Micky wrote:He's a KX driver from the early/mid '70s ARCHIE COWLARD anyone remember him?.
Still about - ended up as Station Manager's clerk at Kings X in Railtrack days, and a very good one at that. Used to get involved in issuing permits to work to contractors and so on. Attends Hatfield re-unions regularly and still instantly recognisable. I remember picking up a repair book on a diesel once and some wag had written on the cover 'Archie Cowlard, This Is Your Life'
I remember one day we went out to Finsbury Pk to pick up a loco (it was freezing) he failed three loco's before he found one he could'nt fail, he also liked fresh air, even at 4am, window open! cold draught round the back of your neck!!!!!
off topic Micky i used to know the real Doctor Death he was a wrestling contemporary of Big Daddy and worked at Dodworth pit, when i was servicing the cranes at the pit he would have a daft carry on. What a funny man he would get us to punch his stomach it was like iron.
Hi interested in the area served by 52D. also researching colliery wagonways from same area.
Hi Micky, the driver you refer to as Doctor Death was in fact Roy Watson, I knew him as a young driver when I first started and was secondman to him a few times, but then our paths diverged and I lost track of him. I came out of the top link at the end of 1973 and took a driver's vacancy at Waterloo in 1974, perhaps our paths crossed at some time?
Archie Cowlard - every time his name came up when we were investigating casualties (i.e. failures) in the KM at GN House, we used to groan. We wondered just what we would get on the drivers report. Without question, his actions would be by the book, though. Archie was straight in whatever he did.
I know his main claim to fame was, one cold night, trying to fail the staff train at Finsbury Park - he nearly got lynched by his "passengers"!
Glad to see that, unlike so many others, he is still about.
Hi Gents.........
Does anyone remember Hornsey Shed Engine movements in the early 70s?
There was a snug little room with an open fire.. Great in winter...........I think they used to put what was left of the old steam coal on it?
If you were unlucky on night shift, there may have been at least two Engine moves a night?
My drivers would usually go over the bridge for a pint (Great Northern Hotel) leaving me to deal with any movements required.........(Daunting at 17) I remember one night, the depot foreman at KX ringing up looking for driver********* ....I think it was the formidable Greig? Big blustery guy? I may have it wrong? Cant recall the outcome..........
I also heard tales of illegal fishing trips over what was then, the old water supply reservoirs opposite...........Now, a housing estate........
Happy days.....Keep the good memories coming............
When I was working a late turn at Hertford North box one hot summer's day Archie Cowlard stopped at the box and handed
me five!! AWS fault forms. Some of the faults related to boxes that were switched out. The heat had caused signal wires to expand and distant signals to show a "Poor" off aspect causing a horn to sound when the arm was off but not at the right angle to make the AWS track apparatus to give a bell in the driving cab.
He was absolutely right but it was interesting to note that no other drivers reported the matter.
Another day Archie reported on arrival at Hertford North that, at Gordon Hill, the arrow pointing to the left to indicate 15mph PSR to turn into Gordon Hill Down Bay had been swivelled round (by yobs) to point straight up. Archie said if the arrow still pointed straight up the next time he came down the Hertford Loop he would run at 15mph all the way from Gordon Hill to Hertford North. This threat resulted in the P'way sorting the PSR sign out in a matter of hours.
Micky, here's one for you, your old friend "Angry Silence" or "Grim Jim". Taken around 1966/67 approaching Peterborough from the north. Also included is a lineside feature that has disappeared into history, but retained at this time for Class 55's (and 40's I believe) to top up the water tanks for steam heating although I only ever operated it on 55's. They were soon replaced by high pressure hydrants at strategic locations & beware if you didn't get the connection on tightly because an early bath lay in store!
Thats a very young Angry Silence! seemed older when I knew him and a bit thinner in the face, but then I was a lot younger then myself???
Never went over any troughs, in my time they'd all gone, but I do remember that on one diagram, I was booked to refill the engines boiler water tank (class 31) at the end of the end of the old platform 10, I tried to get the connector onto the loco, but it kept getting blown off by the force of the water, after only a couple of gallons, even tried to fill it from the roof of the engine, but could'nt hold onto the loco and the water pipe at the same time, in the end both the driver and myself managed to get it connected, but it would only take water slowly, by this time the ECS we had brought in had gone and we were blocking the platform, so we gave it up as a bad joke, but I still got soaked, good job it was summer
Micky, the name sounds familiar but can't put a face to it. Very often we were more tied in to our respective links and didn't always bump into everyone at the depot. Someone has asked about a Brian Austin and I'm almost sure I knew someone of that name but I'm not confident. I moved to Waterloo in '74 and spent the next 30 years on the Southern, I must have come across hundreds of different faces but unless something jogs my memory, I have trouble in remembering them all. Strangely it's my early career at the "Cross" that springs to mind more easily. I have a copy of the King's Cross Lodging diagrams circa 1970's to hand, but can't upload them at present. The picture of the water troughs is part of a few "driver's eye" views of various locations in the 60's, it's interesting to see the changes in the landscape over the subsequent years, I'll try and post some. Unfortunately in my earlier career the only camera I could afford was a box kodak and although I have lots of interesting black & white pictures of steam locos, they tend to be poor quality.
The photo of the trough's is a much welcome aid to any one modelling a set on thier layout, with the new Ratio offerings and the old Peco set's (should you be able to find a kit) , and dont worry about the quality of your photos at least we'll be seeing some thing new, celuloid negatives hopefully not like my Gratispool efforts, mind you at least thier 8mm was Kodak stock.
Marx wrote:Hi Gents.........
....I think it was the formidable Greig? Big blustery guy? I may have it wrong? Cant recall the outcome..........
I also heard tales of illegal fishing trips over what was then, the old water supply reservoirs opposite...........Now, a housing estate........
Happy days.....Keep the good memories coming............
Ken Greig - think someone on here said he emigrated to Australia?
Marx - those were the days when fishermen used to get into the waterworks and the New River, which flowed closer to the railway, early on a summers morning and shout up to the signalman in Wood Gn 1 and ask him to see if any bailiffs were about. Being much higher up, he had a great view to the south west and would generally oblige. Wood Gn 1 box, mind, was one of the dirtiest we had, probably because there was only one regular man there in the early 1970s. Can still recall the austerity of the place and how the structure was slightly bowed amidships due to a German rocket landing nearby. That's what they told us old boys, anyway...
