A thundery afternoon seems to be a good time to start to fulfil a long time promise to continue my railway memoirs, so here goes.

Having been discharge from the Royal Navy, I returned to the LMS Railway as a Class 5 Clerk in the Parcels Office at Skipton on 4th November 1946. The Parcels Clerks worked two shifts each weekday, 7am to 3pm and 2pm to 10pm, with occasional Sunday shifts in the Booking Office (Passimeter). In the eighteen months I was there I had three or four different clerks working on the opposite shift as it was a time when young men returning from the forces were unsettled and looking to improve their lot when choosing their future careers in `civvy street'. One evening when doing the daily balance, I was amused to see that one of them, on his first day in charge, had obtained a completed livestock consignment note for the conveyance of a corpse.  

At that time, as a common carrier, a large variety of items were being conveyed by rail. Nevertheless, one morning I was somewhat astonished to find two lions staring at me when i opened the door off the platform. After my initial shock, i was relieved to find that they were `stuffed' specimens which had arrived overnight from Scotland and were waiting to go forward on the 7.10am to Ilkley.

A reqular traveller was a Mr. Miller who journeyed from Ulverston to Skipton each week (I think it  was on the Wednesday) bringing with him six or more large carpets and, sometimes, he would take a few unsold ones back with him. Each third class passenger was allowed to take up to 100lbs. of personal luggage free of charge, but carpets could not be so regarded and the gentleman would pay up to around £15 excess for each journey. Carpets were charged at the normal parcels scale and details were entered on an excess luggage ticket. Many people, either through ignorance or intent, had to be challenged by the ticket collector and escorted to the Parcels Office for their encumbrances to be weighed but Mr. Miller was one of the few who never tried to evade payment. No doubt he was so well known that it would have been useless for him to even try.

As industry recovered from the effects of war the run down railways were faced with a bulid up of freight traffic as winter took hold in 1946. In order to release locomotives for the movement of urgent freight, and to conserve the supplies of coal allocated to the railways, numerous main line and local services were withdrawn as from 9th December 1946. These economies did not prove sufficient, and further reductions were made on 6th January 1947. The Parcels Office, when open, dealt with all telephone enquiries and these short notice changes were a nightmare for clerks trying to quote reliable services throughout the country.  I am sure that this period, for which, unlike the recent Hatfield disaster, the railways could not be blamed, was responsible for the public's conception of the railways being unreliable as a means of transport  and helped result in the massive switch to road in the years which followed. As a matter of interest the Railway Magazine reported that 14,246,500 tons of coal were supplied to the British railways in 1947.

The winter of 1946/47 was a particularly severe one and the Settle - Carlisle line was blocked from early February, normal working not being resumed for nigh on two months. On the high section of the railway between Settle and Kirkby Stephen the snow is often whipped up by freak winds known as Helm Winds and deposited on the track, the cuttings being susceptible to blockage by deep drifts. In such circumatances little can be done to keep the lines open for traffic and it was accepted practice to divert services via Clapham and Low Gill at the first sign of trains getting into trouble. It is difficult to satisfactorily phrase instructions regarding frost and snow and the exhortation in the old Rule 95 for signalmen to frequently operate points and signals etc. in these conditions often led to didaster, unless staff were readily available to attend on the ground. I always thought  the Local Instructions in the Midland Division Sectional Appendix under the heading ` SNOW DRIFTS BETWEEN CARLISLE AND HELLIFIELD' to be somewhat naive and/or optimistic, particularly the wording ` the line must be kept clear, abd snow not allowed to drift and cause stoppage ......'

To be continued,,,           

To continue-

On Sunday, 24th February 1947 a slight fall of snow had been reported in the area and further falls during the night caused a down express to get into trouble at Ribblehead. After considerable difficulty this was eventually freed by the ploughs and, as conditions were deteriorating further, all traffic was diverted and the line handed over to the ploughs. At one stage over 500 men were engaged in snow clearance south of Dent. In addition to Engineer's staff the Army and prisoners of war were used in an attempt to clear the line. Army personnel were conveyed in a special train from Otley and another special train was used to convey the POWs from their camp at Skipton leaving around 6.00am and returning after 5/00pm each day. It became a regular occurrence for the snow clearers to arrive on site to find that all their previous days work had been filled in again by the Helm Wind overnight. At one stage a jet engine was obtained from Rolls Royce at Barlick and put on a flat wagon but this proved to be ineffective mainly due, it was said, to the hard packed state of the lying snow. One ruse of the prisoners was to claim that they had `lost' their shovels and, for a short time, it became a regular feature to provide up to 100 of these replacements each day. All the vlllages and settlements between Settle and Blea Moor were dependant on supplies of human and animal feedstuffs by rail, mainly from Skipton. Daily supplies of bread were baked at George Carr's bakery, around 1000 loaves for the village of Horton in Ribblesdale being distributed by the SM, Mr. Taylor. There was a strong Barlick/Earby connection in that Bob Lemmon (whose wife was a teacher at Barlick ) who was later to become SM/GA at Earby, latterly also taking over Barlick, then a Relief Station Master based at Skipton, was the Traffic Inspector in charge of the arrangements at Dent.

