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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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12/09/2004
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18:29
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Posted by Stanlery for 'Handlamp'. (Ted Harrison, a member from Newark)
BARNOLDSWICK LMS RAILWAY STATION AND ITS WORKING IN THE EARLY FORTIES
Having entered the service of the LMS Railway at Skipton on 24th February 1941, where I trained as a Booking and Parcels Clerk, I was transferred to Barnoldswick as a Junior Clerk on 30th June of that year. The duties of my post, which was remunerated at the princely sum of £35 per annum, were split between the Passenger and Goods Offices which were situated adjacent to each other on the sole platform.
Barnoldswick was the only station on a single line, located 1mile 1342 yards from Barnoldswick Junction at Kelbrook, which in turn was 1166 yards west of Earby Station Box on the Skipton to Colne line. The line had originally started life as the Barnoldswick Railway in 1871 but, in March 1898 the local company had approached the Midland Railway to see if it would purchase the line outright. As the line had always paid out a `regular and reasonable’ dividend the Midland agreed to do so and powers were secured in 1899. For many years it appears that the Barlick folk had to make do with hot water bottles as a source of heat until authorisation was given to fit steam heating to the two locos and nine carriages allocated to the Branch on 16th November 1922, some 20 years after the Midland had fitted their main line coaches. The Branch finally closed on 27th September 1965.
Barlick was the place that gave me my first taste for the `thrills’ of railway operating. The single line was worked by the `Only one engine in steam or two or more coupled together’ system, section V1 of the Rule Book. All points on the single line were locked by the train staff which the driver held as his authority for being on the single line. The staff was round and black with the person responsible to receive and deliver it to the driver being the Signalman at Barnoldswick Junction. The only signal at the station was an old Midland `Stop Board’ which protected the level crossing on Wellhouse Road and the Coal Yard beyond. The oblong Board fully presented to approaching trains gave a danger aspect (with red bullseye lamp above), a clear indication being given when it was turned 90 degrees to a side on position, i.e. parallel to the line facing Wellhouse Road.
Every lunch time found me hurriedly partaking of my sandwiches in the Porters Room before going out to `help’ with the shunting of the Goods Yard. This took the form of pinning down or releasing wagon brakes or `knobbing up’ points, only rarely was I allowed to handle a shunting pole. Most evenings I returned to spend more time with the leading porter and the engine crews until the last train at 9:35pm when I usually had the treat of driving the engine. A push and pull train was allocated to the Branch, being propelled towards Earby. When propelling the driver was located in the cab at the front end of the leading coach (normally two on the train) with the staff where he operated the vacuum brake whilst the fireman operated the regulator on the locomotive. It was the practice of most crews, prior to shutting off power, to open the regulator momentarily to the full, then close it at the bridge over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The train then `coasted’ to the Junction which was traversed slowly until the driver had surrendered the staff to the signalman. On receipt of the bell code to indicate that the staff had safely been delivered the regulator was opened with some gusto for the run into Earby. Mr. Dawes, the Station Master, must have been aware of my activities as his house and garden overlooked the all station area but he turned a Nelsonian eye and never restricted my enthusiasm in any way.
The Booking and Parcels Clerk was, and had been for many years, Louis Barwick, a much respected member of the community and a leading light in the town’s glee union. He had a good baritone voice and would frequently burst into snatches of anything from the Mikado to the Messiah. Cotton manufacturers travelled to the Manchester Market each Tuesday and Friday and two of their number would sometimes come into the office and join him in song. Exceptionally Louis retained his entitlement to uniform dating from the Midland Railway days when his duties included the examination and collection of tickets. An avid pipe smoker he was often blamed for the destruction of the gas mantles with his practice of lighting paper spills from them. Although then in his early sixties, he had a good head of wiry hair. Tommy Corkill, a Goods Guard from Skipton, regularly cut the hair of most of the staff on his visits but did his best to avoid Louis on the alleged grounds that his hair ruined the scissors.
