My 50 Years as a Southern Railwayman

by P J Shannon

  The action that the station staff would take was to evacuate the relevant part of the station, all of it if necessary, and use their check list provided in the emergency folder to tick off premises that they had evacuated and stick coloured coded stickers on the windows or doors, then return the check list to the Station Supervisor or SM for a visual check. On the arrival of the emergency services the SM or Supervisor would explain the seriousness of the alert and the action that they had taken, so that they could deal efficiently with the emergency. The day that we decided to test out the theory, everything went as planned except for the member of staff located outside the station to alert us of the arrival of the emergency services. After all the organisation that went into it, that person did not know how to use the phone and had to alert us by accompanying them to the site, but otherwise everything went according to plan. It goes to show that nothing can be taken for granted!

  On April 16th 1991 I was told to report to the AMO’s Office for my Performance Review. So I arrived there to be greeted by the AM’s secretary who offered me a cup of tea; perhaps the P4P was working after all! I was ushered into the office and invited to sit down by David Gould, our Area Customer Service Manager, and Chris Jezard, our new Operations Manager. I knew that I had been in the job for 2 years 3 months and as far as I was concerned, had always carried out my job to the best of my ability. So far there had never been any complaints about my work of which I was aware.

  The official bit of papers were out on the desk and David started to fill them in, asking questions as he went. Then referring to my last review, he asked me how I was getting on with some of my objectives. I explained that given the number of different areas that I had had to cover over the past months, it was unreasonable to expect me to achieve some of them, but as I had been covering Wimbledon for the last month I had at least achieved the Evacuation Plan for the station. I went into detail and explained the plan with some of the paperwork that I had with me. When I had finished, I think that they were suitably impressed, so we discussed what training they thought I might require and came up with nothing. Their assessment of me was that I was fully equipped to undertake any task asked of me, but I should ‘learn to project my confidence and ability to people at all levels in the organisation’.

  I returned to Wimbledon until the end of April, when I was once again called to the AM’s office to see Steve Smith, our Area Manager. I popped on the train up to Clapham Junction and down to Feltham. On my arrival I was greeted like the Queen of Sheba by his secretary and was invited to sit down and have a cup of tea. I am always suspicious when the Governor’s secretary is nice to me; I feel that there is something in the wind that I am not going to like, but I sat down and accepted the tea and waited and waited. I was assured that he was in the process of sorting something out and would soon see me. When I was ushered into his office, he told me that they were having a reorganisation and that there was a vacancy for an MS2 grade Operations Manager which would be under the jurisdiction of the Movements Manager at Waterloo, Jim Turner. With my experience he thought that I was the man for the job. I just sat there for a moment trying to get my thoughts together. “Are you offering me the OM’s job?” I asked. He told me to take time to think it over, but that he would need my answer by the next day.

  I already knew that I would very much like the job and that Jenny would be delighted for me, as I had worked so hard to achieve what I had. I was right; Jenny was overjoyed with his proposal and asked what the terms were. To be honest, I had not asked, but the flat rate of pay would be in the region of £17,000 plus half London rate so that would be an increase of my flat rate of pay. So the very next day I accepted the job and within a week I was relieved from Wimbledon by Brian Humphries and took up my new appointment as Operations Manager, Feltham. John Jacobs was appointed to Woking and Dennis Thompson to Waterloo.

  Now settling into the job, on my first day I was allocated an office in the AMO building. The job entailed the safe running of the area, which would mean a lot of auditing and submitting the results to the Safety Department for calculation of a percentage rating for the area. This was no problem to me as I had already been involved in this system, but not the rating. The traffic set-up was that I was in charge of all the movement of trains within the area and had two Mobile Operating Managers to deal with traffic failures, such as points and barriers etc. and an AMI to deal with signalling problems.

  This job at Feltham was a new position, as British Rail had ceased to be and a brand new company, Railtrack, had been formed. Les Chapman, or LC as he was known, was covering SM Surbition after Charlie Philpott went back as Train Crew Manager. Sadly Charlie then passed away. LC and Ross Lees were appointed to the MOMs jobs. Each MOM was assisted by a Zapper one of whom was Tony Blandford, an ex-shunter from Strawberry Hill Depot. These guys had to be excellent experienced traffic men, and these requirements were going to be well tested in the months to come.

  L C started his railway career as box boy at Waterloo in 1971. Then he was promoted to the relief booking boy’s position at Waterloo and to earn a couple of extra shillings, he covered Railman and Leading Railman positions as far as Liss, Ascot and Virginia Water platform and Farnham and Aldershot Parcels offices. He became Station Manager at Ascot in 1981 covering Sunningdale, Ascot, Bracknell and then Relief Station Manager in 1982. He was Station Manager of Staines in 1986 until he was promoted to MOM Feltham in 1992. Les had had a lot of traffic experience and was the right man for the job.

  My only previous recollection of Ross was as Station Supervisor at Richmond.

  Frank Wynn was my Area Movements Inspector, and he was in charge of all the signalmen in the area. He also came from the traffic side of the railway, moving up through the grades from a low class Porter Signalman to the AMI’s job which involved taking signalmen for rules and regulations and sitting in and giving advice during interviews and dealing with minor disciplinary cases. Frank was a sound railwayman who could be relied on in a crisis.

