. The BR Staff Association had a Camera Club and a darkroom in the arches of Brunel’s original 1840 terminus for the Great Western Railway, which proved a wonderful asset to me for several years. The Staff Association also had four skittle alleys in two of the tunnels supporting the approach road to Temple Meads. At that time there was a considerable league of railway staff teams from all walks of railway life. As a member of the RMCSS team (Running & Maintenance Clerical & Supervisory Staff), we were playing on the adjacent alley to one of the women’s teams and a very attractive young lady was keeping score for them. One member of our team, who was a Bath Road diesel tutor driver, Ron Worden, had noticed my distraction and, giving me the elbow, said ‘What do you think of our kid, then?’ It was his youngest daughter named Geraldine (GW) and, once introduced, we never looked back.

It was whilst working in the Control Office on 8 February, 1962, talk was overheard about a very unusual working. Loco No 46220 Coronation was at St Philip’s Marsh having worked a late running overnight parcels train from Crewe via Hereford and the Severn Tunnel, a route over which these Pacifics were prohibited. A lunch time visit to SPM found the engine in the corner of one of the roundhouses almost hidden away between Great Western locomotives, which it tended to dwarf. Apparently, discussions were being had between the various Control offices as to how it might return with the eventual decision that No 46220 would return to the London Midland Region via the same route by which it arrived, running light engine under the cover of darkness the following night. Another overheard remark about calling out the breakdown gang enabled me to get down to Parson Street Junction and photograph No 92243 which had caused chaos by ‘sitting down’ across the junction, as they used to say. The date was 12 September 1963.

The acquisition of a Lambretta 150 motor scooter, together with an Admira 8mm clockwork cine camera, enabled me to record the final steam years not only in the Bristol area and the S.&D., but much further afield.

Whilst working in the Divisional Locomotive Engineer’s office overlooking the diverted River Avon which flowed past Bath Road Depot and underneath Bristol Temple Meads, my career 45

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Interlude 1: The winter to remember early 1963 Saltash Auto to HST

Former LMS 4F No 44209 and Peak No D38 outside the Loco Yard signal box on 18 January 1963. The low temperature can be gathered from the ice on the hose of the water crane.

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Saltash Auto to HST Plenty of steam (and hoped for heat). Nos 73021 and 44775 on the 13.40 Bristol – York through working, seen at Bristol East.

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Saltash Auto to HST This time it is a grimy No 5985 Mostyn Hall alongside No D6351, again at Bristol.

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Saltash Auto to HST Scenes in the memorable winter of 1963. D1044 Western Duchess at Temple Meads on a through Plymouth to Swansea service, 10 January 1963. It was to be hoped the steam heat was working to maximum efficiency!

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Saltash Auto to HST No D603 Conquest engaged in the menial duty of steam heating the coaches which will be used for an Up postal service; at North Road on 20 January 1963.

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Saltash Auto to HST My railway highlights of 1964 included the last steam working to Penzance on 3 May and the 60th anniversary of the City of Truro’s 100 mph run down Wellington Bank which was celebrated on 9 May 1964. ‘The Cornubian’ ran from Taunton to Plymouth behind 2-8-0 No 2887 and was taken on to Penzance and back to Plymouth by No 34002 Salisbury. This was always a sore point with me, having assumed the section from Plymouth to Penzance would be worked by a Castle and was somewhat taken aback when I was informed that a Southern loco had been selected. There were several Castles available including Nos 7008 Swansea Castle and 7029 Clun Castle which were on hand for the following weekend’s special with No 7029 booked to do the Plymouth to Bristol leg of the railtour. Having been in a position in the Locomotive Engineer’s Office, an attempt to have something done about it could have been made, but the situation had not become clear until it was too late.

subsequently based at Bath Road. Rumour had it that if this loco with its Maybach engines and electric traction motors had been tested earlier and proved successful, then the Western class of diesel hydraulics would never have been built. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the originally intended class of 100 Westerns was reduced to 74 although a list of 100 names had been produced. Ron Worden, the tutor driver, stated that on Falcon he could maintain time on a Paddington trip with just one engine, something he could not do with a Western. Even so there were several problems with the Falcon and it was often to be seen in Bath Road under repairs. On account of its name and reliability, rather cruelly it was known locally as the Constipated Crow. The other prototype of the day, the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company’s Lion (D0260) made its sole appearance in Bristol whilst performing a test run on 2 August 1962.

Diesel failures were a regular feature, not to mention steam locos on their last legs, and all had to be dealt with under the ‘Casualty Procedure’ in the Divisional Office and suitably investigated.

Any passenger train that lost five minutes or more and any freight that lost ten minutes or more due to locomotive causes, was considered a ‘casualty’. Each day a copy of the Control Log for the previous 24 hours was collected and any loco failures scrutinised by the Locomotive Engineer and both Mechanical and Electrical Inspectors detailed to investigate. Special ‘Pink’ casualty procedure forms were initiated by the clerical staff with copies kept on every loco’s history record. Eventually, some of the regular faults would result in the C.M. & E.E. instigating ‘experiments’ which if in turn were proved successful would become a fleet ‘modification’. Statistics were also produced on a regular basis with ‘miles per casualty’ and became the cause of not some little rivalry between both depots and divisional offices. Every effort was made to blame the driver or something other than the locomotive so as to improve the figures.

The 60th anniversary run on 9 May 1964 had a couple of disappointments that have been well recorded, the first was the failure of No 4079 Pendennis Castle with collapsed fire bars when it was well known that the fierce burning coal from Ogilvie colliery had to be well mixed up. The Plymouth to Bristol leg was worked by Laira driver Harry Roach, together with firemen Bill Rundle and Bill Watts. The loco was the double-chimney fitted No 7029 Clun Castle prepared especially at Laira by Inspector Harold Cook. A speed restriction on Wellington Bank was apparently lifted, but the information was not passed on to the footplate. The loco still made a record run up to Bristol where it was replaced by No 5054 Earl of Ducie, a single-chimney version. Even so a maximum speed of 96 mph was achieved on the Badminton route but with hindsight a double-chimney loco like No 7029 would have been a better choice.

Bath Road steam shed had closed in 1960 and now it was the turn of St Philip’s Marsh to close on 24 June 1964, the remaining steam locos transferred to the former Midland Shed at Barrow Road.

Saturday, 4 September 1965 was a day to remember with my marriage to Geraldine Worden (still GW to some of my friends) at the Church of the Holy Nativity with its distinctive green spire on the steep Wells Road overlooking Totterdown. Both Totterdown and Knowle became the home of many GWR families, being next to Temple Meads as well as the Bath Road and St. Philip’s locomotive depots. A large proportion of the wedding guests, not surprisingly, were railway staff and railway enthusiasts. By coincidence it was also the last day of the summer service and No 7029 Clun Castle was booked to work back to Birmingham at the same time as we were due to depart to Paddington en route to a honeymoon in Barcelona and Tarragona in Spain. (My wife still does not believe that I did not know there were three steam sheds in Tarragona, but it was true.) However, a considerable number of guests preferred watching No 7029 depart and if it could have been arranged, we would have gone to London via Birmingham behind No 7029, but I thought that would be pushing my luck a bit too far.

