R.o.B Railwaymens
stories
Mr John Grant,
Assistant manager R.o.B
Including:
A life on the Rails
The last train to Consett
Introduction: Mr John Grant joined the Railways of
Britain site in February 2005 and since then has shown a great support for the
site with his ideas and photographs and has provided several excellent articles
for people to read. He started working on the Railways of Britain in 1957 where
he worked in several roles working his way to a revenue inspector before
retiring. I am sure we will hear more about him as time goes by but for now
here is his story.
A Life on the rails: I first went onto the Railway back in 1957 I started
at Newcastle central as a soap and towel lad, what's that I here you ask, well
back in those days when a train came into the station it was your job to check
the toilets to see if they had soap and paper towels in the toilets for the
next leg of their journey. The trains then used to stand a lot longer than they
do now owing to the engine being changed and also the parcels and mail bags
that were carried then to be off-loaded, something you never see now, sometimes
if you were not quick enough to get off when the whistle went for the off, you
and your bag of paper towels and bars of soap were carried onto the next
station going south from Newcastle that would be Durham or north it was Morpeth
or if you were really unlucky you would end up at Berwick upon Tweed near the
Scottish border.
I was doing that for about three months before going
to cover for someone on the Lamp-mans side, that's the boys who clean and
change the signal lamps on the signal gantries, I worked between Manors and
Backworth on the Coast line which is now the Tyne & Wear Metro and also
down on the Riverside branch from manors to Carville a line that's now gone, I
did that for six months before going into the telegraph office in Newcastle for
another short spell as a Messenger boy taking the wire's around the station to
the different departments in the days before computers ect. After about a year
I got the chance to move over to the Motive Power Department at Blaydon shed,
after passing a short exam I was taken on as an Engine cleaner. I was at
Blaydon for about four months when I got the chance to move up the road to
Greensfield shed,
As time went on you were sent to classes to learn
all about the workings of the engines, rules and regulations and the workings
of the railway before going in front of the shed master then Mr. G Luke and
another examiner to see if you could pass on to be a Passed cleaner I/E a
cleaner that could be asked to go on firing duties, the first rung proper on
the road to becoming a Driver, I passed this exam in 1959. Although I had
passed the exam it was a while before I got the chance to go out firing apart
from on shed duties. We still had to clean engines and drop the fires when an
engine finished its turn of duty and came back on shed, I don't know what they
use to clean the engines now but then you used rags and buckets of oil to rub
all over the engine and then wipe it off to polish it up believe me when I say
it was a dirty job but when you saw the finish it was worth it to see the
Steamers gleaming before they left the shed on their next turn of duty.
After a while I started to get firing shifts out of
the shed on some local services I/E in Local colliery sidings ect. and shunting
duties as well as on the Newcastle Central Station Pilot Engine which was a
good little job, that, nine times out of ten the driver let you do nearly all
the driving to get more experience. A few Diesels started to show their faces
at Greensfield around 1960 and I started to get a few shifts being the second
man on them going further a field on longer journeys lazy days just sitting
there staring out of the window, I remember when I got my first real firing
shift on a steam engine it was on a Newcastle to London train and I fired it
from Newcastle to York and fired one back to Newcastle and believe me when I
say when I finished that first main line firing shift I was bent double and
totally wrecked good job it was my rest day the day after as I think I would have
slept in for the next shift. I did a few firing shifts after that as well as
second manning some diesel shifts up to Edinburgh and down as far as Doncaster,
twice. I was lucky enough to get a turn as second man on class 55 Deltics to
London and back, hell of an experience that as a young passed cleaner, to do
that you had to have passed on the steam heating boilers on the diesels these
were inside the Engine compartments they were noisy places to be when you had
to go into check them if you got a fault light showing in the cab!
As time went on I gained more experience but you
still had to attend classes to go onto be a Fireman the next step from being a
cleaner passed for firing duties, I was just coming up to the time when it
would be our classes turn to sit the exam when that dreaded day and letter
everybody was expecting your (redundancy notice) in 1964. You were given two
choices take the redundancy settlement or move to another depot that needed
train crews, some of the lads went to other depots some took the money and
went, I asked where I would be transferred to and was told possibly some depot
down in London. As I was going to be married that year, not wanting to uproot
all the way down there, I took my Redundancy in March 1964 and left Greensfield
a sad man.
I got a job on a building firm for two years when
the doors opened for me to get back where I was happy on the railway they were
advertising for Guards at Tyne Marshalling Yard needless to say I was down
there as they say like a shot cock that's a Geordie saying by the way. You had
to go to school for seven weeks to learn all about being a guard I/E rules and
regulations types of brakes, Vacuum and Air brake pressure as well as a lot of
other things appertaining to guards duties including the Protection of a train
in case of breakdown or derailment all of which I learned when I was a passed
cleaner on my first stint on the Rails. This school, by the way, was at my old
shed of Greensfield. After the seven weeks you sat an exam and it was a tough one
as I don't know if you know but the Guard was in charge of the train and had to
know the lot, I passed the exam and went to Tyne Marshalling Yard as a Guard, I
think I was lucky to have been on the railway before because out of thirty in
that class only 11 passed the exam.