The parcels were delivered by horse van, the van man being another stalwart, Charlie Moore. Nowadays one is inclined to forget that horses had to be fed and watered twice daily and Charlie, or a substitute, had to attend the stables for this duty at weekends and on bank holidays. Charlie thought a lot about his horses and I recall his sadness at loosing one of his favourites when he loaded it into a horse box for transfer to another station. When a telegram was received advising the timings for a horsebox with a replacement horse for him from the Stables at Oakham he had extreme difficulty containing his excitement until the train conveying it arrived and he had viewed his future workmate.
Another long standing member of the team was Tommy Westmoreland, one of the two Leading Porters. Tommy was a big genial chap who seemed equally happy diving under the buffers to perform coupling on the passenger trains, wielding a shunting pole out in the yard, or dealing with the public in the office or on the platform. I suppose his trade mark was his tobacco tin, pipe and pen knife which he seemed to be perpetually using to cut up his twist. When I first started at Barlick the other leading porter was Joe Creasey who was soon transferred on promotion to Leeds as a shunter and he was replaced by Dick Dawson. Dick had come from Clitheroe and had recently taken up residence on, or near to, Wellhouse Road. The one other member of the platform staff was Walter Scales who resided at Skipton.
One regular daily visitor to the Booking Office was Henry Carter, a local newsagent, who usually arrived around 4:15pm to collect his evening newspapers. Henry was renowned for his hobby of the manufacture of cigarette lighters and he kept the staff well supplied with these, particularly at that time, very useful items.
The Goods Department was very busy as most of the commodities for shops and industry were being conveyed by rail. Large quantities of explosives were also received from, and forwarded to, Gledstone Hall which was being used as a military storage depot. The town cartage work was performed by a horse and dray, industry and out lying areas being served by one or more Scammell units loaned from Skipton. The Goods Office was manned by Mr. Reynolds, the Senior Clerk, and Miss Mary Wensley with myself halftime. In 1941 the system which had prevailed from the days when the railways took over from the stage coach still prevailed and every consignment required an invoice, raised at the sending station and sent to the receiving station, with full details including weight and charges shown thereon. Apart from assisting with the invoicing, as was to be expected with the junior post, I was allocated the more menial tasks. One of these was `abstracting' details from invoices station by station and `summarising’ the financial information thus obtained for each railway.
The Branch was normally serviced by a Class 1 0-4-4 tank engine and two coaches fitted with push and pull equipment which did not require the presence of a guard on the train. However in my time there, so far as I can recall, until around 1:00pm, a Class 2,3 or 4F 0-6-0 covered the passenger service on top of its freight work which, of course, involved `running round’ the coaches at both stations and a guard being employed. Barlick trains connected into and out of all trains at Earby between 7:00am and 9:48pmSX, 10:27pm SO. Even at that time the branch trains were usually lightly loaded. One glaring exception was the 11:10pm from Barlick which conveyed around 200 `late night revellers’ fresh from the regular Saturday evening dance at the Majestic Ballroom. There was no booked Sunday service but the Branch occasionally opened for special trains. In the winters of 41/42 and 42/43 traffic had built up to such a degree that I can recall at least three or four freight specials running on the Sabbath. The booked freight service on weekdays arrived from Skipton around 6.10am when traffic was `set’ in the Goods and Coal yards and departed around 1/30pm. `Mixed’ trains (i.e. conveying passengers and freight) on which the freight wagons were not required to have continuous brakes, were scheduled to run on the Branch. A train departing Barlick around 5/30pm was booked as a mixed train and regularly conveyed the maximum of 20 wagons with a brake van and quite frequently included wagons of explosives
Early in 1943 Rodney Hampson entered the service and commenced training for my duties and it was apparent that my days at Barnoldswick were numbered. As anticipated `the call’ came on 16th March 1943 when I was transferred to Colne, still a Junior Clerk (but this time filling a senior position as Booking Clerk) , my rate of pay having risen by then to £55 per annum.
