Hi everyone

Injector · Post by **Injector** » Sat May 13, 2006 9:27 am

Hi Everyone
Just joined the forum, I was a Fireman at Bath Rd and St Philips Marsh
Is there any other old Rail men out there

APW · Post by **APW** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:38 pm

Hi.

I'm assumig that you were the type of fireman that created fires rather than put them out!

On which engines and routes did you fire?

Injector · Post by **Injector** » Sat May 13, 2006 4:09 pm

Hi
I was a cleaner at Bath Rd in 1955 then a fireman in the Pilot link, that's shunting in goods yards where all fireman start.
Then to the Transfer link at St Philips Marsh that's goods trains from one depot to another
Then to the Shed link still at the Marsh This involves moving engines down the coal road under the coal shoot then drive them into the shed and turn them the right way round ready for there next crew.
This is a fireman's first experience of driving and keeps you jumping from engine to engine all different types from tank to king so good experience for later on
From there back to Bath Rd to the Passenger re-leaf link firing Castles Halls Grange Prairie etc all sorts of runs Severn beach one day Exeter the next or you could be 2am spare man just sitting in the cabin waiting for a fireman not to turn in then you do his run etc

That it in a nut shell but there was a lot more to it than that
Hope that helps

DAVE · Post by **DAVE** » Sat May 13, 2006 8:15 pm

Welcome Injector
Great to read your memories of your time at Bath road and SPM.
I probably "crossed" your path as a young spotter at SPM, used to "bunk" round the shed at least once a week in the late fifties early sixties.
Never "bunked" bath road, my only visits being open days in the same period.
Keep up the postings. Superb!

Dave Nailsea

Injector · Post by **Injector** » Sun May 14, 2006 6:42 pm

Thanks Dave
Haven't been to Nailsea for a long time. We Lived at Westown Backwell when I was small got bombed out of Bristol.

Lots of fun working on the railway back in the 50s as a cleaner we used to clean about 4 engines a night after that you could get your head down till about 5.30 am then washup to go home

If you were lucky you could get out of grade work like Cole pulling up at t.m station when the long hall trains came in two of us would jump up in the tender with Cole picks and drag the Cole from the back to the front so the fireman could have a cup of tea and have Cole ready to work with when they got the right away.

We could spend the whole night up there pulling Cole "black as a rook" but could get Ãº20 a week like that and I was only 15 years old

AndyK · Post by **AndyK** » Mon May 15, 2006 7:15 pm

Very interesting - thanks "Injector".

I must be only about 15 years younger than you, but whereas for me the BR steam era amounts to a few precious hazy memories

, you actually lived and worked in the thick of it.

It just shows how quickly steam disappeared.

Injector · Post by **Injector** » Mon May 15, 2006 9:11 pm

Oops I don't beleve I spelt coal wrong Cole "stupid boy"

stumpytrain · Post by **stumpytrain** » Tue May 16, 2006 4:09 am

I don't suppose you have any photos/memories of the signal boxes / men - especially Bristol East?

Alex
Bristol PSB

Injector · Post by **Injector** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:44 am

No sorry
only memory of east box was in the winter of 1956 when we came out of BTM up over the points light engine, waiting to go down into bath rd shed,
signal went to green I called right the board to my driver and we moved off. I looked down and saw the point was still open shouted Woe
Just as the brake went on so he pulled the point over, came very close to coming of the road that night

Injector · Post by **Injector** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:58 pm

Hi stumpytrain
Nice to know there's a modern rail man out there, do you work in east box as you were asking about it?
There was a pilot over the coal road side of BTM which was always going up to east box to shunt goods down by the mail building I only worked it a few times but remember getting the Co from east box "do they still have Co ?
The other Pilot was over by the old fish dock where they shot the Titfield thunderbolt, good shot of bath rd shed at the end there, you can see the clock up on the front of the shed I guess I have seen all 24 hours on that one time or another.

The first engine I had was a pannier tank 5555 maligo coach sidings pilot
off shed 6am my first day as a fireman and I had to prep the engine first,
booking on time was 5am I was there at 4am working my tail off
Next day I had 1415 the last one at bath rd and every time I watch The Titfield Thunderbolt it always reminds me of my first few days firing.

stumpytrain · Post by **stumpytrain** » Sun May 21, 2006 6:07 pm

Hello Injector,

Do you have any idea where this was in the area controlled by Bristol East? Were you in one of the spurs? I wonder if there was a fault in the interlocking or the signalman had wrongly routed you and put the board back and altered the road after you had initially seen the signal off?

I would love to have worked in Bristol East, sadly it was closed and demolished long before I was even born. The box signalled it last train on 09 March 1970 and I was born on 31 August 1983!!!

I own one of the box diagrams from Bristol East Box, there's a little bit of it here:

It's one of the reasons I ended up moving to Bristol and working in Bristol Panel the signal box that replaced East, West and hundreds of mechanical boxes in the Bristol area.

If you're interested in reading more about the GWR power signalling in Bristol then I've got some information on my website here:

http://www.alextrack.co.uk/railways/bri ... t_bristol/

Great to hear your old stories!

Alex
Bristol PSB

The Bristol Railway Archive

Hi everyone

Hi everyone

ST PHILLIPS MARSH