One of the first places they send you to learn the
road to at Tyne yard was up to Consett Steel Works, it was 14 miles up to
Consett High yard and when I say up I mean up the climb was hellish bad enough
going up but worse coming back down you needed every break you had be it
vacuum, air or pinning the wagon breaks down with the break stick, it was one
hell of an incline to bring the loaded steel wagons down on route to the
shipyards on the Tyne a few trains have as they used to say got away down the
bank, having hauled them from the bottom yard you went downhill from the top
yard were the old Consett station and coal yard was straight down to Stanley
level then straight down from there passed Beamish down to South Pelaw then
onto the slow line into Tyne Yard there was a couple of sand traps on the road
down to the bottom. We used to take the iron ore up there from Tyne Dock bottom
with two class 31's on the front the Iron ore wagon doors were operated from
inside the engine cabs by a lever that operated the doors with the air brake
pressure after you operated the switch over switch from brakes to wagons, a few
times when hauling the iron ore cars up to Consett the doors on some cars often
opened themselves spilling the Iron Ore pellets all over the ballast and down
the embankments. As I said going up to Consett was a hell of a climb up and one
hell of a drop back down to Tyne Yard you had to keep your wits about you and
your brake stick handy.
As well as Consett we went to
After quite a few years at Tyne Yard I transferred
to Newcastle Central Station as a Passenger Guard yet again another school to
go to this time to learn all about the different types of tickets and revenue
protection that was involved with the passenger side this school was held at
York head Offices training school, it is a very tough and stringent course the
amount of tickets I had to learn about was unreal I did not know so many types
or combinations of tickets existed this school went on for three weeks with yet
another exam at the finish at the end of it my head was totally swimming. After
passing the ticket school I worked on the local trains up to Hexham onto
After a few years as a Passenger Guard owing to me
having arthritis in my knees the company doctor took me off passenger Guards
duties owing to you having to run along the track in cases of emergency to
carry out the protection of your train I/E laying down detonators on the track
at a distance of some mile and three quarters behind your train. They then gave
me the chance to stay on the trains as a Traveling Ticket Examiner without the
protection duties of a guard at no loss in wages I may say. This job got me all
over Edinburgh, Glasgow, Derby, York, Leeds, Doncaster, London and some of the
local runs, I did this until owing to ill health when I got the chance I took
early retirement in 1993, a total of 32 years on the railway all told and I
enjoyed every minute of it, if you asked me if I would go back if I had the
chance my answer would be yes, if I could go back to the railway as it was, not
now because when I first started right up until Privatisation the railway was a
happy and great place to work not like it is now I see some of the lads that I
worked with and still work on the railway and they are not the same, unhappy
and cant wait to get away from the job. So over the years on the Railway I have
been a soap and towel lad, Lamp lad, Telegraph lad, Engine cleaner, Passed
Cleaner for firing duties, Freight Guard, Passenger Guard, and Traveling Ticket
Examiner happy at every job I have done especially on the steam engines.
As a footnote I have been involved with three
derailments, but the main point of this footnote is that I have also been
involved over the years with twelve fatalities on the railway and I still don't
know why people adults and children still walk about the tracks because when
you see the bodies or what is left of them take it from me its not a pretty
site, people that are caught on the lines should be shown what we call the
horror photo book of all the bodies found on the railway after they have been
hit by a train they wont go back on once they have seen that believe me because
I can still picture everyone I have been involved in it does not leave
you.
One little story about fatalities one day a driver
reported hitting someone and its always the train crew behind that has to
examine the track to see what has been hit if anything, this day the Driver and
fireman were walking the track when the driver said he has hit someone, and the
fireman said how do you know I cant see anything yet as they were on different
sides of the track and the old driver said lifting up his arm I've found his
head.
Another little true story that happened at Newcastle
Central Station back in the 50s a train pulled into Newcastle overnight a mixed
set from Edinburgh I/E half passenger half parcels, and in those days a lot of
animals were carried by rail everything from birds, snake's in baskets, dogs
the lot. Well this night in one of the parcel vans a greyhound was being
transported to its new owner down south and it was the platform staffs job to
see to the comfort of the animal I/E making sure it had fresh water and
clearing up any mess it had made on the van floor and renewing the sawdust it
stood on. The dog was tied up via its lead to a ring in the wall of the van and
the porter had to untie it while the other porter cleared up the mess and
sawdust and laid down some new in its place, well on this night the greyhound
decided it needed some exercise and made a break for it and made a dash off the
van onto the platform and bolted down number nine platform with the porter in
chase behind shouting at the top of his voice (STOP THAT DOG ITS A PARCEL). The
dog was eventually caught over the bridge on platform eight by the platform
inspector. I also was on the last train to Consett steel works before it
closed.