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handlamp
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Posted - 18/01/2005 : 16:18
At Colne, on the Midland Division the Up line ran towards St. Pancras, and on the Central Division former L&Y) towards Manchester and eventually Euston. On its inception in 1923, for operating purposes, the LMSR was split into three divisions south of the Border, Western (mainly former LNWR lines) Midland (mainly former Midland lines) and Central (mainly former L&Y lines) with H.Q's at Crewe, Manchester and Derby.
I think I should further clarify the position regarding the direction of the running lines as shown in the Sectional Appendices. These documents, along with the General Appendix and Rule Book were the `bible' so far as traincrews, signalmen and other operating staff were concerned. The anomaly between what was shown in the two appendices, when they were published in 1937, as regards the direction of the up line between Colne No.1 box and Colne North was downright dangerous. I am sure that one or the other would have been expeditiously amended as soon as the discrepancy was seen which would certainly have been as soon as the books got into the staffs' hands. During my short time at Colne as a clerk I was not au fait with the intricasies of railway operation and I was astonished to see the confliction in the original books when researching for my memoirs.
Edited by - handlamp on 19 Jan 2005 14:35:08
Ted |
handlamp
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Posted - 19/01/2005 : 15:43
To continue with the story.
The Parcels office was manned weekdays from 7.00am to 10/00pm, the two clerks being Arthur Green (getting on in years) and Geoffrey Watson. Geoff was a junior like John myself and had been in my class at EGS, Skipton. Arthur was a grand old stick but was not the best of writers and I remember one occasion when the paybills were returned from Derby with the sole comment `illegible'. Unfortunately Arthur couldn't read his own writing with the result that the wages had to be recalculated from scratch. A rare arrangement applied at Colne where an `Agent' was employed to collect and deliver the parcels and, at that time, was paid 1d. per parcel.
The Booking Clerks were kept fully employed. On early turn you kicked off with around a dozen `workmen's' tickets to Great Harwood on the first train, the 5.10am. After this there was a steady stream of mainly low fares to nearby stations with a sprinkling to the more `exotic' destinations like Blackpool, Liverpool and London Euston. Around 6.00am the guard working the 6.35am `push and pull' service, which for that trip went as far as Hapton, collected his tickets and cash float. These men were the forerunner of today's `pay train' guards and their `wares' were in the form of different coloured `bus tickets', of varying denominations, secured in spring clips on a wooden hand ticket rack. On Fridays one assisted the Senior Clerk in making up the wages, the money having been brought from the bank by the Station Master, Mr. Hopkins. The wages for the Porter Signalmen at Foulridge were `sealed' in a leather cash bag with a flap bearing the station nameplates which was sent under registered cover on the 12/30pm train. A similar bag was received each morning containing that station's takings. Ticket racks (for the Edmondson tickets) were topped up and further stocks of tickets ordered. Soon after midday the tickets were `taken off' in the Train Book. This procedure involved recording the destination and the commencing number (a) which had been chalked on the slate above the tube at the time of the first issue. The next number to issue was then recorded (b). Sales to that station were (a) - (b) multiplied by the fare. The total of the train book was entered under `Trains' in the Cash Book which, cross cast with items under other headings, gave the total on the debit side. This required to balance with cash and other credits such as travel warrants on the credit side.
On the late turn all tickets sold during the full day had to be `taken off' in the traffic bookthe total of which was balanced with teh `Trains' total in the Cash Book. As the closing numbers were recorded in the traffic book the next ticket to issue was `stood up' and tucked into the tube in the rack. When a ticket was still `stood up' in the front of a tube it indicated to the clerk that no tickets had been issued from that tube on that day. The late turn also completed the paybills as far as he was able, except for the entries for a few late turn Saturday staff. These were finished off on the Sunday and despatched to Derby. Minor jobs included the `push pull' guards paying in their takings, emptying the takings from the platform ticket machine and altering the dates on that machine and the ticket date press in the office. Saturday was extremely busy from taking duty until about 7/00pm as you never left the `window', booking a constant stream of returns to Nelson and Burnley. The fares being so small that you were lucky to achieve a £100 receipts to show for your labours. On late turn the tickets sold were, of course, accounted for in the train/cash books as described for the early turn.