So far as I can recall the Ilkley, Colne and Morecambe lines remained in use, often the only mode of transport available, until the end of February. The Craven area suffered blizzard conditions from about noon on 28th February and by early evening deep drifts had formed in the Station Approach, up to the windows in the Parcels Office. All lines out of Skipton were in trouble and most road transport had been brought to a stand. My colleague, Fred Calvert, in the Passimeter suggested that, if i wished to avoid being stranded, I should board the 6/51pm rather than wait for my normal service of 10/15pm to earby. In the circumstances i accepted his offer with alacrity. That evening the 6/51 was  worked by a Midland Compound which went at a rare old rate, with what I always thought was the reasssuring sound of compounding to Elslack. After leaving that station progress was impeded by drifts and the train was finally brought to a stand in the cutting just past Thornton station from where `local' passengers eventually went forward on foot. Eric Grisdale (son of the Earby SM) nd myself led this small procession, leaving the railway at the `Gatehouse' crossing on Skipton Road. The following day, Friday 1st March, although a slow thaw had set in, when I tried to get to work for the late shift, it was not possible to get to Skipton by road or rail.

The summer of 1947 had seen a heavy user of the railway system and the passenger luggage in advance (PLA) was a popular attraction. On production of a rail ticket the passenger's luggage was conveyed for 1s. 2d. collected or delivered only, or 2s. 4d. collected and delivered, per item. The charge therefore only covered the cartage element of the movement, the rail part being free up to the normal allowance of 100lbs per person. Blackpool was still a popular venue for the Skipton populace and some of these passengers travelled on interesting SO services. These were the 7.50am Sunderland to Blackpool Central arr. 1/04pm (Skipton dep. 10.52) and 12/45pm Blackpool to Sunderland arr. 6/04pm (Skipton arr. 3/06pm). Other weekday trains, calling at Skipton that summer worthy of mention were:-

DOWN

2.52-2.57am      9/15pm St. Pancras-Edinburth Waverley (arr.7.38)

9.45-50am SO   7.55am Sheffield-Glasgow St. Enoch (arr. 3/50pm)

10.28-34amSO  7.50am Chesterfield-Morecambe Prom(arr.11.46)

11.00-05am        10.25am leeds-Glasgow St. Enoch (arr.4/10)

3/00-02pm           9.55am St. Pancras-Glasgow St. E (arr.7/55)

10/07-/11pmT.Th.S.O 9/30pm Leeds- Hwysham (Boat Train)(arr. 11/21)

UP

2.20-.25am          9/55pm Edinburgh  Waverley-St. Pancras(arr.8.05)

7.10-15amW.F.O. 5.55am Heysham-Leeds  (Boat Train)(arr.7.58)

2/51-/55pm          10.10am Edinburgh Waverley-St. Pancras(arr.9/00)

3/00-/05                 1/42pm Morecambe Prom-Chesterfield (arr.6/02)

8/50-/55pm           4/00pm Glasgow St Enoch- Leeds (arr.9/31)                                                         

 To be continued...    

To continue -

The railways were nationalised on 1st January 1948, the route mileage of the six regions thus formed being, LM4993, W3782, Scot. 3730, E 2836, S2250, NE 1823. All the `unproductive'  work previously performed in abstracting data for the Railway Clearing House in the pursuit of cost allocation between the main line companies was quickly dispensed with. Regretably John Major's privatisation, nearly fifty years later, fragmented the system to a degree which made the R.C.H. work look infinitesimal and at the same time was inclined to make rail operation and travel a risky business.

In the Spring of 1948 i was asked if I would be prepared to go out on relief. Originally I was appointed as Temporary Relief Clerk (Class 5) at Colne on 5th April with the promise that I would be transferred back to Skipton as early as possible. That promise was fulfilled when Skipton was made my `home' station on 14th June 1948. This was only in the nick of time as I was married on 24th July and, due to the housing shortage, my wife, Joan, and I went to live with her parents at Embsay. 

