Top Shed memories

[streamliner]

Hello Everyone!
Found an ASLEF dues booklet from 1953 while sorting through some papers. Boy did that bring back some memories of the cast of characters at Top Shed in the early 1950's. I did a search for a web page like this one but got a bit buffaloed because I was searching for BR-ER, but a little perseverance brought me here.
Below are some of the Drivers who I fired to, most of the turns being sick day and rest day coverage after finishing National Service. Some others as a result of yarns in the mess room.
Driver Jim Edwards-Grantham with a Saturday relief-14 on and a clapped out V2 that must have been due for shopping.The poor old thing really struggled up to Potters Bar and up the hill out of Peterborough.
Driver (Peanut Joe) Howard-who sported a beret and reputedly left a trail of peanut shells on his first trip to Leeds to be able to find his way back to KX.
Driver (Towny) Keyes who always sported a bow tie. There was some tale about crossing gates on top of the smokebox at Helpston. Whether true or not I have no idea.
Driver Stan Trigg-a nice sunny afternoon gallop with an A3 light engine to Peterborough.
Driver George Rolt who I recollect as having a really gruff voice.
Driver (Chinny) Hayes- riding in the open sidecar of his Norton combination down City Road at 4am on a freezing cold January morning.
There are of course many others. One other recollection is of the little brick building across from the coaling tower, where Luty and Webster plied their trade as assistant running foremen. I believe these two gentlemen were involved in the high speed test runs with the A1 and A3 and A4 prior to the inaugration of the Silver Jubilee service.
Couple of other things come to mind:
When backing out into Gasworks Tunnel with the intention of stopping to go forward into the loco yard, be judicious applying the steam brake on A1 and A2 locomotives.
Too sudden an application will cause water in the boiler to blow out the the safety valves. Very spectacular!
Gresley A3/A4 and V2's don't have much in the way of brakes with 40 lb of steam.
Another humorous incident was when one of Robinson's A5 tanks showed up at Top Shed. My GN driver viewed the Westinghouse brake with suspicion as we figured out how to get the donkey pump to work. ( A resounding thump with the coal pick did the trick)
That's all I have for now. Hopefully it might tickle the memory of some other Top Shed folk.
Best Wishes to all Members

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up, Streamliner!

More, please. That was an enjoyable read!

[61070]

Hello Everyone!
Below are some of the Drivers who I fired to...
Driver (Peanut Joe) Howard-who sported a beret and reputedly left a trail of peanut shells on his first trip to Leeds to be able to find his way back to KX.

Good evening streamliner,

I'm really enjoying your tales of the footplate. I was just a lad at the time (born in 1954) - those final days of steam on the east coast main line have left a lasting impression.

I have some photos taken at Grantham in the early 1960's which clearly show footplate crew. Grantham men of the day don't recognise the people but I think there's a good chance that some of the men may be from Top Shed. It would be great to be able identify them and maybe you could help me there?
I noticed your description of Driver Howard with his beret and wondered if this could be him? It's enlarged from larger photo - he's climbing into the cab of 60044 Melton.

I could post the other pictures of unidentified crew if you (or maybe locojoe) think you can help me to put names to the faces after all this time.

Thanks for joining the forum.

[Solario]

Hi 61070,

My first thought about the gent climbing into the cab is that he is one of the shed staff because (a) he is wearing a boiler suit rather than the traditional loco crew bib & brace & jacket outfit and (b) he is wearing specs, albeit on a string. I may well be wrong.

I hope that you get some of your other shots posted and identified.

Regards,
Solario

[61070]

Hello Solario,

Yes, I agree that he's in unusual attire for the footplate - more like a fitter would wear. However I think the 'glasses' could be protective eyewear rather than for correction of vision. The following should link to a photo of what may be the same man - certainly someone who's wearing a beret and 'glasses' though we can't see what he's dressed in.

