Chris Bird RIP

[1H was 2E]

Just heard from a former 222 colleague that Chris, who also spent time at 222, has passed away. Perhaps no-one's heard of him, but he was involved with the purchase of 61572 from BR and that may ring a bell. One of his stories was that when 61572 was stored at Devons Road, the new owners would go to the shed on a quiet Sunday and get steam up. The laid back days of BR.

[Mickey]

I don't believe i knew Mr.Bird but RIP all the same.

222 Marylebone road that was the old BRITISH RAILWAYS HEADQUARTERS.

Back in the early 1980s there was a young well thought of management fella on the North London line called Mike Scot who went to 222 Marylebone road but i never heard of him again, anyone know of him granted he was a London Midland Region fella?.

[1H was 2E]

I also new a Mike Scot who I worked with on the WR (freight salesman) and then at RFD and might be the same one. He was an ex-trainee, I think. Sadly since privatisation and retirement I've lost touch with many ex colleagues but do attend a few reunions. In the old days of BR when you moved around you might not know anybody at the new place but always someone would know someone you know (if you see what a mean) and that would break the ice.

[Mickey]

I also new a Mike Scot who I worked with on the WR (freight salesman) and then at RFD and might be the same one. He was an ex-trainee, I think. Sadly since privatisation and retirement I've lost touch with many ex colleagues but do attend a few reunions. In the old days of BR when you moved around you might not know anybody at the new place but always someone would know someone you know (if you see what a mean) and that would break the ice.

Could well be the same fella, Mike was a well thought of young fella what i remember of him 30 years ago, he started at Camden Road then moved to 222 Marylebone Road sometime around 1983 or 84 i believe?.

There is one ex-L.M.R. retired man off the Euston area in particular called hq1hitchin who is a forum member that you could possibly know of he use to be around the Euston, Willesden & Watford area in 1970s, 80s & 90s. As for myself i have been knocking around the North London line in the signalling grade since 1980 and probably know several of the same fella's that you would know or if not personally probably by name?.

[1H was 2E]

The Mike Scot knew would be about that age. Re people that we know or know of, it seems that you have to have an alias in this forum. I am aware that I may be remembered by full name as a cocky know-it-all youngster by those who worked with me in the seventies ( embarrassingly, they would be right) so to an extent I go along with it. Perhaps there's a good reason. But BR from the 60's 'til the end was a very friendly place - when I visited areas (only as a lacky - I wasn't important) for various reasons I always got tea or invitation to the pub afterwards. Didn't seem like it at the time but those are now the good old days. And we looked out for each other, too. No blame apportionment.

[Mickey]

Working on the railways over 40 years?.

To quote Charles Dickens-

''It was the best of times and it was the worst of times''.

The money now days is alot better then it use to be working on British Rail and there's more time off but the fun and pleasure of working on the railway has well and truely gone out of the job probably since about the mid-1980s onwards everyone who's working on the railway today takes the job far more seriously and procedures have been tightened up considerably especially since the string of railway accidents at Clapham Junction, Southall, Ladbroke Grove, Hatfield & Potters Bar and largely because of those accidents the job has become more technical and demanding for many front line staff such as signaller's, driver's, controller's and many others.

The railway senior management nowadays is on the whole managed by non-railway minded people from non-railway backgrounds who have come from other walks of life into the ''Rail industry'' and a long with an influx of women into the signalling and driving grades over the last 10-15 years the majority of the general staff nowadays are of non-railway minded backgrounds with many of them showing a distinct lack of knowledge or interest in railways in general and a long with the rise of the 'blame culture' between Network Rail, TOCs and the S&T department for who will take 'any delay minutes' it's a different job to what it was like under British Rail, many of the old railwaymen that were on the job back in the 1960s & 70s wouldn't recognise the railway now days besides that generation of railwaymen has virtually vanished now.

For the few of us that remain and who are left over from the British Rail era of the 1960s & 70s it has been a challenging 25 years what with the 'run down' and starvation of 'investment money' going into the railways during the latter part of the British Rail era (under the Tories) in the late 1980s and early 1990s to be followed by privatization in the mid-1990s then the whole Railtrack debacle of the late 1990s then going into 'Administration' and the formation of Network Rail from the ashes of Railtrack in the early 2000s and finally the emergence of NETWORK RAIL A WORLD CLASS COMPANY in the 2010s it's been quite a journey...!!!.

[Norfolkman]

I have it on very good authority that the Chris Bird referred to in this thread is very much alive a well and has been spoken to today. Perhaps this thread should be renamed or removed.

Steve

[1H was 2E]

This is excellent news and I can only apologise. Obviously the 222 grapevine was seriously misinformed.

[52A]

NETWORK RAIL A WORLD CLASS COMPANY

That is a joke!

[Mickey]

NETWORK RAIL A WORLD CLASS COMPANY

That is a joke!

Thats wot senior management at the top of Network Rail have been proclaiming for the last couple of years?.

As for Mr.Bird?. A good news story he isn't dead!.

[hq1hitchin]

NETWORK RAIL A WORLD CLASS COMPANY

That is a joke!

Couldn't agree more, lions led by donkeys. Good news about Mr Bird, although I don't know him. Regarding young Mike Scott, I do remember him as a Traffic Assistant on the North London line, a Scotsman, I seem to recall. He left on promotion about 1985 and I never heard of him again, which is a bit odd. Will be going on an outing next month with some other old timers, some of whom worked in the freight business, so can make some enquiries. As an aside, I regularly used to travel home on the 16:45 Waterloo - Poole with a group of other staff c 1998 and got to know one of them just by his first name of Mervyn. One evening I asked him if he'd been on the Southern all his career as he seemed a really Sunny South Sam. "Yes," he replied, "all the time except for a short spell on the Eastern". "Where was that?" "Welwyn Garden City" said Merv. "Good God, you're Mervyn Lloyd!" and so he was, gone a bit older with time, like me.

[Mickey]

NETWORK RAIL A WORLD CLASS COMPANY

That is a joke!

Couldn't agree more, lions led by donkeys. Good news about Mr Bird, although I don't know him. Regarding young Mike Scott, I do remember him as a Traffic Assistant on the North London line, a Scotsman, I seem to recall. He left on promotion about 1985 and I never heard of him again, which is a bit odd. Will be going on an outing next month with some other old timers, some of whom worked in the freight business, so can make some enquiries. As an aside, I regularly used to travel home on the 16:45 Waterloo - Poole with a group of other staff c 1998 and got to know one of them just by his first name of Mervyn. One evening I asked him if he'd been on the Southern all his career as he seemed a really Sunny South Sam. "Yes," he replied, "all the time except for a short spell on the Eastern". "Where was that?" "Welwyn Garden City" said Merv. "Good God, you're Mervyn Lloyd!" and so he was, gone a bit older with time, like me.

The name Mervyn rings a vague dim and distant bell from way back when hq1hitchin?.

Mike Scott?. Yes as previously posted after he left Camden Road for 222 Marylebone Road around 1985 he was never heard of again?.

As for Network Rail being known as a WORLD CLASS COMPANY i can't write those words without a smile on my face!!.

[52A]

I could comment further on personal experiences of Notwork Fail but we are going off piste here!

[richard]

<cough cough> it also gets old?