The duties of my new post entailed affording clerical relief in all the `traffic' posts in the Leeds District Operating Superintendent's area. The word `traffic' covered all booking and parcels offices, station and yard master's offices. Relief at  goods depots and locosheds was not included, such work being undertaken by clerks from the appropriate Goods Manager's or Motive Power Superintendent's offices. The Leeds DOS area stretched from Garsdale to Altofts and Whitwood on the main line and included the branches to Morecambe/Heysham, Colne, Ilkley, Oxenhope and Bradford.

Details of the work at some of the stations were as follows:-

HORTON IN RIBBLESDALE; Apart from small parties of walkers and a small flurry of passengers to Settle and Hawes on market days, most of the time was occupied in the charging out, invoicing etc. of the wagon loads of limestone forwarded from the quarries at Horton and Helwith Bridge.

SETTLE; Takings were banked and monies for wages etc. obtained here, for Garsdale, Ribblehead and Horton. The cash being conveyed in sealed leather cash bags. As at Horton a lot of time was taken up in dealing with limestone traffic, in this instance from quarries at Settle and Stainforth. Unlike our other stations on the S&C, Settle enjoyed the luxury of gas lighting but the cheerful coal fire in the waiting rooms was common in all stations at that time.

HEYSHAM HARBOUR; The Booking Office was the most dark and dismal I ever worked in. Bookings on through trains  Wednesday, Friday and Sunday to Leeds, Manchester and Euston could get hectic in summer after arrival of the Belfast Steamer at 5.00am. This was particularly so when hordes of Irish workers were coming over to help woth the harvest.

MORECAMBE PROMENADE; It was always said that Mr. Higginson and his staff at the District Commercial Manager's Offices at Barrow could look across Morecambe Bay and observe the passengers flocking in and out of the station. Certainly, on a good day, one could see Rampside and Foulney Island, with the industrial complex of Barrow beyond, from the Station Approach. At that time there was a dearth of toilets on the `front' in the vicinity of the station as, during the summer months, there were long queues from time to time outside the `ladies' . This heavy user meant that Ellis Burnley, the Senior Clerk, had to empty the cash locks on the toilet doors on taking duty, after lunch, and again around 5/00pm before leaving work. Whenever this onerous task was undertaken it was laid down that the clerk must be accompanied by a responsible person who would witness the taking out and counting of the coins and countersign the lavatory receipts book. Ellis had teken the Senior Clerk's position as Class 4 and, it was alleged, successfully sought reclassification on the strength of the lavatory receipts.

On one occasion i was sent there to complete the monthly Coaching Account Current which was stated to be 2/6d. out of balance. Fortunately i soon located the `problem' which was an item of 1s.3d. reclaimed from `No Debits' which was being wrongly treated as a debit in the accounts,

The two shifts in the Booking Office were 6am - 2pm and 3pm to llpmSX, 3/30pm-11/30pm SO. with the result that I had to lodge for which I received the princely sum of 7s.6d. per night. Fortunately it was often out of season, when I obtained excellent digs where, after our marriage, Joan was able to join me at weekends. As was to be expected there were quite a lot of long distance bookings throughout the day but by far the busiest train, from a booking office point of view, was the 11/10pm SO to Hellifield. On this train many of the clientele were somewhat befuddled by drink and one was required to adopt harsh methods to extract the required fare from them and keep the queue moving.  

To be continued. 

>You evoke that wonderful black and white film that has the poem (I think it's called 'Post') set to it (betjeman i think).

It was called "Night Mail" and was by W H Auden. The words are available here

http://www.newearth.demon.co.uk/poems/lyric206.htm

The music as by Benjamin Britten. A short extract is available here

http://encarta.msn.com/media_121632962_761567568_-1_1_BB/media.html

Noel

To continue-

The overhead electric system dating from 1908 was still in operation between Lancaster Castle, Green Ayre, Morecambe Prom and Heysham Harbour  up to February 1951when the worn out former Midland Railway electric cars were replaced temporarily with a push and pull steam hauled service. This service, comprised of three carriages, was hauled by the good old Stanier 0-4-4Ts which had been allocated to Lancaster MPD.