Bath Road diesel depot opened on 18 June 1962 and became the home to a considerable variety of new locomotives, both hydraulic and diesel electric. My experience at Laira came into play when seconded to the depot to help set up the paperwork and records for the exam programme. The engineer in charge was Don Gronow, the new name for the old shedmaster’s post.

He was aware of my interest in photography and when it was decided to set up the Bath Road staff welfare fund, he asked me if it was possible to produce a series of pictures of locomotives to sell to staff and enthusiasts alike. A series of 50 locomotives was produced with profits going into the fund for various staff with illness and disability, etc.

Apart from the general variety of motive power, the unique Brush Falcon (D0280) made its first appearance on the 19 December 1961, on the 11.45 Paddington to Bristol, and to be

Opposite: No 2887 at Newton Abbot on 3 May 1964 with ‘The Cornubian’ tour. This engine took the train from Exeter to Plymouth where No 34002 Salisbury continued to Penzance. The return was identical.

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Saltash Auto to HST Left: Three Castles inside St Philip’s Marsh on 8 May 1964. L to R 7003 Elmley Castle, 4077 Chepstow Castle and 5054 Earl of Ducie. ‘The chosen one’. No 5054 at Bath Road the following day, prepared for its dash to London.

Right: Typifying the condition of steam, and indeed the steam sheds by that time (but it would get worse still), is Austerity No 90257 outside St Philip’s Marsh on 9 April 1963. The site here would later be cleared for an HST depot.

As mentioned, after June 1964 Barrow Road became the home for the remaining steam workings in the Bristol area and over the Midland main line to Gloucester and Birmingham. Several visits were made to Barrow Road in 1965 taking various photographs, most of the locomotives seen in a deplorable condition. Barrow Road, with its coal discharge hopper and ash disposal plant, as well as wheel drop facility, was somewhat more advanced in locomotive servicing than its GWR counterparts. The wheel drop was host to a King, No 6024, in 1956 for attention to its leading wheel set and later in the 1960s some of the D95xx series of diesel hydraulics dealing with shifted tyres after continuous braking on local trip workings whilst descending the five miles of Filton bank. The depot finally closed on 24 November 1965, its remaining locos transferred away or withdrawn. There was some rivalry when the Barrow Road locomen were relocated to Bath Road and Western men realised some of the Midland mileage turns paid more than the highest paid Western turns.

The final end to steam in this area came on 5/6 March 1966, when the S. & D. line closed to regular services on the Saturday. Special trains ran on the Saturday and the Sunday in both directions.

On the Saturday, 8F No 48706 ran south from Bath and the northbound special was double-headed with Bulleid pacifics Nos 34006 Bude and 34057 Biggin Hill from Evercreech Junction.

On the Sunday my wife and I were fortunate in travelling on the Stephenson Locomotive Society southbound final special from Bath Green Park. It was hauled by 8F No 48706 with standard tank No 80043 inside as a ‘hot water bottle’ - providing the train with steam heating. Our southbound train heading for Bournemouth passed the northbound special at Blandford Forum. This was run by the RCTS and hauled at this point by Merchant Navy No 35028 Clan Line complete with smokebox wreath. Subsequently, a number of former S. & D. based locos were brought over to Barrow Lane Midland sidings adjacent to the old steam shed at Barrow Road before making their final journey to the scrap dealers.

Whilst on the subject of the rivalry between former GWR and Midland men at Barrow Road, an amusing incident took place in the early 1960s when a very angry lady resident of the houses in the engine shed’s vicinity had her Monday morning wash covered in sooty spots. After complaining at the shed she was directed to the Divisional Locomotive Engineer’s office at Temple Meads and duly dumped her soiled washing on his desk.

Midland men never took too kindly to the Western takeover and the banter between former Western and Midland men continues among retired groups to this day.

The end of steam meant the wholesale clear out of everything associated with the steam age, including all of the Divisional Office records. Whilst dealing with the Casualty Procedure, my desk was alongside an exploded diagram of a steam engine which provided a reference to the internal workings and had most likely been on that wall since the offices were built in the 1930s. It would have been thrown away, but for my request to take it home and make use of the frame. Some time later when taking it apart, to my surprise I discovered the backing card was a large photograph of the Rover Class Broad Gauge engine called Lightning, probably taken at Bristol Bath Road.

Convoys of condemned steam locomotives were seen passing through Bristol en route to South Wales scrap dealers, mainly from the West Country, including depots like Exmouth Junction, Salisbury and Eastleigh. These convoys normally ran via Gloucester as they were restricted from going through the Severn Tunnel.

Many other records and documents as well as notices were squirrelled away and subsequently found their way to respective museums including Didcot, including the records for Nos 7808 Cookham Manor and 4079 Pendennis Castle.

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A series of Open Days were held at Bath Road commencing with two in 1965 on the 20 March and 23 October. This would become an annual event which was held in October through to 1970 with a variety of motive power on display. Apart from the home-based fleet, visiting steam locomotives included Nos 4920, 7029, 7808, 46201, 53808 and even an electric loco, No E3044. Former GWR freight loco No 2818, which had been cosmetically restored at Eastleigh Works and destined for the planned industrial museum in Bristol that never materialised, put in an appearance at the 1968 event, having been placed in store at Avonmouth at the time.

been the man to bring the very first, No D7000, from Swindon to Bristol when it was brand new, and just 13 years later it was at Swindon waiting to be cut up. One way of fiddling the availability statistics for the D8xx series was to put two locos in multiple, each having only one serviceable engine. They were then shown as both working instead of being stopped waiting for repairs or replacement engines. Wholesale withdrawal in 1971 resulted in a graveyard of dumped locos at St Philip’s Marsh on the site of what was to become the location of the future High Speed Train Depot in 1976. A visit on 30 October 1971 revealed 17 Warships along with 15 members of the North British built D63xx type, listed as follows:

The demise of the Diesel Hydraulic fleet in favour of Diesel Electric traction had been on the cards for some time and necessary to comply with BR and its national policy. Locally this commenced at the end of 1967 when the Laira based class of five D6xx series Warships were withdrawn. Going back to my Laira days, I recall whilst on a footplate trip on one member of this class, the driver referred to the loco as ‘riding like a King’. They were built like steam engines with solid frames, unlike the D8xx Warship series which bounced over pointwork and were likened to tin cans in comparison. The withdrawal of the D8xx along with the D63xx followed, together with the D7xxx Hymeks.

The latter especially having done sterling work over their short lifespan.

808/15/19/22/26/31/33/34/43/45/54/55/57/58/67/68/69 6309/15/18/19/22/23/27/28/30/31/34/37/40/48/54 Some incidents involving the diesel hydraulic locomotives I noted during their short history, no doubt there were others.

