R.o.B Railwaymen's Stories
Alan's Story, A top shed man's history
By Mr. Alan Pike
My story begins in1954 when I had just turned sixteen when I was working in a timber yard. One of my mates worked on British railways as an engine cleaner and he said to me 'why don't you come and work with me'. I went to the local shed where he worked, it was called Enfield town, the parent shed was Stratford in east London. I saw the foreman a nice bloke called George Barker. He told me to come back on another day and he'd send me over to Stratford to see somebody about getting a job. I reported at eight am on the appointed day and was taken by train to Stratford. The chap who took me there was called Chris he was an ex-footplate man who could no longer work on the footplate because of bad health. On the way to Stratford all he did was moan, he said what a rotten job it was and tried to put me off getting the job. Anyhow I got the job and was given overalls, a hat with a shiny top and a serge jacket. I was told to report to Enfield Town shed on a certain day.
I reported for work along with some more lads and were given two engines to clean. The newest lad always got the worst job I had to clean the motions, that's the moving parts of the engine big ends, connecting rods, ect. At tea break we went and had tea in the mess room. The mess room was filthy grime and dirt everywhere' I had no tea can so one of the other lads gave me some of his. The cleaning carried on for a few weeks until it was my turn to go to firing school at Stratford, where, along with others from various sheds, I learned a bit about the theory side of things and some of the rules. We were given a rulebook, which nobody ever read. After training had finished we were now passed cleaners. Once back at Enfield I never did any more cleaning. They were very short of firemen and so I was out firing nearly every day. If there was no firing to do we used to do shed labouring which gave us a better rate of pay than cleaning.
The first firing turn I did was on station pilot, it was an easy job just right for my first day as a fireman. The engines at Enfield were class N7 0-6-2 tank engines. They were good engines and quite powerful. At Enfield in was all passenger work. We did on most jobs three round trips to Liverpool St and back that would be approx sixty miles. Some easy turns only had two round trips. Enfield was a nice shed to work at, we had about a dozen engines, and three crews per engine, yes, crews were allocated their own engines. After a while it got like all jobs, a bit boring, but it was great for a young lad when he was allowed to drive. Some drivers would not let you drive but most would let you have a go. I had, as a regular driver a great bloke called Chris Chapman, sadly he was killed on the railway, he was electrocuted by overhead wires when he climbed up to sweep the cab roof, This accident happened at Hertford East station. Whilst I was with Chris I always did half the driving.
The wages were quite good for 1954, my wages were seven pounds a week basic but with all the extras like shift allowance and overtime I used to earn over a tenner some weeks. I carried on at Enfield until 1956 when I was called up for national service where I did two years in the Royal Military Police and after demob in 1958 I returned to Enfield shed. It had not changed much except the locos were much dirtier as nobody cleaned them. Some crews used to clean their own engines; alas I was not so keen. Our first turn of the day started at 3 am. We were given about an hour to prepare the engine and we took out the first train of the day at 4 am. It was an easy job just two trips Liverpool Street and back. You were finished for the day at 9-30am. I used to go home and catch up on some sleep.
The normal train consisted of five coaches but in the rush hour it was usually ten. Ten coaches were called full trains. One of the stations on our run was White Hart Lane so when Spurs were at home it was always full trains. We were allowed 38 mins for a ten-mile run with 14 stops. Our N7 0-6-2 were powerful engines and managed the job quite well. We didn't always just go to Liverpool Street; we went from Palace Gates to North Woolwich or We went to Chingford and Hertford East. Footplate work was a dirty and grubby job but as you got used to the job you learned how to keep reasonably clean, wetting down the floor stopped a lot of the coal dust from flying about. At Enfield all the coaling [filling the bunker with coal] was done by hand. The bunkers were filled by coalmen who used to shovel all day, they were very fit men and it was extremely hard work. We used to make toast on the engine when we were on our break. Some blokes used to cook on the shovel I never did. Enfield was a small very friendly depot and most people got on ok. But some drivers were not very friendly; these were the ones firemen didn't like working with. There was one driver, I won't mention his name, who worked during the 1926 general strike, and here it was 1958 and some of the older drivers still called him a scab. Anyhow at this time about 1959 there was a lot of talk about electrification and redundancies, I put in for a transfer to Kings Cross or top shed as they called it. I didn't want to leave Enfield but I thought it best to move. My transfer soon came through, and I was transferred to Kings Cross.