Unlike Skipton in 1941 the bombing seemed to have little effect on the services at Colne in 1943. The through Colne-Euston services had been withdrawn for the `duration' and, apart from the through trains to and from Manchester, possibly the most important ones were the 3/35pm to Stockport and the 8/15pm from Stockport.There was a `residential' service for the east Lancashire businessmen (primarily cotton manufacturers) who resided in the Lytham/St. Annes area, departing Blackpool 7.31am and returning from Colne at 4/30pm. However, this could never claim to have the fame of the Morecambe - Leeds/Bradford residentials. During the late evening `circuit' calls were received on the `omnibus' L&Y telephones in the Parcels Office giving first the Air Raid Warning message Yellow inevitably followed by the warning Red code indicating that usually Liverpool or Manchester were `getting it'. Usually,the Green code was not received until well after I had left duty.
As my eighteenth birthday approached I was required to register for national service and also sat what was then known as the Schedule B examination for entry into the adult clerical grades. I successfully passed this test, one of the requirements for which was a Pitman's shorthand speed of 60 w.p.m. and on my birthday, in November, my salary was advanced to £85 per annum. Immediately I became eighteen I was required to attend a medical examination and it soon became obvious that the powers that be had decided that the only way to stop Hitler was to get me in the forces pronto, as I was called up for the Royal Navy on 2nd December 1943.
Ted |
Hatepe (R.I.P.)
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Posted - 20/01/2005 : 07:27
Ted, you must have been at EGS about the same time as me, can't bring you to mind.
I thought the Station Master at Barlick was called Walmsley - he had a son "Kipper" Walmsley who also went to EGS. Aye Hatepe
R.W.King |
handlamp
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Posted - 20/01/2005 : 15:15
Bob, I left in February 1941 and Mr. Dawes's (Barlick SM) son was in our class then and his father was still there when I joined up in December 43. There was a ?Ken Walmsley from Barlick at EGS and he came onto the LMS as a Clerk sometime before me and I filled his job at Colne when he joined up.
Ted |
lou
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Posted - 21/01/2005 : 12:46
Hello Hatepe.......... nice to hear you are back from your break.
It is strange to think that you and Handlamp may have travelled on the same train when you were both attending Erymesteads Grammar School in the late 30s. And to think that you are now both communicating via OGFB, some 60+ years on from then and several thousands of miles apart.
Interestingly,only this week, I was talking to him about his school days and school lunches in particular. He didn't stay at school for lunch but was given ?One shilling and sixpence in order to get a lunch at the 'Castle Cafe' in Skipton.It appears that schoolboy 'street-cred ' was still apparent in those days and unbeknown to his mother, the money was spent at 'Carla Beck' milkbar
instead!
Lou
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 21/01/2005 : 19:48
My mother used to give me money to go to the UCP in Stockport but I used to do things like go and buy a coconut instead. She caught me one day, bad news......
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Hatepe (R.I.P.)