The first I knew of was on 16 December 1959, when No D602 Bulldog collided with No 5028 Llantilio Castle at Cornwall Loop Junction, just west of Plymouth North Road. The diesel had a couple of its buffers knocked off, but the steam engine was severely damaged and condemned as a result. If a D8xx Warship had been involved, the opposite would probably have been the case. In July 1969 during engineering work on the Worcester cut-off between Stoke Works and Abbotswood Junction at a place called Spetchley, No D7048 ended up on its side in a field,

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Leaking steam and emulating a volcanic eruption, No 7922, formerly named Salford Hall, was recorded at Narroways Hill Junction on 9 March 1965. Despite its obviously doubtful condition it would continue in service, on paper at least, until withdrawn along with the majority of the remaining WR steam engines on 31 December 1965.

together with most of its train. It took 27 hours to rerail it over a weekend with the Bath Road and Old Oak Common 45-ton steam cranes attending, under the supervision of Divisional Locomotive Engineer Phil Ross and Mechanical Inspector Reg Paton. The loco was subsequently repaired at Swindon Works and put back into regular service.

On 12 January 1977, it was decided to carry out a rerailing exercise for the benefit of the Bath Road breakdown gang using their German MFD rerailing equipment. Withdrawn locomotive No D1072 Western Glory was tipped over on to its side in what was known as the coalfield, then righted and rerailed. I learned that years earlier a similar exercise had been carried out in 1952 at St Philip’s Marsh steam shed, using an elderly ROD locomotive, No 3032. Around the same time as the D1072 Western Glory rerailing exercise, a request was made for me to take a series of colour slides to illustrate the dangers of trespass, vandalism and other safety issues. Two Bath Road drivers, Ron Davis and Stan Tinklin, regularly paid visits to schools in the vicinity of the railway and gave talks to the children. A series of slides were taken to illustrate their talks including one particular slide involving No D1072 with a hole in its windscreen. The driver’s ‘injured’ face was photographed whilst standing on a ladder; after he had been made up with cuts made from breadcrumbs and red nail varnish, this by a member of the first-aid team.

Another set of slides was also produced illustrating the hazards

On 19 December, 1973, No D1007 Western Talisman overturned at West Ealing, causing the loss of life of several passengers as a result of a battery box door dropping open and damaging the pointwork underneath the loco. Many years previously, a similar incident had taken place at Newton Abbot when a D8xx Warship demolished a couple of point dummies whilst running into the station. In January 1976, No D1055 Western Advocate, running light under time interval working from Droitwich, ran into the back of a parcels train at Worcester Tunnel Junction with disastrous consequences for the driver and guard. On this occasion, a visit to Worcester was necessary to obtain photographs for the enquiry.

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Top: Being in Control gave the advantage of knowing when unusual workings were taking place; such as on 10 March 1965 when No 8486 brought two new snow ploughs to Bristol. The chassis for the ploughs came from old steam engine tenders.

Bottom: The Bath Road open day of 20 March 1965 including examples of most of the motive power then operating on the WR. From R to L after the Blue Pullman set were Nos D822 Hercules, D1043 Western Duke, D1864 and D7047.

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Saltash Auto to HST Compared with the lack of attention for steam was the care given to modern traction; as witnessed here on No D818 Glory, seen at Bath Road depot on 3 August 1965.

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Saltash Auto to HST A reminder of how smart the BR green livery for diesels could look – shown here to advantage on Hymek No D7009 at Temple Meads on 10 December 1965.

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Interlude 2: When things go wrong .....

From earlier times; the accident at Stapleton Road of 8 January 1930. No 4063 Bath Abbey (subsequently rebuilt as a Castle) was hauling a Shrewsbury to Penzance passenger and mail train when it collided with the rear of a stationary goods train. The accident was reported as caused by sloppy block working.

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No 92243, which had come to grief at Parson Street Junction on 12 September 1963.

Unfortunately Terry does not provide any details and whilst looking dramatic it was the type of incident that might occur almost on a daily basis ‘somewhere’ on the network.

The image on this page was likely taken fairly soon after the derailment as No 92243 is clearly still in steam although the tender has already been separated.

It is most likely that two cranes would have been required to rerail the recalcitrant engine after which it would be ‘gauged’ - meaning the back-to-back wheel measurements would be taken to ensure the derailment was not caused by this. Assuming all was well it would be towed back to a depot for examination and necessary repair. (No 9943 remained in service until 31 December 1965.)

In addition to necessary repairs to the locomotive, it is quite likely that 90 tons of engine may well have done some damage to the track and signal equipment. This would also need to be repaired before services might operate normally again, although a Hymek hauled goods does appear to be passing cautiously alongside.

Once the dust has settled there will be at least an internal enquiry with evidence taken from the engine crew, signalman etc. All causes will be considered including if there had been any outside (vandalism) interference. The final report, almost certainly lost with the passage of time, would attempt to identify the cause, and if appropriate, apportion any blame.

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Above: ROD No 3032 being used for a rerailing exercise at SPM in 1952. Such incidents within a relatively safe environment were ideal training for staff and could often also be used to test new equipment and ideas.

Opposite: ‘Staged’ Health & Safety. Years earlier the Great Western Railway had introduced their own ‘Safety Movement’ with staff encouraged to work in a safe manner asking all the time ‘Is it Safe?’

Small pocket tokens were also issued which men would keep with them and intended to act as a reminder as to safe working. Unfortunately the railways generally, and not just the GWR, were open to numerous staff accidents whether that be in the locomotive department, workshops, permanent way, goods, docks, and traffic departments; from all of which numerous examples of good (and bad) practice together with the consequences might be given.

British Railways Western Region continued the Health & Safety theme, Terry’s work at Bath Road just one example of a local initiative intended to remind staff of everyday dangers and reduce as much as possible the risks in daily working.

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Spetchley on the former Midland line near Worcester, 13 July 1969. D7048 has come to grief and is seen here being recovered by the combined efforts of the Old Oak Common and Bath Road cranes. Notwithstanding the damage, the engine was repaired and lasted until 1 January 1972.

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Saltash Auto to HST and mistakes made by depot staff and train crews, all long before Health & Safety put in an appearance.

saw us all in the van one day and suggested we remove the side panels to fit some windows so the boys could look out. This was arranged and completed on a Sunday morning and when asked what the cost was, he burst out laughing and said ‘You have got a couple of Warship windscreens in there’.

With the Warships, Hymeks and D63xx types gone, the Westerns were left as the only remaining class of diesel hydraulic locomotives and quickly became an enthusiast’s favourite. They had played a large part in the Western Region’s passenger and freight timetables, but gradually lost out to Brush Type 4s, of which there were over 500. In addition a number of former Midland Region ‘Peaks’ were transferred to both Bath Road and Laira. Another major nail in the coffin for the Westerns was the arrival of No D400 (then 400) at Bath Road on the 31 December 1972, to commence crew training. The remainder of the class followed and eventually the whole class of 50 locomotives were on the Western Region. Some of the transferees were in a rather poor state, one arriving in convoy as a ‘swinger’, meaning it had no operating brakes.

Numerous visits were made to Bath Road as the boys were also now spotters and ‘cabbing’ locos, as well as enjoying cab rides if Grampy (Ron Worden) was around. On occasions on Sundays, if he was on a single man turn, he would ask if I wanted to join him as an unofficial second man up to Paddington and back, or down to Weston-super-Mare with a Western or a Class 50. His advice one day was, ‘Never complain about going to work – you go to work to get away from women and kids’. He retired in 1975 and avoided having to learn to drive the new Class 253 High Speed Trains.

