1980s changes on the railways

[52D]

First Deltics gone 38 years ago Tempis Fugit. It just seems like yesterday that i cleared the class with D9015 in 1966.

[Mickey]

The Deltics?. Some people hated them for displacing there beloved A3s & A4s on the top link jobs on the ECML and a lot of people (in the end) liked them. The sound of the twin Napier turbines working flat out along the ECML is a memory that can still send shivers down my spine or even just the 'old Deltic hum' is enough to do the same thing.

Something else that finished on the railways during the 1980s was the newspaper traffic which I believed finished at Kings Cross around about 1987/88.

Saturday evenings at Kings Cross back in the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s and the first editions of the Sunday newspapers would be being loaded onto the 20:00 Edinburgh (or Aberdeen) departure up no.10 platform (later no.8 platform) and the first editions of the Sunday newspapers would already be on sale on the station concourse and out on Euston Road. Is it aready 30 years ago since that traffic finished.

[sandwhich]

Something else comes mind as regards the 1980s, in 1980 itself BR stated that it would end parcels and wagonload freight traffic, the former if I remember right did not take very long to achieve but the latter much longer.

[Mickey]

The freight side of British Rail during the late 1980s and into the early 1990s went through that 'sectorisation' period with some of the then existing fleet of first generation diesel locos such as the class 31s, 37s & 47s being painted up in grey liveries with many different black/yellow coloured sectorisation markings being added to the sides of the locos that was suppose to have represented the different parts of the freight business to which the locos were allocated to during that era.

There was a radio programme that I listened to a number of years ago that went into some detail about 'sectorisation' of the freight side of British Rail and apparently it came about when some railway managers in the south of England got together to try and win new freight contracts for the railways anyway sectorisation of the freight side of British Rail pre-dated privatisation by several years during the late 1980s & early 1990s.

[Mickey]

A 'unseen issue' to the travelling public occurred from about the mid/late 1980s onwards until into the present century was the overall lower quality in the staff that were being recruited onto the railways during that whole period that probably reached it's nadir during the whole of the 1990s and for someone like myself (60s age group) who has had a life long interest in railways from childhood and has been on the railways since starting with BR in 1972 from secondary school it was all a bit of a dis-spiriting time to be working on the job to be honest along with the many changes that were also going on during that time from the BR era to the privatised era.

The above situation came about when many older railwaymen came up for retirement during the mid/late 1980s after coming on the railways after WW2 so there knowledge and experience was lost overnight and so the railways had to 'mass recruit' drivers and signalling staff in particular 'off the street' to fill the gaps and the people who were recruited by and large had absolutely no knowledge or interest in railways and consequently there was a number of minor 'incidents' that occurred around the railways during the 1990s and early 2000s so after an accumulation of those minor incidents a more updated system of 'on going' continuous training was developed and is now mandatory for all railway staff. The old way of testing a signalman (now days called a signaller) for example was by having a 'bi-annual test' once every 2 years with there local signalling inspector face to face who would ask the signalman about a dozen signalling questions on rules & regulations but nowadays you have to complete 3 or 4 tests a year on a computer so it is all electronically recorded and also the signaller has to achieve the pass mark to retain his or her 'signalling license' to be able to signal trains.

On the reverse side of the coin a small number of people who came on the railways around 12-15 years ago and who originally had no background or interest in railways have conversely turned out to be 'very good railway staff' with now a lot of experience gained behind them who probably would not have thought of coming on the railways at onetime.

[Mickey]

Regarding the ending of the newspaper trains on British Rail I saw a dvd maybe about 10-12 years ago of the very last newspaper train departure from Waterloo station in London which occurred either in 1987 or 1988 (I can't remember which of those two years it was now?) and featured a 'cleaned up' southern region class 73 electro/diesel which was quite possibly carrying a headboard especially for the occasion which turned out to be something like a 2:15-2:30am departure from Waterloo for Southampton and along with one or two BR officials plus the film crew and a couple of committed flash light photographers in attendants that was the sum total of the small party on the platform to see the very last newspaper train off from a near deserted Waterloo station for the final time. After the departure from Waterloo was filmed there was then a couple of 'run by' shots of the newspaper train from the line side travelling through the darkness down the old South Western main line towards it's destination of Southampton and that was it the end of an era.

[Mickey]

A change that has occurred that has had a long lasting effect on the railways which came about as a direct result of the 'Clapham rail crash' of December 1988 has been in the amount of hours that can be worked in one continuous go before the individual concerned has to have a 24 hours break from duty which usually equates on a 12 hours roster as being a maximum of 6 consecutives 12 hours days or 12 hours night shifts then you must have a 24 hours break from duty before commencing work again although there is a 'get out clause' such as if there is absolutely no other person available to work a shift then they management can evoke what is called 'working a seventh turn of duty' but to do that it has to be agreed and signed off by a local manager first and it is a rarely used option and is usually only evoked if there is absolutely no one else available to work the shift but the usual amount of shifts that are normally worked in one go are either four 12 hours day shifts or four 12 hour night shifts and not six. To work five or six consecutive 12 hour shifts would mean the individual concerned was also working either one or two overtime shifts already.