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3429&p=28403&hilit ... ece#p28403

There was some debate then about whether he could have been a footplate 'guest' of some kind. With some more folk on board here now who remember men at Kings's Cross I thought it's worth another view.

[60129 GUY MANNERING]

John,
The Good News.
I certainly remember such a driver, who I saw on numerous occassions both at Kings Cross and Grantham. In fact I would imagine I have actually travelled behind him as at this time my close family were living in Neasden where my Dad worked as a fitter (As well as 34A) and often travelled back to Grantham to visit my Grandparents and the rest of the family as serious illness was affecting both of my grandparents.
The Bad News:-
I know its not Bill Hoole, Ted Hailstone, Fred Durrington,Sam Pearce or Arthur Northern but then I guess you already knew that.
Truth be told I have no idea of his name,but I do know he was a driver (almost certain 99.99%) or Loco Inspector (very unlikely) as I have seen him drive.I remember because it was so unusual to see a gent driving a Pacific in such attire.I used to think he might be french as they seemed to be the only nation that wore berets.The innocence of youth.
I do seem to recall being told by my Father or Uncle Aubrey (Guard at Grantham) that the eye wear was as you rightly say to protect his eyes rather than as a vision aid.
The memories this thread and your own bring flooding back are something to behold.A long gone time when lads of 14 knew their place and would normally only speak when spoken to by an adult,clean streets,smart embankments and roadside verges, a real lack of money for the majority.To be honest I am glad to be 65 or I would have missed those happy days.

[streamliner]

Hello once again!
I'm pleased that my previous post was of interest. I took a good hard look at the picture posted by 61070. I can't be absolutely certain that the gent pictured is Driver Howard. My recollection is that he wore the regular BR issue clothing. Also the fact that Driver Howard was either in the Top or Doncaster Link almost ten years previously.
This would mean he must be at retirement age in 1962. Couple of other things are also interesting about the picture. It seems that the picture was taken in Grantham MPD prior to taking over an up service to KX. I noticed that there is a tiny sliver of the firehole with what appears to be a bright fire. Usual procedure would be to back out of Grantham MPD on the down side and then cross over to the up main and run through the station and then be turned into the slip road ready to take over the train coming in from the north. The other thing that's interesting is the wearing of eyeglasses. I know that wearing prescription eyeglasses was definitely taboo for drivers except for reading notices and diagram boards. I never saw any driver wearing eyeglasses while driving. Failing eyesight was a curse for older drivers. I once spent a shift on a V2 standby engine at Harringay. My mate was Bill Eckersley an ex GC driver of long service. He told me he was about to take a final try at an eyesight test and failure would mean permanent assignment to shed duties.
That's all I have for now,
Best wishes to all members.

[61070]

Hello Streamliner and 60129,

Thanks very much for your comments on the photo. I'm now attaching the entire picture. Perhaps I should have done so in the first place, but I thought it best to focus on trying to identify the man. It shows that the engine is standing at the down platform, maybe explaining why the fire is so bright.

Seeing the whole image may help to explain why I wish to leave open the possibility that the man is a driver - until someone can identify him one way or the other. In addition to 60129 remembering such a driver, we can also see in the photo that the driver's seat is unoccupied - not conclusive by any means, but if someone else had been in the seat then I think we could be more certain that our man wasn't driving.

Although I was there when the photo was taken I can't remember whether No.44 had just come onto the train from the shed or had brought the train in from the south. I suspect the latter, because by the time we began our regular visits to Grantham (in spring 1962) there were far fewer locomotive changes there than there had been, even a few years previously. The date was late June (21st or 28th) 1962.

Streamliner - I hope you don't mind if I post a few more pictures (I'll do that soon) of men who I imagine may be Kings Cross footplatemen, in the hope that someone may recognise them and let me know who they are.

All the best,

John

[61070]

Here are three photos featuring the crews A4s, taken when they called at Grantham. All three locos were Top Shed engines at the time, hence my thinking that the crews may be too. Does anyone recognise them please?