During the summer of 1974, the new depot for the HST sets at St. Philip’s Marsh was well advanced in its construction and on 9 December 1974, the prototype HST No. 252 001 arrived in Bristol for various trials, having worked down from Derby.

It was based at Old Oak Common but was seen regularly in Bristol during tests and also did a trial run to Penzance on 18 March 1975. Following trials, it went into regular service in the summer of 1975 and remained on the Western Region until October 1976.

In 1974 a headquarters decision was made to renumber all locomotives, giving them a class number and a loco number within that class. For example, the 400s became Class 50s, with numbers from 401 to 449 becoming 50 001 to 50 049. The exception being the original No 400 which became No 50 050.

The instruction passed to the depots was that there should be a gap between the decals showing the class and loco number.

For whatever reason this was not understood at some depots and many locos were renumbered without the gap. The TOPS (Total Operations Processing System) computer programme was set up without a space in the numbers and caused more confusion when the DMUs were added to the programme.

Although allocated a class number, the early Warships were all withdrawn before the renumbering system came into being and never received the class numbers 22, 41, 42 and 43. Because of their short remaining lifespan, the Westerns, although allocated Class 52, retained their metal number plates and never had the new prefix applied.

On 9 December 1974, whilst standing on the top of Narroways Hill on Filton Bank and photographing the arrival of the prototype HST No 252 001 from Derby, an interesting thought occurred to me. As a member of the Railway Staff Association Camera Club, photographs were regularly submitted for competitions with other camera clubs and I hit upon the idea of combining the HST negative with one of Concorde. An ideal combination of the fastest diesel train (143 mph) and the fastest passenger-carrying aircraft. To achieve this involved some very difficult darkroom work but resulted in a montage entitled ‘Complimentary Services’. This picture was produced years before the digital age and fooled a lot of people at the time. It was published on several occasions over the years. The annual exhibition of Arts and Crafts was held every year in the Mechanics’ Institute at Swindon up until 1977 and in one year I was proud to be presented with the photography trophy by none other than F. W. Hawksworth, the last Chief Mechanical Engineer of the GWR and in his 90s at the time.

The end of the Westerns came in February 1977, with the final railtour hauled by Nos D1013 Western Ranger and D1023 Western Fusilier with Nos D1010 Western Campaigner and D1048 Western Lady as standby locos in case of any failures.

No D1013 carried red name and number plates which had been painted at Laira, the result of banter between office staff at Bristol and the engineer, Ian Cusworth, in charge of Laira. He was a former Eastern Region man and his attention had been drawn to the Deltics with their red name plates as being part of the ‘corporate image’. After withdrawal, the plates from No D1013 found their way to the Divisional Maintenance Engineer’s office in Bristol. My eyes were set on one until the boss told me the loco was going into preservation.

My personal introduction to HST travel took place on a special introductory run from Bristol Temple Meads to Swindon and back for the benefit of staff and their families. We ran via Bristol Parkway and the Badminton line and I shall never forget the Guard, Jim Adlam, announcing ‘Ladies and gentlemen, you are now travelling at 125 mph’. The date was 2 October 1976, and it was our eldest son’s 10th birthday. Little did we realise that he would be driving HSTs in the future as a fifth generation railwayman.

The addition of two sons in the late 1960s resulted in the Lambretta 150 scooter being exchanged for an old Commer Cob van which could seat four, but had no windows for the boys in the back. Len Olver, who had been a Diesel Mechanical Supervisor at Laira, was now in charge of Bristol Bath Road diesel depot. He 73

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Rerailing exercise at Bristol Bath Road using No. D1072 Western Glory.

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The literal end for D1055 Western Advocate, following its collision with the rear of a parcels train at Worcester on 3 January 1976. This was during a temporary period of time-interval working between the signal boxes at Droitwich Spa and Worcester Tunnel Junction following a failure of all communication caused by high winds. No D1055 had been running light when it collided with the rear of the parcels train. The driver and guard of the light engine were both killed. The engine was condemned two days later.

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Swindon dump, where engines go to die. No D1007, formerly Western Talisman, had been condemned as a result of the West Ealing accident of 19 December 1973. It silently awaits its fate in company with an unknown Hymek.

The Western Region had its ‘Staff Suggestions’ scheme and with the replacement of the Westerns by the Class 50s, a suggestion was submitted to transfer 50 sets of Western nameplates to the unnamed Class 50 fleet. The reply received from the ‘Suggestions Committee’ was that it was no longer BR policy to name locomotives. Much to my surprise a year or so later, the name plates for Ark Royal arrived in the Bristol Office and were fitted to 50 035 at Laira in January 1975. The rest of the class followed suit.

was prepared to come down in the early hours of the morning, this situation might arise, depending on what time the sets came on shed. His face did a double-take when I walked in. Sets 1, 3 and 5 were indeed all there and were duly photographed in both black and white and colour. A large framed copy formed the backdrop to Divisional Maintenance Engineer Harry Hamer’s desk and was still there in 1980 when he told me a Control job was coming my way.

Other notable events that took place at the HST depot in the late 1970s included No D1009 Western Invader being coupled up to an HST, using the bar coupling during a staff training course.

As far as I am aware, this was the only time a Western was ever coupled to an HST in BR days (3.8.76). A major engine failure on power car No 43026 in March of 1977 caused quite a stir. No thought had been given to facilities for changing power units at this stage and sets were supposed to stay together, hence the set numbers. A meeting ensued and it was discovered that no facility with overhead clearance existed, even including the heavy lifting shop at Bath Road. Mechanical Inspector Reg Paton was present and stated that he would change the HST engine with the Bath Road 45-ton steam crane on Sunday, 20 March 1977. This was the first HST engine change carried out at St. Philip’s Marsh. The year 1977 was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and when as part of the celebrations she paid a visit to Bristol and Bath, a short-formed HST with the Power Cars of set 25 (253 025) took Her Majesty from Bristol to Bath via the Bradford-on-Avon chord line for a first-class lunch.

One notable item of interest involved 50 044 Exeter. Word had filtered through to the Bristol Office that Class 50 ‘bashers’ were favouring this particular loco, having recorded some very good high speed runs. Inspectors were put on the loco to investigate and check out the speedometer. It transpired that when the speedo was showing 100 mph, the loco was actually doing 114 mph.

By this time, the newly built HST Depot at St. Philip’s Marsh had opened with the odd numbered sets based there and the even numbered sets at Old Oak Common. After servicing in the Depot, sets went through the washer and were stabled in Victoria Sidings, which could accommodate six complete trains. The new depot came under the jurisdiction of the Divisional Maintenance Engineer and my photographic expertise was called upon again, taking many photographs both on official visits and similarly unofficially. On one visit on 12 August 1976, it was suggested to the supervisor that it would be very nice to get a picture of sets 253 001/3/5 lined up, as the depot accommodated three servicing lines. He had a look at his paperwork and said that if I

A momentous event in my railway experiences took place on 77

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This page and opposite top: The end of the Warships. Rows of condemned Warship class engines, some still with nameplates attached, await the call to scrap from St Philip’s Marsh on 30 October 1971.

Opposite bottom: The new order and the corporate livery at Bath Road in August 1974. Peak No 49 The Manchester Regiment, D1006 Western Stalwart and class 50 047 Swiftsure. It would not last long. Notice the ‘D’ has been painted out on No 1006.