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Posted - 23/01/2005 : 21:31
Hi everyone,
Like Handlamp, my mother gave me a few coppers a day to get lunch when I attended EGS, it was usually at the "Pie Shop" just down the road from the school. After a time - pie, peas and chips daily got too much, so I went to a private house called "Miss Potter's" where old Dan Dufty the EGS Biology Master Lodged. We got wonderful schoolboy meals for 5/- (five Bob) a week, which was probably a fortune as far as my mother was concerned,
Aye Hatepe
R.W.King |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 24/01/2005 : 06:14
That's one for the index Bob. Thanks for that.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Another
Traycle Mine Overseer
6250 Posts
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Posted - 24/01/2005 : 08:22
EGS school meals in the '60's were similarly 5/- a week. Eating good quality school dinners at Ermysted's was a real treat for me as at Rauinhall Rd the food was lousy. It was cooked at Gisburn Rd and delivered to RR at about 10.30 in the morning, kept warm in hot water and served at mid-day. Colin
" I'm a self made man who worships his creator"  |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 24/01/2005 : 09:11
I too have memories of school dinners which I suspect were not the best I ever had. However, I was reared during the war when food was short and you weren't interested in quality as much as quantity. Foos was fuel, you didn't argue or leave anything, you sat down and ate everything in front of you. I'm still of the same mind, childhood imprinting is very strong, I enjoy my food bnut never leave anything and always go for cheap and plain. I never had to endure the hot boxes as the school I was at had its own kitchen.
Despite the variable quality I have no doubt that school meals and free milk were marvellous ideas. I still think that the virtual abolition of school milk was a retrograde step, I can't think of a better way of spending money than pouring full cream milk down growing kid's throats. All right, tastes have changed but at least there was the chance of instilling a habit of milk drinking. At West Marton Dairies we bottle tens of thousands of third pint bottles every day during term time and delivered as far away as Kirby Lonsdale every morning.
Looking at the stuff modern kids buy in the supermarket in a morning for their breakfast and lunch I can't help reflecting that we were very lucky. Call me old fashioned but crisps, chocolate and sweet fizzy drinks are not the best diet for growing children.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
handlamp
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Posted - 24/01/2005 : 11:07
The mention of Dan Dufty brings back memories Bob, did you ever have the blackboard duster wanged at you?
Ted |
handlamp
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Posted - 27/01/2005 : 12:08
I will start to complete the first instalment of my railway experiences published under the title of `Once a Midland Man, always a Midland Man' in LMS Journal Number 9 in December 04. To do this I have to go back in time to cover the period 24th February to 30th June 1941.
On Monday, 24th February 1941 I travelled with my former schoolmates from EGS on the 8.05am train from Earby reporting to Mr. Southworth, the Skipton Station Master, for my first days work. My training was commenced in the Parcels Office under the direction of the senior Parcels Clerk, Bob Rickerby, and Parcels Clerks Jim Freeman and Fred Swindells. At that time there was a variety of parcels traffic being dealt with at Skipton. Skipton District Dairy Farmers received milk in churns from Elslack daily, and regularly sent it to Armley, Rotherham Masborough and Treeton. On markets days wagon loads of cattle and sheep were received and despatched by passenger train. Calves in sacks and pigs in crates were also popular lines. More mundane traffic included ten to fifteen boxes of fish from Hull, and over one hundred parcels received, with forwardings of from two to three hundred daily. Well over a hundred parcels were sent each day by Thomas Fattorini. Senders had to complete a consignment note for each item. The consignments of milk, fish, flowers, and livestock in wagon loads, were then booked up on waybills which, in an ideal world, were supposed to accompany the traffic. Stamps were affixed to all other traffic except for forwardings from ledger account holders, like Fattorinis and Smith Hartley, when `ledger labels' were used. Railway parcels stamps were approximately four times the size of the convential GPO postage stamp and were ungummed. The ledger labels were numbered from 1 to 6 to denote the terms of carriage, i.e. `station to station', `delivery paid home' etc. A few weeks after my arrival a number 7 label was introduced for government traffic which, throughout the system, was increasing day by day. As can be imagined waybills sometimes went astray and, if not to hand after a reasonable time, the receiving station had to record the traffic as `unentered' and take up with the forwarding station (sometimes only obtained after much detective work). Failure to receive an original entry, or copy therefore, in response, resulted in the receiving station raising a debit to cover the carriage charges. Clearance of the debit so raised was achieved by the issue of a `paid on' (a credit to the sending station) and a `to pay' (a debit to the receiving station) waybill for the amount concerned to the original forwarding station. Similar action was taken in the absence of stamp/s or ledger label on a parcel or if a consignment had been undercharged on a waybill or insufficient stamps affixed on a parcel. it was therefore important that stations used a good mix of glue. Many a `watery' mix resulted in a flood of debits which could only be cleared by special authority from Headquarters.
