B.R.S.A. club bar talk.

[Mickey]

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[Andy W]

I can recommend a trip to Hull on a Hull Trains 180 - ours don't get fluffed up, so far!

Back to the KX BRSA and I remember that "1 Shunt", the passenger pilot cl.31 that used to lurk in the milk dock, was a well known drinking turn. If anything happened the secondman used to have to busk it on his own. When I did C&W work we had to detach the odd coach (usually for hot wheels) using 1 shunt. The C&W Supervisors offices were on the first floor of Culross Hall (immediately to the right of the top of those outside stairs) and if I was there I used to cadge a lift with the loco.

A couple of times the secondman and I were on our own! I remember a very nervous lad who I looked out for and when we got back into the milk dock, having deposited an errant MK 11D BFK in "Platform 17", we went back into the dock to meet a very surprised Driver on his way back from the club. He was mightily relieved that I wasn't "a Guv'nor"!!

Everybody knew what the score was that day, even the ASM who was right by us as we split the train and hooked up, but, as usual, nothing was ever said.

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Had to do that more than once, we had to split a train, to get a dud parcels van out, late one evening, the back of my train was in the milk dock, the engine was just coming out of Gasworks tunnel,( had about 10 on) and with the curve and me just a tad to fast
(2 mph) I ended up buffer locking my train to the train already there!! well that shut everything down for half an hour! and where's my driver, enjoying a pint in the BRSA, by the time he comes back, everything is sorted out and there I am sitting back in the milk dock reading my 'rule' book, he gets on the loco and say's 'Anything happen while I was away' 'No' I said 'but you might get a 'please explain'!.........'A WHAT'........he shouts, so I explained what happened....'Is that all' he says 'I won't hear anything over that, happens every day' and he did'nt
manna

[Mickey]

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[StevieG]

1 & 2 Shunts had official places in the KX area set of 'T' 'trip' headcodes.
Although I remember '1 Shunt' Class 31s displaying "1S..", it was officially 'T10'.
Although '1 Shunt' was manned round the clock(?), wasn't '2 Shunt' a day turn only ?

'2 Shunt' was 'T11' (KX - Fins.Pk. if I recall correctly). In 'the Control' it was also known as 'the oil trip', and we had a freight recording card for it as 6T11 for its a.m. weekday journey from KX & back : [Was it 'the oil trip' because it included bringing fuel in from Finsbury Park depot for Passenger Loco, I wonder?]

[Mickey]

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[manna]

G'Day Gents
I was on a type 2 late one summers evening, in that short North siding by the tunnelmouth, dozing, with the window open, when a Deltic burst out of the tunnel, the driver must have braked a bit to much and had to give the Deltic a bit of a rev to get into the platform, the rev happened just as he passed me, boy did I jump!!
manna

[StevieG]

Officially, in 'the Power Box' (1932), the "South Spur" was that tiny one, facing-accessed off the Up Slow/Moorgate in the southern part of York Road platform (between No.8 points to KX platform 1, and the tunnel mouth which led down to the 'Widened Lines'), and worked by ground frame [release lever in the box - No.5].
By 'South Spur', do you mean the one just north of the departure end of platforms 1 & 2? That was officially called (surprisingly) the "Dead End".
The spur up by Gasworks Tunnel mouths, between the Up Relief and Up Fast, was indeed the "North Spur".

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Yep, thats the one...North Spur, AKA...Tunnel Wall??
manna

[Mickey]

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[Mr Bunt]

It shows everyone how much the job has changed since the 1970s nowadays the things that you both describe certain people would be taken off the job not before being MEDSCREENED drink/drugs policy then sent home with the likelihood of being SACKED!. Micky

Well, it was the Transport and Works Act 1992 which actually stopped all of this, in particular Part II "Safety of Railways etc".

I'd probably better not mention the RH&DR end of season staff specials, which amounted to a train borne pub crawl where we all took a turn at driving, or the day before the Act came into force when the P-Way gang bought a load of Dutch lager for the last time to slake their thirst legally while they were shovel packing a newly laid bit of the Down just outside Dymchurch!

Or the standing order for cans of 5% Hurlimann Sternbrau lager a certain Dymchurch station master used to have with the village shop and got delivered to the station - not to mention George Barlow's omnipresent supply of bottled Guinness in the locker of Green Goddess's tender!!

[Mickey]

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[hq1hitchin]

Mr.Bunt reading your posting brought the words Eltham Well Hall into my mind. I reckon a lot of ex-Railwaymen will remember that accident back in 1972 on the southern region on the outskirts of south London when a day out for mostly railwaymen and there families ended when the loco (Brush type-4) and the rake of Mk1 coaches she was pulling derailed on the 20mph speed restriction through Eltham Well Hall station which the train took at about 60mph!!!. I read that driver and secondman (both killed) after working the train down to Margate went off to the pub for a couple of beers. I ain't saying that as a secondman as i was onetime in the mid 70s that i wouldn't have done any different to what that secondman done on that day because i can remember going to the B.R.S.A. club with my driver on a number of occasions between other jobs but now that i am a lot older i guess it wasn't a wise thing to do in reality and it certainly wasn't in this particular case. Micky

I remember the incident well, Micky, and a lot of people on the train were from the BRSA Kentish Town, who had chartered the train, I believe. It was a nice little club, somewhere where you could take the family. The secondman wasn't killed, though, and in fact is still working on the railways or was, when I retired in 2008. Both men on the engine had been drinking quite heavily that day, I think - more than just a couple of pints.

[Mickey]

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[bricam5]

That was always a problem with trips and specials. Working out of Hull with one football team and two rugby league teams,we often had to work match specials. You could politely turn down the offers of beer at the Paragon platform when they were sober(ish) but if a Hull team won their match it was a different story at the other end when blokes came staggering up to the engine full to the gills and tried to push beer at you and became very agressive when you said no thanks.
"Wash a matter eh? Not good enough to have a drink with. I'll tek you on pal" etc.etc.
There was always some officials/police on the watch to see that the crew got no booze although many a time, a pint would have gone down nicely