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A Bristol Pullman at Bristol East in March 1965. A cab ride on one of these sets had the driver put his cap over the speedometer at 90 mph.

Eight years later in 1973 ‘and the newness has worn off ’. The revised livery did little to enhance the appearance of the trains whilst the addition of necessary jumper cables fitted for multiple unit working on the former LMR sets by then operating on the WR earned them the nickname ‘teardrops’. This set is at Temple Meads on 11 January 1973.

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Saltash Auto to HST 31 August 1977, and settled an old score with the Plymouth Railway Circle some twenty years’ previously. Together with the Plymouth Civil Engineer’s bridge inspector David Morey, a long awaited visit to the Royal Albert Bridge was made. A walk out from the St. Budeaux side and a climb up the ladders into the doorway with the enormous lettering of I K BRUNEL, ENGINEER, 1859 all around. Signing the Visitors’ Book and walking through the cavernous ironwork of the tubes was only eclipsed by walking over the top of the spans. The only safety

equipment was our compulsory yellow vests and whilst on the top of the Devon span having my photograph taken for the record, it was mentioned to the Bridge Inspector that ‘There was not much point in wearing a yellow vest up here’, to which he replied ‘Look at it this way, Ter, you will be easier to find if you fall in!’ The structure vibrated with heavy class 50 locomotives passing underneath, whilst my memories of the double-headed steam locos on the Summer Saturday trains of my youth went through my mind’s eye.

An even earlier childhood memory was of standing directly under the bridge at the age of 5 with my grandfather, a former blacksmith at Levant Tin Mine in West Cornwall, whilst he caught a crab under Brunel’s great bridge joining his Cornwall to the rest of the country.

This would have been in 1946 just after the end of the Second World War and the remains of discarded wartime equipment littered the foreshore ramp next to the site where Brunel had assembled the two spans of the bridge. The River Tamar on the inland side at that time was full of warships lined up some three or four abreast. A final recollection also came to mind as I looked down on the Royal Albert Bridge Inn and recalled a raucous evening in 1965 with my Plymouth Railway Circle friends. Where else would I have held my stag party!

‘There was not much point in wearing a yellow vest up here’,…

‘Look at it this way….you will be easier to find if you fall in!’

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Saltash Auto to HST Ashley Hill, Bristol; two icons of the time (but see the accompanying text on page 73).

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Chapter 6

I

Bristol and Swindon Control

n the late 1970s, the workload in the Locomotive Section of the Maintenance Office was steadily decreasing and with reorganisation looming again, my application was submitted for a post in the Bristol Control Office, which was situated at the rear of the Bristol & Exeter Building, opened in 1854 as its HQ. My interview was successful, due in part to some years previously having attended the signalling classes under the auspices of Signalling Inspector John Forrester and acquiring the necessary certificates for ‘Rules & Regulations Governing Train Operating’ and ‘Rules & Regulations affecting Block Signalling & Emergency Working’. Duties commenced on 28 July 1980, initially on the Gloucester Area Running Controller’s desk for training with George West, who had started his railway career as a booking boy in Standish Junction signal box and progressed through Gloucester Control to Bristol. My new post covered the former Midland main line from Charfield to Barnt Green as well as the Worcester area to Moreton in Marsh, Droitwich and Stoke Edith. (Shelwick Junction came under the Cardiff Divisional Control.)

thick and the sun would shine through it in streaks and God help anyone who dared to open a window. Back then, reorganisations had consolidated Control Offices in Bristol with men from Swindon, Westbury and Gloucester, as well as the S.&D. Control staff from Bath Green Park. They were to be followed by staff from Exeter and Plymouth Controls in subsequent years until the whole Bristol Division was under one Control. However, this situation did not last very long and in March of 1984, another reorganisation centralised a single Control Office in 125 House at Swindon, which would encompass the four remaining Western Region Controls, namely Paddington, Reading, Bristol and Cardiff.

Those few years I spent in Bristol Control were very happy and, having known many of the staff through regular contact both at work and socially, enabled me to engage in the pattern of shift work involving early, late and night shifts as well as weekend working. Three shifts of regular men, supported by relief staff, covered three Train Running Controllers (Bristol, West of England and Gloucester), a freight desk, a DMU desk and a train crew desk, as well as an overall passenger man, overseen by a Deputy Chief Controller.

My thoughts went back almost twenty years to the day when first walking into that smoke-filled room, where almost everyone was a smoker. After the night shift had gone home, the air was still

The Bristol & Exeter Building at Bristol which housed the Control Office. Photographed on 5 March 1965.

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Hard at work – well most of the time. ‘TWN’ on the Gloucester Control desk at Bristol in 1984.

The Chief Controller was a 9 to 5 man with an offcie upstairs in the magnificent former Bristol & Exeter Railway HQ, with its high ceilings and elegant staircase surrounded by very attractive ironwork.

than expected. On the following Monday, the Chief Controller ‘from upstairs’, having gone through the weekend’s sheets, came in and headed straight for me, requiring some explanation for my action. The situation was explained stating that my motherin-law was travelling with the excursion group and I was more concerned about her reaction than his! He smiled, patted me on the back and said ‘I would have done exactly the same!’ I can admit it now, mother-in-law was not on the train!

There was no sign of any computers in the early 1980s and all contact was by telephone with the help of ATR machines (Automatic Train Reporting). Each desk was equipped with what was basically a switchboard with direct telephone lines to signal boxes, stations and depot supervisors. The ATR machines recorded the head-codes of trains passing predetermined locations so that train running was monitored against the day’s programmed plan. Investigating any failures or delays was done by contact with the signalman or station supervisor concerned.

One of the best pieces of advice received regarding Control Office work was to ‘Never Assume Anything’ . Whilst covering the Gloucester and Worcester area on a night shift, we received a report of a bridge strike near Stoke Works Junction. It was ascertained that it was on the main line. Fortunately it was quiet and the only train in this area was a northbound freight. The train was stopped and the driver asked if he knew the alternative route via Worcester and Droitwich. He did and was diverted accordingly. Unfortunately, sometime later the same driver phoned in to state he had just gone over a bridge near Stoke Works Junction with a lorry stuck underneath it and with police in attendance. The same road went under both lines in this area and it turned out the information had come from the police who had confirmed it was on the main line. All of those involved had assumed the police knew the difference between the main line and the single line branch.

Whilst on the Bristol area desk one Saturday morning, the Supervisor at Bristol Parkway phoned in with a request for an arranged excursion to Spalding organised to take ‘the ladies’ to attend the Flower Festival to be given priority in front of the Swansea to Paddington HST and opposite to the previously planned timetable. His justification was that the platform was full of chattering groups of women who paid no attention to announcements and would likely all get on the London bound HST if it came in first. I could understand his concern – several hundred passengers arriving at the wrong destination and you might guess whose fault it would be. Accordingly the necessary arrangements were made with the Bristol Panel Supervisor who in turn advised the signalman concerned. Naturally this caused some delay to the HST, which turned out to be rather longer

On another night shift, the head-code 1X01 came up on the Automatic Train Reporting machine. Having realised it was the head-code of the Royal Train, the exclamation ‘1X01 over Barnt 84

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Prototype HST unit No 252 001 stands at Bristol on 18 March 1975 after a trial run to Penzance.

