WGC station in the 1970s

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manna
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by manna »

G'Day Gents

Way off topic, but I arrived back at Southend Victoria early one morning, about 5 am, to find my car had been nicked, it had been parked up in the goods yard, but Mk 2 Cortina's were very easy to get into, I got it back 24 hours later from Upminster, someone must have missed there last train home.

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Mickey
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Mickey »

manna wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 9:51 am Way off topic, but I arrived back at Southend Victoria early one morning, about 5 am, to find my car had been nicked, it had been parked up in the goods yard, but Mk 2 Cortina's were very easy to get into, I got it back 24 hours later from Upminster, someone must have missed there last train home.
That actually made me laugh out loud manna the thought of some irresponsible person wanting to get home so they nick a car out the car park and stuff the owner!. I bet you was really cheesed off.

Meanwhile back in WGC...

Apparently the top news story in the Welwyn & Hatfield Times of the week is someone had a bike nicked from the town last week so 50 years on from my pushbike being nicked from the bike shed at the station bike crime is still a problem.
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Dave S
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Dave S »

The chief clerk in the early 1980's was a chap called Paul Brewer, he had a Ford Popular that had been reconditioned, he used to lock it and we always wondered who he thought was going to nick it.

Was it a 'Chopper' you lost Mickey .... :lol:
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Mickey »

Dave S wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 11:41 am Was it a 'Chopper' you lost Mickey .... :lol:
I think it was an 'ordinary' push bike for a teenager Dave with straight handlebars although I think I did have a 'racer' around that time as well and to be honest I have a funny feeling that I had that bike nicked from that bike shed around the same time 1969-70. To be fair to the railway a notice was displayed saying Bike owners leave bikes at owners risk although that was little comfort when your bike has just been nicked!!.
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manna
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by manna »

Mickey wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 9:59 am
manna wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 9:51 am Way off topic, but I arrived back at Southend Victoria early one morning, about 5 am, to find my car had been nicked, it had been parked up in the goods yard, but Mk 2 Cortina's were very easy to get into, I got it back 24 hours later from Upminster, someone must have missed there last train home.
That actually made me laugh out loud manna the thought of some irresponsible person wanting to get home so they nick a car out the car park and stuff the owner!. I bet you was really cheesed off.

Meanwhile back in WGC...

Apparently the top news story in the Welwyn & Hatfield Times of the week is someone had a bike nicked from the town last week so 50 years on from my pushbike being nicked from the bike shed at the station bike crime is still a problem.
G'Day Gents

Yep I was a bit peeved, I lived at Westcliff-on-Sea, which is about a mile from Victoria, but knowing I couldn't get a train back to Westcliff, I took the car to Southend, Victoria, I was expecting to be in bed by 5.15 am, instead I had to report it to the Police then walk home, didn't get home until after 7 am. and when I did get the car back, they'd taken everything that wasn't bolted down.

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Mickey
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Mickey »

Back around 2010 or 2011 I had a ride down to WGC and got speaking to a chargeman at the station who apparently claimed he was the oldest member of staff then currently working at the station and told me he started at WGC station back in 1979 although not to long after this meeting maybe a year later I heard that he subsequently left.
Last edited by Mickey on Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Dave S »

A couple more names have come out of the fog of memory for WGC in the late 70's early 80's

Trevor Bell - A Jamaican or Barbadon railman who always worked one of the platform barriers on the footbridge.

Pete Hermitage - A chargehand/Senior Railman who went to Royston in about 1980 for promotion.

I don't think either rode a bike so doubt they were the culprit.
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Mickey »

One of the chargemen at WGC during the early 1970s especially between 1972-74 was called Charlie Heritage and the other chargeman was called Ivor I never knew his surname anyway I remember he transferred as a chargeman to Moorgate when B.R. took the northern line branch over later in 1975-76. Another bloke who I believe mite have been a chargeman was a ex-army bloke called Fred Spooner he showed up at the station around 1973 an was still at the station during 1975.

Around 1974-75 maybe later in the 1970s I remember an old bloke use to 'punch tickets' on the footbridge and stand in that little box at the top of the stairs but I either can't remember his name or I never knew it?.
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Dave S »

I'm probably wrong and 'Pete Hermitage' is actually 'Heritage' I'm sure his name was 'Peter' but then the railway had so many nicknames that they became the real name.