The last official train ran to Consett on
It ran to Consett via the East Coast mainline to Ouston Junction then up the branch via
1948 Map showing Consett.
It was the first passenger train up to Consett since the 1950s as it was a freight only line after the passenger services were withdrawn in the 50s, the freight was mainly iron ore from the iron ore terminal at Tyne Dock on the River Tyne and coal from the collieries up to the High Yard and loads of steel from Consett Low Yard back down to the shipyards on the River Tyne and steel into Tyne Marshalling Yard for shipment North and South.
The line up to Consett was part of the old Stanhope and Tyne Railway, which was opened in 1834, and ran from Stanhope to
After the passenger services ceased in the 1950s the line was used to ship iron ore from Tyne Dock Bottom up to the steel works at Consett, in 1966 the iron ore trains were diverted via Gateshead, but the line was again used via Washington and Vigo when the iron ore also came from the Redcar terminal in the 1970s via the Leamside branch.
The journey for me started at Greensfield shed were we picked up our engine and went down to Heaton Carriage sidings on a very cold and snowy morning on the 17th April 1984 when as the guard of the train I went down to the carriage sidings along with a driver and second man, I'm sorry I cant remember the drivers name but the second mans name was Jimmy Keagan, we picked up eight coaches from the sidings and went up to Newcastle ready for the journey to Consett.
That's me at the side of engine before departure from Heaton CS, to Newcastle Central Station.
On arrival at Newcastle Central station with the set we found the platform awash with cameras from the Television both BBC & Tyne Tees as well as the cameras of hundreds of train enthusiasts, the train quickly filled up with those lucky enough to have got tickets for the journey up to Consett and back, the first passenger train up the branch in over 30years.
As well as the Derwentside Rail Goup and enthusiasts we picked up a further train crew at Newcastle a further guard and driver from the Tyne Marshalling Yard depot as they were needed for conductors up the Consett branch as Newcastle men had not got the road up to Consett signed due to them not working up the branch, as I had not long transferred from Tyne Yard I still had the route signed so I did not really need the conductor but given the importance of the day we said nothing and we all stayed with the job.
After a lot of interviews by the press and TV crews we were on our way, just as we were going over the King Edward Bridge one of the Derwentside organisers came to me and said they had forgot to ask me to put a specially made sign on the rear lamp bracket on the end of the train, as this was no problem along with the help of the other guard from Tyne Yard Sid Smails we opened the rear sliding door and I leaned out and put the sign on the spare lamp bracket it read (THE END OF CONSETT).
On the way up the crews from both the BBC and Tyne Tees Television stations stayed with us as well as reporters from the Evening Chronicle and also the local Radio stations that went through the train getting interviews from both the organisers and the enthusiasts.
The special train heading up to Consett.
Note we are on the opposite track as some of the lines were already being removed in readiness for the lines closure.
As we approached Ouston junction were the line left the East Coast Mainline people were lined up along the track from the junction up to West Pelton, from here the line starts up the gradient all the way up to Stanley Level then on up again right into Consett High Yard, at all the towns up the line crowds of people were gathered to see the train climbing up to its destination, passed Beamish, West Stanley, Anfield Plain, Leadgate and into Consett High Yard were we came to a stop next to where the old Consett station platform used to be.
Huge crowds with banners, flags and a brass band blasting out music greeted us as we came to a stand, as there was no platform for the passengers to alight from the train at Consett special stepped ramps had been made for people to alight from the train into the Consett High Coal yard, the Derwentside Rail Action Group had organised stalls for people to buy souvenirs ect and those on the train were treated to lunch at one of the halls nearby, were more interviews by the press and TV company's were made.
The main reason for all this was the fact that the Consett Iron and Steel Company was finally closing and as the line was mainly used for the shipment of iron ore up to the works and the shipment of steel back down it was found that it was not viable to keep the branch open just for a couple of coal trains a day along with the fact that passenger services had not run up to Consett for over thirty years.
The Last Train at Consett High Yard (Note the Snow)
From the right Sid Smails Tyne guard, R.F.Davidson ex Guard Tyne yard, Myself, and Jimmy Keagan second man, the two on the left were the two drivers both names I forget?
The visit to Consett lasted about three hours and when everybody returned for the journey back down to Newcastle a parade with people dressed as Grim Reapers carrying a Coffin draped with a black flag and the words the Final Nail in the Coffin for rail travel at Consett, after everyone boarded the train the Brass band started up again to play us out of the yard for the return journey as we pulled out of the yard some of the people waving the train off were openly crying knowing in a very short time that they the people of Consett and all the other towns up the line would very soon be without a railway link after 150 years of train traffic both passenger and freight for good.
That was the last time I travelled to Consett by train ever again.
The End, of both line and story.