All deliveries and collections were accomplished by a three ton van, manned by Jim Armstrong, the driver, assisted by a vanboy. At that time quite a lot of the parcels traffic was of a perishable nature, items of cream, sausages, pies and cakes being common. Wartime conditions resulted in extended transit times and, much to Jim's annoyance, special journeys by the van in the afternoon. From time to time items were refused by the consignee in which case it was necessary to sell them to best advantage, frequently to staff. Receipts from these sales were brought to debit as `Salvage'.
After a few weeks I moved into the passimeter which served as the booking office. These structures were designed to reduce the costs of ticket examination but in practice never fully realised their expected potential. The only way that a clerk, whose main duties were booking tickets or answering telephone enquiries, could effectively examine tickets was to keep the `gate' locked. When some clerk's did not adopt this practice, a locked gate brought many an irate response from some travellers. Many were particularly aggresive when they had become used to the gate swinging loose and their progress was brought to a abrupt halt. At that time the ticket barrier at Skipton was manned from 6am to 10pm weekdays, ticket examination being undertaken by the passimeter clerk at other times.
The passimeter was manned continuously by three booking clerks, Tim Wilson, Arthur Jackson and Fred calvert. Tim Wilson was a renowned fly fisherman who wrote regular articles in `The Dalesman' under the nom de plume of `Broughton Point'. He must have composed quite a few articles and certainly `tied' hundreds of flies in the quieter moments during his turns of duty.
To be continued...
Edited by - handlamp on 27 Jan 2005 12:12:14
Ted |
Another
Traycle Mine Overseer
6250 Posts
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Posted - 27/01/2005 : 12:15
Thanks Ted. I look forward to the rest. Colin
" I'm a self made man who worships his creator" |
handlamp
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Posted - 29/01/2005 : 16:05
To continue...
Many of the reduced fares had been withdrawn for the duration of the war so that, apart from a few `workmen' returns and a limited number of cheap day returns, travellers had to book monthly return and ordinary single and return tickets. Many people, particularly service personnel, were asking for tickets to far away places with strange sounding names so quite a few had to be booked to a station short of their destination. With regard to tickets issued in exchange for HM Forces warrants it was possible to book them to their destination, showing the fare as P.T.F. (particulars to follow). Fares were sought from Watford HQ by telegram and, in response, many were quoted for use on one occasion only. I remember the first `blank card' I issued was to Norwich via M&GN, Saxby and Bourne. This always struck me as something of a rather exotic route. However, when I eventually moved to Newark and visited those two places, my long standing sentiment was somewhat dampened.
At this stage I must explain the arrangements for passenger tickets then prevalent on the LMS Railway. Originally, as railways were taking over from the stagecoach, the ticketing system was to issue hand written waybills to cover the journeys. This method was tedious and delaying as well as being open to fraud and the large increase in passengers availing themselves of the new mode of transport called for some improvement. Thomas Edmondson was appointed Station Master at Brampton on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway in 1836 and he developed a process of printing and dating pasteboard tickets. By 1941 the system had become somewhat refined, the tickets being approximately 2.5 inches x 1.25 inches, split into two portions for returns. All tickets were numbered consecutively, showed their description (i.e. ordinary, monthly return, workman's etc.) and bore the name of the originating station. `Printed' tickets also showed their destination, sometimes an abbreviated route, and fare. First class were coloured white, third class mainly green, workman's blue, day excursions orange. As was to be expected, `blank card' tickets required the insertion of the destination, fare, and sometimes a route.