Going back to the BR days of the 1970s & 1980s things started to change in the early 1990s directly because of the 'Clapham crash' in regards to working long hours which was up until then a fairly common and wide spread practice on the railways plus also the 'signalmen's strike' of 1994 changed a number of things regarding better pay and conditions and then shortly after that came railway privatisation of 1996/97 which shook a lot of things up in regards to newer methods of working and training and recruiting staff. At the time of the 'signalmen's strike of 1994' we were still working the 8 hours roster on my area although since the early 2000s we have subsequently worked the 12 hours roster which strangely enough can 'on paper' give staff more time away from work providing there is a full complement of staff?. Since 1994 all railway staff have been monthly paid through bank accounts.

[sandwhich]

Another big change that started to come about in the late 80s was sectorisation, Inter City, London South East, Other Provincial & Freight which in fact turned out to be the forerunners of Privatisation. I think this subject of 1980s changes on the railways could go on and on! There certainly were many changes probably more in that period than at any time since since nationalisation in 1948.

[Mickey]

I reckon you could well be right there sandwhich regarding 'sectorisation' about it probably being a forerunner to privatisation plus I always thought that Network South East was a bit odd as well within British Rail?.

There was a radio 'phone in' programme that I remember listening to one day back in 1984 when a tory politician in Mrs.Ts then government was being interviewed about the railways and during the course of the radio interview they took several phone calls and a railway signalman phoned in asking the politician if there was any plans about privatising the railways and the politician said "No there are no plans at the moment to privatise British Rail" which I suppose in 1984 there wasn't although it did eventually happen about twelve years later.

[sandwhich]

It was always said that Mrs Thatcher did not listen to anybody, not entirely true because the one person that she did listen too was one Nicholas Ridley who was not only one of her devotees but Transport Secretary during the late 80s, she asked his opinion on Railway Privatisation, he's answer was carry on hiving off the non railway parts (which they did) and by all means let private trains run (which they also did) but leave the rest alone its too complicated, she let it be but John Major wouldn't. In fact when he became Lord Ridley he voted against it in the Lords.

[Mickey]

Without straying to far into the political arena and as a railwayman at the time it did become apparent as the 1980s wore on the gradual run down of maintenance work around my area although British Rail did still do occasional local re-signalling projects from time to time at some locations anyway I was telling a work college a few days ago that when I was a regular signalman at a box that has already been mentioned on another topic thread on this forum that during the course of the four years that I was at that box between 1981-1985 I personally had only SIX engineering possessions at that box which were all the usual Saturday night/Sunday morning possessions between 00:30-08:00 which are common all over the railways but only SIX possessions in FOUR YEARS?. Nowadays since about the mid 1990s onwards it is very common to have four week night possessions (on my area) between 00:40-05:30 Tuesday-Friday mornings and then the usual Saturday night/Sunday morning possession between 00:40-08:30 as well sometimes maybe over two consecutive weeks so as an observer it did appear to look like there was some under investment in the railways during the 1980s and then from around the mid 1990s onwards until the present day it appeared to change somewhat.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

One thing we can be 'Thankful for' is the start of the replacement of the first Generation DMU's, with the 141's and then the 142, 143 and 144, Pacers and to be still with us neigh on 40 years later, they have had longer live's then most of the A4 Pacific's, funny old world, innit.

manna

[Mickey]

One thing we can be 'Thankful for' is the start of the replacement of the first Generation DMU's, with the 141's and then the 142, 143 and 144, Pacers and to be still with us neigh on 40 years later, they have had longer live's then most of the A4 Pacific's, funny old world, innit.

A 'pacer' a bus chassis on wheels better than a x2 Cravens unit or a x3 car Rolls Royce dmu set manna?. They hate the Pacers up north I believe?.

I use to like the first generation of 'bug boxes' (mid/late 1960s train spotter slang for a x2 car Cravens unit) that use to rattle along the GN suburban lines out of Kings Cross to Welwyn Garden City & Hertford North of the late 1960s & early 1970s.

"Quite an exhilarating experience actually on reflection to have been riding in a x4 or x6 car Cravens unit back in the late 1960s & early 1970s on a Kings Cross-Hitchin or Royston working and hammering along the fast lines rocking and rolling and swaying about with the top windows juddering and rattling from the constant vibration of the units engines working flat out doing a whacking 60mph plus if the driver had the driving cab blinds pulled up you could sit behind the driving compartment and watch the road ahead!!. Those were the days!!."