Green’ quickly woke everyone up. The response from the top desk was an almighty scramble to unlock the drawer and retrieve the special notices which were securely kept under lock and key!

In early 1984, the prospect of moving to Swindon was considered but not very well thought of from a family point of view, having two sons who were now at senior school. The option was to travel (free) to and from but with the addition of an hour on each end of every shift. I took the commute option.

At Swindon all the divisional posts were initially retained together with Traction Controllers for each area previously administered from Paddington. When the relief staff asked about arrangements for training, they were advised that they were already Controllers so would learn as they went along.

Accordingly there was no formal instruction and we found ourselves dealing with the Cardiff and London areas which we did not know as well as the Traction Controllers’ posts, fortunately where my own previous experience in dealing with locomotives caused me no problem at all.

The atmosphere at Swindon was never the same as it had been in Bristol. However things did settle down and some of the characters made life both amusing and enjoyable. In 1988 I was

very pleased to receive my long-service award from the Western Region Operations Manager, Bob Poynter.

Allocating locomotives to various services was always interesting and had previously all been done from Paddington HQ. Some of the former HQ staff assumed an air of superiority over the former Divisional Control staff and one particular individual could not understand why his allocations were often failures at the last minute. My experience at Plymouth Laira and Bristol Bath Road depots made me well aware that a loco at the back of the shed was not going to be the first one out. Unless, of course, you had a specific reason and explained your reasons to the supervisor concerned.

Depot Supervisors, like everyone else, came in a wonderful variety and had to be spoken to in a way that would achieve your objective one way or another. Everything from hobbies to family matters were all part of the individual armoury. One former steam footplate man did not have a very good opinion of the Control, but get him talking about 100mph running with Bulleid pacifics and he was another person. On the other hand, there would be the foreman who would do what he wanted to solve his problem and tell Control afterwards, leaving problems for someone elsewhere on the network as well as the Control

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Above: Where once steam engines had stood, the new HST depot under construction at St Philip’s Marsh in August 1974.

Opposite: Modern day comparison with the old outside lifting hoist at Laira; see p30-31.

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Saltash Auto to HST to resolve. On the train running desks, there was always the bored signalman on nights who would ring up for a chat and you would have to dream up an incident somewhere to end the conversation.

no problem getting a bit of shut-eye in between. I am rather proud of the fact that the necessary train from Temple Meads to Swindon was never missed in all of the thirteen years I was at Swindon. However one Sunday, at the start of a week of nights, advice came from the late turn shift at Swindon that there was a problem in the Bristol area. We were advised to come up from Bristol Parkway on a Swansea to Paddington HST. Two of us Bristol boys got together and drove to Bristol Parkway. We were aware that time was not on our side and arrived with the HST already in the platform which we joined just as the guard gave ‘right away’. Having settled into our seats, you can imagine our dismay as the train accelerated and then slowed, taking the line to Gloucester at Westerleigh Junction. Fortunately we connected into the last DMU from Gloucester to Swindon and arrived in the office about an hour late; no questions were ever asked.

1985 was the 150th Anniversary of the first opening of the first section of the GWR between Paddington and Maidenhead in 1835 and a number of steam-headed specials were planned to run throughout the year. The first two suffered from loco failures and late running, but the subsequent specials were run successfully, despite generally poor weather which did very little for the morale of the photographers.

The arrival of the American-built Class 59 locomotives for Foster Yeoman in 1986 provided another photographic opportunity and an obvious choice of location was the single line from Witham into Merehead Quarry. A farm overbridge near Wanstrow provided an ideal view in both directions, but the bridge parapet on the south side carried a live unprotected cable. I was well aware of the cable and must have either accidentally touched it with my camera or got too close when viewing my proposed shot through the viewfinder. My next recollection was waking up flat on my back and staring into a deep blue sky, fortunately without any ill effects to me or the camera.

When travelling home after a night shift, ‘one is not at one’s best’ as the Queen might say. School children at Chippenham often got short shrift when playing noisy computer games and one morning a woman with a screaming baby delighted us all the way to Bristol. When we arrived at Temple Meads, she was advised that there was a baby changing room at the station and she should consider taking hers in to exchange for a much more sedate specimen.

The 1991 Open Day at Bath Road commemorated the 150th Anniversary of the GWR line from Paddington to Bristol and to celebrate the occasion, a special train, the ‘Triple Gold Trans-Atlantic’, was arranged. My wife and I were invited along with Roy Nash and his wife from Swindon, both of us having supplied numerous photographs for publicity over the years. At Paddington we had the pleasure of meeting Brunel’s great-greatgrandson Peter Noble who just happened to have Brunel’s watch in his pocket, which he proudly showed us. On arrival at Bristol Temple Meads, a visit to the City docks had been arranged and whilst there, another hero of mine appeared in the form of the artist Terence Cuneo, another admirer of Brunel and the GWR. Needless to say, he was very keen to meet Brunel’s great-greatgrandson so my wife and I managed to get them together and effect the introductions. Whilst chatting to Terence Cuneo, my wife asked him if he would be kind enough to draw his ‘mouse’ which was his second signature to his later artistry. This he very kindly did on the programme of events for the day.

To get to Temple Meads from my home in South Bristol, a short cut through Bath Road diesel depot was regularly taken; down the stairs, through the swing doors and straight on to the platform. I recall early one morning, a clash at the swing doors with my son where I exclaimed, ‘Get out of the way or I will miss my train’. He replied quite quietly, ‘Don’t worry, I am the driver this morning…’

One of the less happy aspects of travelling up and down to and from Swindon every day was the demise of Swindon works.

The works had closed in 1986 and was being gradually torn apart by the demolition contractors. I could not bring myself to photograph the scene even though a camera was to hand on many such occasions. Not surprisingly all the plans for the proposed GWR 150 celebrations at the works were unceremoniously dropped once the closure was announced.

When it was in operation, I had visited the works on several occasions, the final time being in 1979 coinciding with what was the last ever open day. I was treated to a visit to the rooftop of the Pattern Shop by the then Assistant Works Manager, Len Olver, a close friend going back to Bath Road and Laira days when he was the first Diesel Mechanical Foreman on the Western Region, having been selected to attend a diesel course at the North British Works in Glasgow in 1958.

The locomotive chosen to work this special train was No 47 835 which was named Fire Fly after one of the early Broad Gauge ‘Fire Fly’ class locomotives painted by Terence Cuneo emerging from Box Tunnel. This particular Class 47 was part of the Bath Road maintained Inter-City fleet.

Whilst travelling up and down from Bristol to Swindon from 1984 to 1997 on a three shift roster in the Control Office, many incidents came to mind. The half-hour journey on an HST soon slipped by and the original seating was really comfortable with

Whilst on an HST heading for Swindon one day just prior to retirement in 1997, I began to wonder how many journeys had been made over the last 13 years and as we were leaving the

Opposite: Training exercise involving D1009 Western Invader and an HST at SPM.

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St Philip’s Marsh: replacing the engine in Class 43 power car No 43 026 using the Bath Road 45 ton steam crane, 20 March 1977.