On that theme I worked at Biggleswade around 1983/4 and there was a railman there called 'Jack Strong' everyone called him Jack so I presumed that was his name. When the pay packets came down from Hitchin I couldn't find a 'J Strong' but there was a 'H Strong' Apparently his name was 'Horace' but as the 2 previous incumbents of his job had both been called 'Jack' everyone carried on calling him by that name.
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Mickey »

Dave did you work at WGC station in the early 1980s?. If you did was the 2 yard shunters Sid & Fred still around?. I don't know how long both blokes had worked at WGC in the yard but I remember seeing both of them from around 1967 onwards and they were both still there in 1974. Sid was a old white bloke who lived at Cole Green on the Hertford road and use to ride a push bike (I never heard if he had his bike nicked?) and Fred was another older black bloke who lived at Finsbury Park who would ride the trains to and from Finsbury Park I was wondering if they were still at the station in the early 1980s?.

Below a view looking south of the Up sidings and yard layout at Welwyn Garden City circa 1950s- https://www.ourwelwyngardencity.org.uk/ ... ms/wgc.jpg

A similar view taken from the footbridge in the 2000s- https://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/04 ... b94bae.jpg
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Dave S »

I worked in WGC booking office on and off from 81-83/4 as a relief.

We used to get everyone come into the parcels counter on a Thursday (after 10.30am) for wages but I can't say for certain whether the 2 chaps were still there and coming in.

Those in the Booking office were
Darren King
Roy Doughty
Paul Brewer (Chief Clerk)
Clive Titmus as relief chief clerk and came up from Hatfield.
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by StevieG »

Hmmm; interesting Dave S.
The Darren King who became quite a high flyer in the rail industry, I wonder.
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Dave S »

StevieG wrote: Mon Feb 15, 2021 12:55 am Hmmm; interesting Dave S.
The Darren King who became quite a high flyer in the rail industry, I wonder.
It may be a different person, I'm sure I remember he had left the railway in about 84. He would have been early 20's then, he lived in Ickleford at the time as I gave him a lift a couple of times in Winter.
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Mickey »

Dave S wrote: Sun Feb 14, 2021 9:33 pm I worked in WGC booking office on and off from 81-83/4 as a relief.

We used to get everyone come into the parcels counter on a Thursday (after 10.30am) for wages but I can't say for certain whether the 2 chaps were still there and coming in.
I was at WGC box a decade earlier Dave (1972-74) and I remember going to the booking office to collect my weekly wages on a Thursday all £8.75p of it well it was 1972-73. I remember the 3 resident signalmen at 'Garden City' were all grade 'C' signalmen as the box was graded as a 'C' and were paid just over £30 a week during the same time period.

I don't recall any names of the blokes working in the booking office Dave although their faces were all familiar to me during the late 1960s until the first half of the 1970s.

Cash paid wages was phased out by B.R. during late 1994 I recall and the very last payday Thursday was during September of that year after which everyone was 'bank paid' as wages were then paid monthly into your personal bank account.
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Re: WGC station in the 1970s

Post by Mickey »

https://www.ourwelwyngardencity.org.uk/ ... rification

1.Inside Welwyn Garden City box during the last few weeks before the commissioning of the NX panel in September 1973 note a number of levers have already been removed from the frame in readiness for the changeover weekend also the track diagram in the picture was a temporary diagram installed several months earlier in 1973 when a NX panel was installed in Hatfield No.2 and TCB working was then introduced between both boxes. The signalman is Alan 'pedlar' Palmer who stared on the LNER as a telegraph lad around the Peterborough area during the mid 1930s. The dark haired youth just seen in front of the signalman is ME!!.

2.The Up slow line signals off the end of the Up platform. The left-hand arm was no.47 and read straight along the Up slow line and the right-hand arm was no.39 and read Up slow to Up fast line. Note the 'boxes with a X' cover the newly installed colour light signals yet to be commissioned.

3.The Welwyn Garden City NX panel I was at the box as a telegraph lad when it was brought in one weekend and installed during a period of 4-5 weeks before the commissioning weekend in September 1973. I believe the signalman was a Geordie bloke who I never met and who I recall never worked the box when it had a lever frame.

4.An interesting picture of a EMU off the GE on a test train standing in the Up fast line at Welwyn Garden City. Although the picture is undated the box closed in September1976 so I hazard a guess it was possibly either during 1975 or 1976. Nowadays those railway blokes standing on the ballast the way they are 'on a open road' would be frowned upon.
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