Stocks of the tickets were kept in partitioned ticket stock drawers, normally in the Booking Office. To facilitate rapid issue, they were put into `tubes' built into racks, each kind of ticket normally being grouped together. The tubes could be of varying length, tickets with heavy user being put into the longer ones which, for easy access, were arranged nearest the booking office window. Tickets were withdrawn from the tubes as required and put through the dating press prior to issue, being dated on the back, both portions for returns. As a check, after a ticket had been taken out of the tube, the next to issue was withdrawn sufficiently to reveal the number to ensure that it was consecutive.
Inspection was an integral part of the system and most stations of any importance had their own `nippers' which made a distinctive indentation in the ticket - an exceptional journey could result in a ticket riddled with an array of hearts, stars etc.. The LMS published a booklet for use of ticket examining staff which contained details of the different nippers in use on the system. A pyramid shape, particularly at the edge, would result in the holder being viewed with great suspicion as this was made with a design of nipper held by all stations and used for cancelling tickets. The small desk in ticket collector's cabins often had a few rows of cancelled tickets on it. These would be tied up usually in bundles of up to one hundred and despatched to the Audit Department at Derby in canvas bags specifically allocated for the purpose. Spot checks made at that point, by comparing the information on the tickets with the monthly returns of sales, occasionally revealed discrepancies and were a proven means of fraud detection.
The Edmondson ticket system remained supreme in B.R. days until the 1970's when it was gradually superseded in the computer era. Whilst the present APTIS system may be the `bee's knees ' so far as the accountancy is concerned, I remain convinced that moderately efficient booking clerks issuing Edmondson tickets could shift a queue at practically twice the speed of their counterparts operating on the modern machines. In 1941 even cheques were a rarity and the very occasional presentation of a five pound note involved somewhat of a delay as the passenger was required to write his name and address on the back. However, I must concede that todays use of credit and debit cards are certainly not conducive to queue shifting.
Two months of training under the tuition of these most experienced clerks had given me a sound knowledge of passenger department clerical work and it was decided that I should be used on relief duties. Relief arrangements were the responsibility of the Staff Office at Derby and instructions were issued by telegram emanating from Staff `K' Derby. It was only to be expected that as a junior member of the staff I would be subject to some buffoonary and I was handed a few telegrams instructing me to take duty at some distant stations. These mendacious instructions were cancelled at the eleventh hour, but not before I had shown some concern as to how I would travel for early starts and late finishes.
Eventually I was given a genuine instruction to afford relief for two weeks vice the Booking and Parcels Clerk at Kildwick and Crosshills. This was in May/June which was the peak time for forwardings of day old chicks, the one commodity for which that station was famous. The Station Master, Mr. Wright, was something of a martinet who led the Junior Porter a merry dance. The Booking and Parcels office was located at the top of the slope off the down platform which necessitated the outside of the windows being washed with a long handled window brush. A warm sunny afternoon with the bottom window raised, a paste pot standing on the window ledge with the parcels weighing scales adjacent, set the scene. Mr. Wright regularly came to assist by calling out the weights, destination etc. and by sticking the stamps on the chick boxes during the afternoon rush. On this particular day the Junior Porter seized his opportunity and scored a direct hit with his brush.
Since entering the service I had `enjoyed' a salary of £35 per annum and my duties at Kildwick resulted in my first taste of overtime at the rate of 9d per hour (just over 3.5p) per hour. Working away from my `home' station also entitled me to a meal allowance of 3s.0d. (15p) per day, a princely sum indeed, but you could get a very reasonable meal for it in those days. A sign of the equalities prevalent at that time was the fact that the expenses paid to salaried staff differed from those granted to weekly paid conciliation wages staff. Salaried staff received their payment irrespective of whether they were rostered a mealtime, whereas wages staff had to be booked a meal when they would receive an allowance of 1s/6d.
Shortly afterwards I was transferred to Barlick.
Ted |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/02/2005 : 04:24
Ted, this is all brilliant stuff and well written. Thanks for taking the trouble to post it, it's an asset to the site.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
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Barnoldswick Railway memories