Bath area, it occurred to me that I must have been through Box Tunnel something in excess of 8,000 times. At the same time, a memory was recalled regarding a signalling inspector called Jim Barnes who was a member of the BR WR Staff Association Camera Club and many years before had stood at the west end of the tunnel to be one of the few who had photographed the sun shining through on Brunel’s birthday.

working a Swansea-bound train. No track circuit failure had taken place as the base of the rail was still intact and it would appear that at some stage the bogies of the HST could even have jumped the gap.

Another incident took place at a footbridge on Filton Bank in Bristol involving myself and the Royal Train. Having returned home off a night shift and aware that this Royal was running, I collected my camera and made my way to the local footbridge.

On my own the Royal Train was photographed but I also noted a helicopter was following it. A few minutes later, the helicopter came back, circled overhead and disappeared again, following the railway line. Not long afterwards, another ‘spotter’ arrived complete with notebook and pencil and dressed in a scruffy brown coat and carrying a haversack. I did notice that under his scruffy appearance was a nicely pressed pair of black trousers and a shiny pair of black boots. Not a word was spoken which was most unusual for a regular enthusiast. It was subsequently ascertained that the ‘Royal’ was being used by a foreign Head of State and there had been a threat made to his life.

It was pure luck that my years in the Control Office did not involve any major incidents although there was the usual run of the mill faults and failures. Two incidents come to mind, both from the South Wales area. The first was another bridge strike where a bridge supporting the railway had actually been moved by a road vehicle, taking the single track with it and resulting in a serious kink in the track. Fortunately, this took place in daylight and a possible serious derailment was avoided.

The other was on the down line of the South Wales main line, when a lineside householder reported a piece of metal had struck his garden shed. On investigation it was found that a section of railhead had fractured and been displaced by a passing HST

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Victoria sidings, St Philip’s Marsh, 26 April 1976

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Saltash Auto to HST The unique green liveried Class 50, No 50 007 Sir Edward Elgar departs Exeter St. Davids on 10 June 1984, with the 18.33 Waterloo service.

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Retirement

I

n my years of experience, arrangements were put in place for a locomotive to go and assist the failure. Shortly afterwards, I was approached by the Chief Controller, Ray Cundy, holding a faxed bill for £2,500. This was the charge for hiring the freight locomotive whilst the owning freight company had not even been asked if we could use it. The fact that it was an emergency with trains standing behind the HST and time was of the essence was evidently of no importance. I was told we could not undertake such rescues again in the future. Fortunately, on this particular occasion a travelling fitter rectified the fault and the HST cleared the line under its own power. It occurred to me that the railway I had known for the last 40 years had gone into the history books and it was time to hand over to the younger generation.

ago and the ensuing years have instead provided the freedom to pursue my hobby photographing trains whenever the sun was out, with the added attraction of colourful liveries applied by various companies to their locomotives and rolling stock – to me one of the few advantages of privatisation. Similarly, visits to many attractive locations have been a regular feature to witness steam and diesel hauled specials alike, not to mention classic locations such as the Settle to Carlisle line and the preserved West Somerset Railway amongst others. Such locations similarly provided the opportunity to do some bird watching in between trains; I was always in awe of ‘the lark ascending’ as he got to see the train before I did.

My retirement in 1997 was celebrated with foreign trips to parts of the world where steam was still in existence on main lines, as well as on railtours and operating on private lines. Here on home ground it was arranged for me to spend a day with my eldest son, Steve, in the cab or on the footplate. Traction Inspector Peter Martin completed the trio as we set off from

In spite of various internal reorganisations within the Control, my opportunity to retire did not occur until early in 1997. This came as a welcome relief and when asked if I would be prepared to come back and work on special projects, my answer was simple: ‘Don’t call me, I will call you’. That was almost 25 years

Above: Still train mad, St Anne’s Park, 17 February 1985.

Opposite top: Perhaps not in the best of condition, No 43 131 heads the 10.30 Bristol Parkway – Paddington ECS working on 20 December 2001.

Opposite bottom: Even HSTs go wrong sometimes... No 45 070 giving an unidentified HST set a helping hand at Ashley Hill forming the 15.08 Plymouth to York through working, 22 June 1993.

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Saltash Auto to HST Bristol Temple Meads with the 08.40 Paddington to Plymouth in Power Car 43170 Edward Paxman, most appropriately named after the founder of the company that designed and produced the Paxman Valenta 185 engine which was hard at work behind us at both ends of this former Class 253 High Speed Train, churning out some 4,500 hp.

Plymouth to Paddington. So back over the South Devon Banks of Hemerdon, Dainton and Whiteball, diverging at Cogload to run via the Berks. & Hants. route to Reading and on into Paddington.

For the third and final leg of my special day out, I was rather pleased to see that the leading power car was none other than 43027 Glorious Devon with the 17.45 Paddington to Bristol which took us along Brunel’s billiard table to Swindon, the heart of the Great Western Railway. Down through Box tunnel on its falling gradient of 1 in 100 and its straight alignment so that the sun would shine through on Brunel’s birthday. Through the magnificent Sydney Gardens and into Bath before our final run back into Bristol Temple Meads. At this juncture, I must pay tribute to Traction Inspector Peter Martin and my son Steve, who had just completed a ten-hour single-manned rostered turn. The end of a very special day that will never be forgotten.

We were aware that we were treading in the footsteps of the three previous family generations of footplate staff and now the fifth generation was driving us over the route from Bristol to Plymouth, which I have always regarded as one of the most attractive lines in this country, along with the extended line over the Royal Albert Bridge and on into my ancestral home of Cornwall.

Away from Temple Meads on the former Bristol & Exeter Railway and with Brunel’s Clifton Suspension Bridge on our right, we head for the Somerset Levels and up over Whiteball Bank, where in the opposite direction City of Truro made its record run in 1904 with an Ocean Mail special train from Plymouth Millbay Docks to Paddington, then through the summit tunnel which takes us into glorious Devon. Memories of spotting days in the Exeter area are only eclipsed by the red sandstone backdrops joining the River Exe to the River Teign between Starcross, with its pumping station Italianate tower, a relic of Brunel’s atmospheric railway enterprise, and Teignmouth. A magnet for railway photographers from the days of the broad gauge right through to the present day. Then into what was the South Devon Railway town of Newton Abbot, now a shadow of its former railway self. Over the steep inclines of Dainton and Rattery and finally down Hemerdon where steam once plodded, but where today our High Speed Trains take us up the inclines almost as fast as they come down.

So now I sit and ponder over all the changes that have taken place during the railway lifetimes of our six generations of railwaymen.

From the broad gauge ‘Rover’ class to the standard gauge ‘Stars and Saints’ followed by ‘Kings and Castles’. Next came the diesel hydraulic ‘Warships and Westerns’, followed in turn by the diesel electric era with its variety of motive power culminating in the impressive English Electric Class 50 locomotives. This was in turn followed by the High Speed Train, only eclipsed after over 40 years’ service by the new generation of Intercity express units.

