The LNER Encyclopedia

Hi all.i am looking for some help with in passing on our family history.hopefully I am on the correct section of the forum..My grandad William Collingwood worked for the railway maintenance during the1900s.(b1876-d1953) I do not know the exact dates.in his mid to later years he was a ganger platelayer.i know that from at least 1939(but possibly alot earlier).he was station master at Ebchester.Co.Durham.This meant that the family were given a railway house on site.
Can someone please direct me ,if possible, to where I could find information about finding his work record history and general info about life on the railways at that time.i am curious as to when he would have retired and whether the railway company would have looked after him when he had to leave the house.any help would be greatly appreciated.like alot of things in life,I wish I had pressed for more info when family are still about.thr film the railway children has a soft spot in my heart.my Mam used to tell stories of the wounded soldiers passing by during the war years.im sure life was hard but she seemed to have fond memories of the steam trains passing by and the beautiful countryside that surrounded them.kind regards Colin Kerr

It is a difficult route, when doing my family tree I was trying to track down former railway workers and hit the buffers, I know from a surviving relative we are related, but finding the exact link was difficult, I found the Ancestry site to be pretty poor, they seem to rely almost solely on the input of other subscribers and I found a lot of that was inaccurate.

I have sent a PM.