When I arrived at top shed it was a bit scary thinking I would have to fire those huge locos. I say huge after working mainly on N7s at Enfield we did sometimes go to Hertford East. On that we usually had a Thompson L1. Anyway getting back to top shed, I spent a week or so on local and shed work. One day the running foreman asked if I'd mind doing a lodge turn to Newcastle upon Tyne. Lodge turn means you go to Newcastle one day and come back the next. I said ok and he told me what time to start the next day. The next day I signed on at Kings Cross station, my driver was already on the loco, so the fore man took me along to see him. The loco was an A4 I can't remember the name. As we walked along the platform towards the engine I was amazed at the length of the train. I had butterflies in my stomach. When we reached the loco the foreman said here's your fireman. The driver looked at me and said 'have you ever done mainline work' to which I answered no. 'I'm not having him,' said the driver; the foreman said 'he's all we've got. You will have to take him'. The driver said to the Forman 'If I lose any time it's down to you.' So off we went 268 miles to Newcastle. For all his initial grumpiness the driver turned out to be a good bloke I can't recall his name, he helped me a lot, not shoveling of course telling me keep the back corners full (back corners of the firebox). When we arrived in Newcastle I was absolutely exhausted. We spent the night in a cheap hotel paid for by the railways. Next day we returned to London on that trip our loco was an A1.
I didn't go back to Newcastle for a long time. I was put in number three link, which was non-lodge. Arthur Kistruck was my driver in this link. He was a really great bloke and despite our age difference we were good mates. He was a hard drinking man and so was I, after work if the pubs were open we would go boozing. In this link the furthest we went was Doncaster. There was quite a bit of night goods working in this link mostly fitted freight [continuous brake] to New England, that's Peterborough. The locos we used were either V2s or 9f [we called 9f spaceships] I worked for about three years with Arthur, doing all types of work. We sometimes worked the prototype Deltic and other big diesels. I've worked on all types of steam LNER that is V2, 9F, A1 A2, A3, A4, B1, Austerity and many more. Only once on the main line did I stop for a blow-up [that means run out of steam] we were on a B1 on an express going to Cleethorpes. We were working the train as far as Peterborough, we finally ran out of steam at Yaxly just short of Peterborough. It was all very embarrassing. It was the first time I had fired a B1, up till that point I'd only fired Pacific's or V2s which had wide fireboxes, the B1s had long narrow fireboxes. What was happening was the coal I shovelled in was hitting the brick arch so the front of the firebox was getting no coal and dragging in lots of cold air. Anyhow we got over that and once you got to know how to fire them they were good engines, they were used on trains where axel loading had to be light. On some routes Pacific's or green arrows were too heavy.
One of our turns was on the prototype deltic we used to go to Doncaster and back. Very often as with all new types there were teething troubles and very often deltic was not available, in which case we reverted back to steam. Arthur my driver didn't let me drive steam for obvious reasons he was getting on a bit to do much shovelling. He used to let me drive the diesels where he could keep his eye on me. Arthur liked going fast and on the downgrade through Essendine he liked to get the engine around 90mph, V2s didn't do that speed but a good A4 or A1 were quite capable. A lot of people don't know, but if you were going at a good speed at Potters Bar you could shut off and roll all the way into Kings Cross. You might have to put a bit of steam on at harringay where there was a slight upgrade. I fired on 'Mallard' on several occasions she was no different to any other A4, I did a couple more trips to Newcastle. One turn I did was the 2-55pm from Kings Cross to Newcastle it was called the 'Scotch goods'. The first stop was York, where we pulled into the sidings and had our tea. York shed used to send two men down to pull the coal forward because by this time it was well back in the tender. The train was what we called a number one goods braked throughout [Brakes on all wagons] this train was run at nearly express speed. Another train I fired on was the 'Tees-Tyne Pullman'. The kitchen staff on the first coach always supplied the crew with coffee and rolls.
I had a real good time working with Arthur, sometimes the travelling all the way from Enfield to Kings Cross just to get to work was a bit much and so was a lot of the night work. I used to envy my mates going out for the evening whilst I had to go to work. My railway career came to an end when in 1963 I failed an eyesight test and in those days glasses were not allowed. So I said cheerio to Arthur and left Kings Cross for good.