Now last but certainly not least comes a tribute to Geraldine, my long-suffering wife who has supported me throughout the years with my railway career and my obsession with railways and photography. Going back to 1969, she watched the first flight of Concorde take off from Filton and has been a Concorde fan since that day. When asked how she would like to celebrate retirement, I knew what she was going to say. ‘Let’s go on Concorde.’ At that time in 1997, British Airways was chartering the Concordes and the Bristol Evening Post arranged trips in and out of Filton where it had been built. Seats were booked at the first opportunity to fly out from and back into Filton, with a round trip via the Bay of Biscay at supersonic speed. We reached an altitude of 59,000 feet and a speed of 1,340 mph and when coming in to land at the end of our trip, an HST was observed travelling underneath us towards the Severn Tunnel. For those interested in aircraft, the Concorde for our supersonic trip was BOAA, the first of the production models and now a grounded resident at Edinburgh.

On through the remains of what had been a very busy freight yard at Tavistock Junction and then the ghost of Laira steam shed wells up in my mind’s eye as we pass the site of Laira Junction Signal box. A myriad of men and magnificent machines that will never leave me cascade through my thoughts, a bygone age that I absolutely loved being a part of for a very important part of my railway experience as a spotter and a railwayman. Then through Mutley Tunnel and into Plymouth ‘North Road’. Plymouth Millbay is still vivid in my thoughts and recollections, but anyone visiting the area today would have difficulty in believing there was ever a railway there at all.

The second leg of my day out was with the same set but now at the opposite end and power car 43009 leading on the 13.10

Opposite top: Terence Cuneo (left) with Geraldine and the author, Bristol Docks, 30 June 1991.

Opposite bottom: ‘Modern’ traction on the same occasion, represented by Nos 59 004 (later Yeoman Challenger / Paul A Hammond), 50 008 Sir Edward Elgar and D9000 Royal Scots Grey.

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Opposite top: Father and son (actually son and father of course), Bristol Temple Meads, 20 March 1997. The power car was No 43 170 Edward Paxman.

Opposite bottom: ‘A grand day out’, in the front of the 13.10 Plymouth – Paddington about to pass Brunel’s pumping station at Starcross on the same day, son Steve is driving.

Above: Geraldine and self at Filton.

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A view seen by few members of the public - from the roof of Temple Meads.

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W

Tail Lamp

hen we were first married in 1965, I was aware that both of Geraldine’s grandfathers as well as her father were all former GWR footplate men and had all worked at Bath Road.

Her grandfathers had retired in 1947 and 1951. Her father was a top link Bath Road man who had been selected as a Tutor Driver on the arrival of the first main line diesel hydraulics in 1960.

He had the honour of bringing the first Hymek (D7000) from Swindon to Bath Road and the doubtful honour of being the first driver at Bath Road to derail one of the D8xx Warships, although he always maintained that it was not his fault.

Sometime after we had tied the knot, at a family gathering, her maternal grandmother, the daughter of a Carmarthen ganger, casually mentioned that her father-in-law’s headstone (Geraldine’s great-grandfather) had an engine depicted on it and was located in the nearby Arnos Vale cemetery. The engine was one that he had favoured before his retirement from Bath Road in 1917. As an enthusiast and amateur photographer, I was keen to see this with the intention of photographing it for my collection. To my surprise, it was unmistakeably a ‘Saint’ and the stonemason had done a very finely detailed carving of the stonework back in 1925.

The family member concerned was Harry Edwards. He was born in Warminster in 1852 and started working for the GWR at their broad gauge engine shed in Salisbury in 1870. A visit to the Public Records Office at Kew and a lengthy search through the GWR’s locomen’s staff records provided me with his detailed railway history as well as a list of his misdemeanours during his 47-year railway career! To progress from engine cleaner to 1st class engineman, he moved from Salisbury to Bristol, then to Newton Abbot and Penzance and back to Bristol, before going to Slough and finally back to Bristol Bath Road before retirement in 1917. Apparently, he had a particular liking for the engine Albion and the headstone carving represents this locomotive.

Little did Harry Edwards know that he had started a family tradition that would continue for subsequent generations. His son, Frank, followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the GWR in 1905. A move to Carmarthen and marriage to a Ganger’s daughter called Rachel Davies produced a daughter named Phyllis who in turn married a young fireman named Ronald Worden, the son of another Bath Road loco man. This marriage resulted in a son and two daughters, both of the latter starting their working lives on BR in the offices at Bristol Temple Meads.

The youngest daughter, Geraldine Worden (still GW to some of

Harry Edwards (sitting bottom left) at one of his son’s wedding, circa 1917.

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Saltash Auto to HST my friends), married a certain young clerk from the Locomotive Engineer’s Office in 1965 and we had two sons, the eldest of whom continued the tradition, becoming a Bristol-based Traction Trainee in 1985. He is currently a GWR driver with a son and daughter, both qualified drivers, making up the sixth generation.

Perhaps my greatest regret from a railway family point of view is that the opportunity to enrol our second son, Andrew, as an apprentice at Bath Road was scuppered when a decision was made to terminate apprenticeships. He took a different path in life to the one we had envisaged during his school days. If only Harry Edwards could see us now.

My 25 or so years in retirement seem to have passed at quite an alarming speed so they must have been good years, with numerous trips to various parts of the world as well as in this country, always with my sturdy old Minolta mechanical cameras.

As a railwayman and an enthusiastic amateur photographer, I look back over the years and recall the names and faces of numerous railway colleagues and enthusiasts alike, many of whom have gone to the Great Engine Shed in the Sky. A feature of my years in retirement has been the regular meetings of retired groups including both Bristol and Swindon Controllers, Bristol & Exeter House staff and former Bath Road Depot staff, all of which meet in Bristol on a monthly or six-monthly basis.

Needless to state that the banter and camaraderie is a continuous form of entertainment which has been sadly missing in 2020/21.

So many more changes have taken place on the railway over the years so it is not surprising my son often comes out with the quote, ‘We don’t do that any more’.

Terry Nicholls, April 2021

1985 double-headed GWR 150 Special climbing Hemerdon Bank in terrible weather, the sight, sound and smell transporting Terry back to his halcyon days!

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Saltash Auto to HST Recreating the past at Didcot in the form of a new Saint, No 2908 Lady of Quality.

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The author holding a piece of broken CN rail at Jasper, Alberta, Canada, on 27 May 2018.

In Memoriam Terry Nicholls 25th October 1940 - 5th August 2021

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The Memoirs of a Western Region Railwayman

A keen photographer he also recorded the contemporary scene, the last of some, the first of others. having now also taken a role in the Control Office first at Bristol and later in 125 House at Swindon.

The Memoirs of a Western Region Railwayman

Terry Nicholls

Terry Nicholls joined the railway as a Clerk at Millbay in 1957. A lifelong enthusiast he worked initially for the Carriage & Wagon Department before transferring to the locomotive department at Laira again in a clerical role. Within a few short years he found himself heavily involved in diesel maintenance and transferred to Bristol where his locomotive experience proved invaluable during the changeover from steam to diesel.

Saltash Auto to HST

This is no ordinary story. Instead it is one of a man whose had a passion for the job he undertook and who describes his times and experiences by someone who was on ‘the inside’.

ISBN 978-1-915281-04-3

Terry Nicholls £24.50

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