Stanley, obliged for your comments! The three main heavy movers of livestock I came across during my career were Willie (and later Fred) Wrathall @ Skipton with cattle, Tom Foster @ Bell Busk sheep and (can't remember his first name) Taylor @ Milnrow with cattle and horses.

Birthday greetings and all the very best for tomorrow

I shall have a bigger whisky than usual when I get up.  Thanks for the birthday wishes.  I've heard a lot about Fred Wrathall and John Harrison's dad used to bring a lot into Earby station where they unloaded and drove them under the line into White House Farm.  Here's a bit from me memoir (Drinkall Years)

"One feature of the auction yard at Ayr which was still there in those days was the old loading docks for transferring cattle from the auction to cattle wagons on the railway. This used to be the standard method of shifting cattle long distances and Gisburn had a siding as well. John Harrison has told me that his father and Tommy Wrathall from Skipton used to bring cattle down from Scotland to Earby and Skipton. At Earby, they were unloaded in a siding next to the station and walked straight into the yard of the White House Farm the family home. John says that it was a good service and very fast and reliable. Andy could remember these days and told me how fast they could clear the auction at the end of the day.

Another good friend in Ayr Market was John Reid from Maybole. John was an ex railway man, he had been in a signal box all his life. His hobby which passed the time on in the box was stick dressing, making shepherds crooks with ram’s horn handles and hazel or blackthorn shanks. I used to bring him horns up from Lancashire and he kept my man down there going with hazel shanks. He made me a beautiful crook with a thistle on the handle and carved with the name of my the farm, “The Hey”, just as they do in Scotland. "

To continue the tale:-

(h) That so far as reasonably possible, all visible signals were correctly positioned for sighting purposes with particular attention to the condition of the lights in the `spectacles' during the hours of darkness. Where practicable he would also satisfy himself that backlights were operating correctly (see later comments). At level crossings special attention would be given to the operation of the gates and stops, along with the sighting of red bulls-eye lamps on the gates, both to approaching road and rail traffic.

(i) That there was sufficient stock of necessary documents such as SLW and WLO forms, disconnection of track circuit authorities etc.

(j) With the advent of CCTV, that, at boxes supervising such crossings, the camera pictures on the monitors were good and covered the whole crossing. There were also additional responsibilities peculiar to certain signal boxes (e.g. steam lances, for clearance of snow and ice from points etc., were located at Avenue Sidings and Kirkby Colliery Sidings. This equipment had to be inspected monthly to ensure it was complete and in good apparent order and ready for immediate use)

It was obviously not prudent to encompa ss all these requirements at each visit. When I went to Newark in 1965, and supervised twenty boxes and eight crossings, to have done so would have meant that I would get nothing else done. Throughout my career I personally tried to carry out (a) to (g) fully, and (j) as far as practicable, at each visit. (h) and (i) were carried out quarterly and every effort was made to view (h) and (j) items during the hours of darkness at the same minimum intervals. Stocks of detonators were examined for date and condition every six months. I found that the only way to efficiently supervise this work was to have a check list for each location end to note the names of staff seen.

The requirement for a lighted hand lamp to be available during the hours of darkness etc. was provided for in Rule 72(c). The need for it to be immediately available in emergency is obvious and I would like to think that I was meticulous in all my box visits to ensure that the rule was being observed. It was usually for the lighted hand lamp to be kept outside the verandah immediately adjacent to the box door. This location served the dual purpose of keeping the interior free from fumes whilst the lamp was in a handy position for use in an emergency. Throughout my career I had found signalmen generally to accept that this rule was an important requirement but, surprisingly , on the ECML (at least in the Newark area) that discipline to which I had grown accustomed was sadly lacking. However, I must have made some impression on the guilty lads as at my retirement party I was surprised, but rather contentedly amused, to learn that in my early days in the Newark area I had earned the `distinction' of being nicknamed `Hand Lamp'. The advent of the Bardic (electric) hand lamp introduced the elementary need to see that it was in good order, with appropriate shades but some of my experience led me to believe that I may have been a `voice in the wilderness' on that one.     

Speaking of semaphore signals, If a signal is not facing the box, if a repeater is not provided, and the signalman is unable to see the coloured lights at night, a small aperture is provided in the back of the lamp, known as a backlight. A back blinder, as it is called, is provided working on the spectacle spindle and set to obscure the backlight when the signal arm is not in the `on' position. Its object is to inform the signalman when the arm is returned to the normal position, not to tell him when it is `off'. It should therefore be accurately set, so that the backlight will not be visible to the signalman unless the arm is fully normal. In the absence of a repeater, the backlight is the only means by which the signalman may know, during darkness, whether the signal arm has responded correctly to the lever movement. If the blinder is out of adjustment it may be possible for the arm to fail to go properly to danger and the signalman be led to believe that it has done so, owing to the backlight being visible.

The long standing railway promotion system where Station Masters started their careers at small wayside stations and moved up through the grades (or as Traffic Apprentices underwent extensive training on the ground) ensured that, in learning his `trade' he gained valuable practicble experience. The good safety record of the railways was due in no small part to the almost military discipline operative throughout the organisation in which the Station/Yard  Master was one of the key factors. With the help of assistants at the larger locations, they were usually fully aware of what went on in their patch. They were thus normally in a position to quickly stamp on any dubious practices before they became established and presented a threat to the safe working of the system. he de-staffing of most small stations, coupled with the advent of area management in the late nineteen sixties, has resulted in the lengthy practical experience being no longer available. This problem is likely to be made worse as signalmen continue to be concentrated in the new `power'  boxes with a resultant large decrease in numbers. Area Management saw many junior management positios filled by staff lacking practical experience and, as preparation for privatisation took hold, a tendency to favour those who knew `nowt' about railways when making appointments. Years before my retirement in 1983, many managers were already demonstrating a woeful lack of practical railway operating experience, which was perhaps masked by their colleagues and their inspectorate who, to a certain extent, were able to `carry' them when they had the `misfortune' to have to undertake emergency work on the ground. Appalling as it may seem, over 30 years ago, I was coming across managers and assistants who put point clamps on top of the rail and/or clamped the trailing end, rather than the facing end of points. As the existing inspectors retire it is difficult to see where sufficient `outdoor' men will come from as the opportunity to obtain practical `know how' on the ground just does not seem to be there. Privatisation has brought in a lot of people devoid of railway experience and possible corner cutting in the pursuit of profits, plus ignorance, plus the fragmentation of the industry, could make a potentially horrendous mix so far as future safety is concerned.     

First edition OS for Earby.  Funnily enough the station isn't marked, it's buried under the H of Thornton.  This would be about 1850 when it was surveyed. 

Earby station and environs c.1930.