LANCASTER GREEN AYRE; The Booking Clerk here could be swamped for short intervals by requests for Morecambe single tickets but my main memory of this station was the payment of Loco Department wages. At most stations of any size, you had to rely solely on the production of a brass paycheck but throughout my career, I must say that I was never involved in, or heard of, any fraudulent abuse of this method apart from one instance where a lost paycheck was presented, and payment made, before the loss was discovered. Green Ayre had been a focal point for the first railways in the area, the Morecambe Harbour and Railway Company opening its single line from there to a wooden shed on the jetty at Morecambe in June 1948. This was followed by the opening of a single line to Lancaster Castle in 1849. With the completion of the `Little' North Western line from Skipton in June 1850, the earliest traffic from the West Riding to Scotland ran via the curve from Green Ayre to Castle until August 1861 when the L&NWR opened its Ingleton- Low Gill line.

HALTON; This was a small station just over 2 miles from Lancaster, under the supervision of the SM at Green Ayre, staffed only by two porters and I was sent there one day to check the ticket stock. So far as I can recall, one of the porters, in the course of his duties, had been selling some boats, I think owned by the RAF, on the nearby River Lune and presumably pocketing the proceeds. It was always the practice where staff with access to a booking office were found to have been involved in any dubious activity, to have all the ticket stock checked. In this case I found the stock to be outrageously large for such a small station, there being over ten thousand ordinary single tickets to Lancaster and even more to Morecambe. After a full day's `graft' , with tired fingers, I was able to certify the stock to be inaccordance with the ticket stock book.

GARGRAVE;  This station was normally manned by a Station Master/ Goods Agent and two Leading Porters. Assistance was provided in the shape of a clerk on the Saturday of Gargrave Show in August. Most of the traffic consisted of birds, rabbits and cavies which had been sent under the normal arrangements for show traffic, i.e. half price for the return journey, prepaid at the forwarding station. The `special' show labels, with removable outward address slip, bore the stamps for the outward journey on the right, return on the left.  Around two hundred consignments were entered in the office book where signatures were obtained from the show officials on collection. Charges were checked and details entered in the counter book so that the porter could `tick' them off as they were sent back in the evening. Dick Dinsdale, the SM/GA, had previously been a foreman at Heysham where he had devised a zonal code system to sort the parcels traffic as it arrived from Belfast. This was the precursor of the parcels/letter sorting systems adopted by the LMSR and eventually by B.R., maybe even the present day post codes. Dick, a widower, married again whilst at Gargrave and he and his new bride were given a rousing send off on their honeymoon when a number of detonators had been put down in front of their train.

KEIGHLEY; On the few days I worked in the BO there I covered the GN window on the afternoon shift, not a very onerous job. As the name implied, the job was responsible for bookings on the former GN line to Queensbury, Halifax and Bradford, which following nationalisation was not likely to last very long. To a Midland man like me such destinations as Cullingworth, Thornton and Great Horton were almost unheard of. The GN line to Bradford, with its heavy gradients, could never hope to compete with the low lying Midland route. Much of the line between Halifax and Bradford was in tunnels and GN drivers liked to refer to their `trips over the Alps'.

SALTAIRE; This station was opened in May 1856 to serve Sir Titus Salt's `Palace of Industry'. This was a large mill employing over 2500 souls, occupying over 10 acres, for the manufacture of alpaca and mohair. The village of Saltaire was one of the first successful developments to provide adequate housing for the working classes. The one clerk at Saltaire Station at that time enjoyed the name of Johnny Balls. This station came under the SM at Shipley and the tale was old that one day J.W. Watkins, the Divisional Operating Superintendent, arrived at Shipley unexpectedly, when Mr. Wright, the SM, was at Saltaire. Mr. Watkins spoke to Johnny on the `circuit'  telephone and asked to whom he had the pleasure of speaking, when he was somewhat nonplussed to receive the polite, but apparently outrageous reply, `Balls Sir'. Needless to say there was much tittering from the signalmen `earwigging' on the circuit as the conversation developed.            

 To be continued...  

Herb, the following is an extract from the Brontes biographies. It appears that Branwell was indeed addicted to Opium. This is a fact not an opinion. 

In April 1841 he was employed as Clerk in Charge of Luddenden Foot station near Hebden Bridge. While there he was known to frequent the Lord Nelson Tavern. In March 1842 he is dismissed from his post as there was found to be a deficit in the station accounts, attributed to Branwell Bronte's incompetence rather than theft.

For the next three years Branwell's state physically and mentally take a rapid decline due to his dependence on drink and opium........ www.haworthvillage.org