The LNER Encyclopedia

and an ex Western Region bit at that:

'When I first started work at Wolverhampton Low Level (then a parcels depot) I was bemused by the fact that one of the railmen would often be greeted with owl hoots by the more immature chaps - something which obviously annoyed him. Eventually I got the full story.

Back in the days of steam, it was quite common at certain times of the year, for a train ex Paddington to arrive with a pheasant lodged on the front of the engine which it had collided with somewhere in the Chilterns. This was regarded as a treat by the porters who would collect said birds and dine in style.

One evening, a King arrived with an owl impaled under the smokebox. The wags on the platform gathered up the owl and presented it to this chap (name of Billy Mytton and none too bright) and told him that it was his turn to get the "pheasant". He booked off with the owl in his "snap-bag" and apparently his poor wife plucked, gutted and cooked it. He was told the truth the next day. Hence the fact that some 15 years or so after the event he was still subject to taunts of "too whit too whoo".

I did ask the inevitable question; didn't he notice that it had a flat face? They reckoned that they'd told him "that's where the engine hit it"

Great story - thanks for sharing! Sorry for the poor old owl though!

While working at Liverpool Street 1989-95, one of the older hands (a signalman) reckoned that when the 'Britannias' superseded older classses on the Norwich run, the GE footplatemen thought they were really great! ....
....Because they performed better, or the cabs were better? -
- Possibly;
but this story was that, thanks to the smoke deflectors, they were much more effective at collecting pheasants en route.

Ay up!

There used to be a goods guard at Healey Mills, in the late 1970s, who took a deck chair with him on sunny days. If he got an LMS van with its bigger verandahs, he'd plenty of room to sit out and catch some rays in between braking duties.

When i was a secondman at Stratford MPD (east London) in 1979 I recall hearing a story that allegedly a Norwich express arriving at Liverpool street one day had the head and upper torso of a man on the front end of a class-47 much to the dismay of the crowds waiting on the platforms!!.

A B1 once rolled into Sheffield Vic form manchester with a full female body under the smoke box door.