[61070]

Here's another crew who may be recognised - No.10 was taking over the down The Heart of Midlothian from a failed Deltic. I'm not sure whether these men would have transferred from the footplate of the Deltic, or if they were the crew of the standby loco. Can someone explain what happened when a steam loco replaced a failed diesel? Did the diesel crew have to work through, transferring from one form of traction to the other (even if in their diesel uniform) - or did they have the option to decline the change of footplate conditions and ask for another 'steam attired' crew to work the train forward?

By the way, I've just realised that this sequence of pictures includes both the recently 'repatriated' A4s, though (say it quietly here) while it's great to hear from so many people who appreciate what's been achieved I must personally confess to being a little underwhelmed by it all.

[52D]

It wasnt unknown for men to turn up in diesel green uniforms then be given a filthy WD to carry on with in place of a failed EE type 3. I read a bit about this from a piece on Canklow shed.

[sandwhich]

I was one of the the last to start my railway career at Top Shed, the last of the N2 tank engines had not long left for New England but there was still a large amount of steam still left, the Deltics were up and running but with the coming of the class 47 diesels in the latter part of 1962 the writing was well and truly on the wall, the first of the A4 pacifics were withdrawn on December 30th of that year and steam gradually faded away with Top Shed closing in mid June 1963 with all remaining steam moving to New England including 60034 Lord Faringdon which eventually made its way to Aberdeen Ferryhill where it was withdrawn in 1966 the last top shed engine in service. Steam made appearances on a number of occasions up until the summer of 1964 when the remaining facilities at Top Shed were removed and apart from 4472 the last BR steam working was 60009 in October 1964.
I also remember some crews coming to work in their green uniform and finding that there was a steam engine waiting for them, they were not best pleased.
Anybody remember the bottom bunk, home of the sick lame and lazy where engines were left and it was their job to coal up and place on the pits for the fires to be cleaned then place in front of the shed or back pits for fitters examination and eventual preparation for their next trips. The drivers that I remember were there because of medical reasons mainly eyesight, in those days of steam the only glasses that drivers were allowed to wear were for reading, much has changed since then, racking my brains from long ago I can remember one already mentioned Bill "Towney" Keyes and Bill Wright, Jack Colley, Charlie Brown, Reg Bowen and Horace Yates were oth.ers, sometimes they would let us lads move the engines by ourselves, great fun. Then there was the nearby Goods Yard where at the time their was still six pilots, plus the North London and what was then called the "farm" pilots also manned by Drivers that fell by the wayside.

[streamliner]

Hello everybody!
Thanks to 61070 for the new pictures. I think the driver looking back in the cab of 60014 might be Bill Irving. I don't recognize the drivers in the other pictures.
I left the railway service in 1956 after the Beeching report was published. It was obvious that there would be massive redundancy and promotion would be seriously
affected. The dedication of drivers to a career that paid 7pounds-10shillings a week after the 1955 strike was amazing. Of course mileage payments
increased the basic pay for main line drivers. It was rumored that drivers on the Capitals Limited made the princely sum of 25pounds for the week's run to Edinburgh and back. The only turn in the Met link that paid mileage involved relieving the 5.20pm out of Broad Street at Finsbury Park and then doing three round trips to Hertford North.
That's all I have for now,
Best wishes to all members

[sandwhich]

Streamliner did you mean you left the railway in 1966 not 1956 because the Beeching report came out in 1963. However when i started in 1962 the Drivers wages was £13.10 per week plus enhancements including mileage starting at 140 miles which meant that only main line crews were the only ones at KX that received this enhancement.. In 1965 there was a new manning agreement which meant that mileage pay started at 0 miles, it went up to 65 miles in the early 70s then 200 in the mid 70s before going altogether in 1996. Much has changed in recent years.

[manna]

G'day Gents

I know that in 1971, a Sunday and a week of nights, brought me the princely sum of 26 BP, after tax, didn't go far, but a trip to Donny was a big help.

manna