  My job description was:

  To ensure the safe auditing and monitoring safety systems to the optimum of 100%.

  Man manage the Mobile Operations Managers (MOMs).

  Improve relationships and operational environment within Feltham Signalling Panel.

  Provide strong and closer Management of the Panel.

  Recruit, train and generally improve the quality of Operating Standards.

  Ensure that the Hidden Recommendations were met within the structure of the area.

  The above were to be carried within the first year, which was some task, but as usual I was up for it.

  With my first week in the job came my first challenge. I was informed by the Panel Regulator, Jack Hills, that there was trouble brewing, as the AM had decided that the MOMs would have jurisdiction over them in the box and would be required to sign and check their personal occurrence book, but as they were grade “E”, the same as the MOMs, they felt that their authority was being undermined. This feeling was so intense that they were united in going on strike to secure the structure of their position in the box. I went up to the box for a face to face talk with them. Jackie was very explicit, and explained that they thought that this proposal was untenable, and said that they really wanted me on their side. Having come up through the ranks myself, I understood their reservations about the new systems and said so. After much discussion they recognised that this proposal had not come from me and agreed to give me sufficient time to sort out the problem. I went back to the office to discuss the immediate problem with the AM and to inform him that I was not happy with it and felt the same as the Regulators, and that it was undermining their authority in the panel. I reminded him that as their immediate manager I felt that the proposal had put me in dilemma. Although I had every confidence in my ability to sort it out, I felt that this was a step too far and that the proposal should be rescinded immediately and that only Managers above the grade of “E” should sign the Regulators book.

  After a lot
of wrangling, and several telephone calls later, common sense prevailed and the order was rescinded. From then on, only officers above “E” grade were entitled to sign the books, so I was able to inform Jackie of the decision. All was now calm and the offer of a cup of tea really cemented our relationship. I can honestly say that from that day onwards, I was the first person to be informed if there was any problem, however small, so I was able to keep my finger on the pulse which I really appreciated. This was of considerable value when I was asked to explain any situation or problem within my area at the Movements Manager’s meetings. So although my first week really was a baptism of fire, deep down I really enjoyed it.

  The other Regulators of the Panel were Chris Hoskinson, Tony Simons, Vic Kemp, Bill Nicholas, Ron Green, Bob Wakeman and John Butler. The Signalmen were John Johnson, Barry Wakeman, Mike Scott, Stuart Smith, Andy Maidment, George Wardle, Colin Flint, Pat Handley, Mike Hornsby, Trevor Jellyman, Jock Passettee and some others whose names I can’t remember offhand, but on the whole they were very good signalmen backed up by very professional Regulators. There were five panels controlled by the Panel from Richmond to Bracknell around to Addlestone on the Weybridge branch and around to Frimley on the Guildford branch.

  From Bracknell to Reading and around the Gatwick branch as far as Blackwater was controlled by Wokingham box. The signalmen for Wokingham were Bernard Walsh, Bob Hamilton, John Scraggs and John Loveridge. There was a separate box that controlled the London Transport platforms at Richmond and around to Gunnersbury and its signalmen were Mick Hilder and Ricky Maturia. Barnes box controlled from Richmond to Point Pleasant with its signalmen Ken Wardle, John Beasly and Danny Duncan. There were also two Senior Railwaymen who controlled the crossings at Barnes, Mortlake, North Sheen and Barnes West and for good measure I had Strawberry Hill and Staines depots thrown in.

  This, then, was the area of my control, and was probably much smaller than I was used to. As I had covered most of this area as a Relief Station Manager I knew it intimately and had no reservations about it.

  So now to explain some of the work that we as a team were to undertake. Every audit check that was done now would be counted up, and hopefully, if the team completed every one during that month the value would be 100%. To give some example, the Tiii was laid out to give a numerical value to all aspects of the audit.

  The first page detailed the possession, with date, time, person in charge (PICOP) etc.

  The second page asked questions regarding the actual carrying out of the possession. Each question had to be checked, and if everything was correct, a stipulated number of points were awarded.

  The checking carried on to include the Engineering Supervisor’s control of the movements of engineering trains, and if the final tally resulted in a score of 70% or more, the possession passed the test.

  This is just a sample of what information is necessary to carry out a Tiii check so if you were thinking that it was just a matter of popping out for a couple of hours to see what was going on, then you are very much mistaken.

  But I was still very concerned that I or my MOMs had to do this check very much on our own but at the time this was the procedure. However, I had a very large hand in changing it over the next few weeks, when I had a meeting with the Permanent Way Manager, Ivor Smith, and convinced him that if there was to be an audit of a Tiii then he or another P/W Manager should be in attendance. He would also include a visit to the controlling signal box to ensure that the traffic side were doing their bit to protect the work site. I was happy that on my patch this practice became the norm and it worked very well for the period that I was OM.

  Other checks included the inspection of location boxes which contained a number of points clips, scotches, point handles and pins. The telephone also needed to be tested for proper working. The check could then be signed off if correct. Inspection of Accident Registers in all the boxes under our control also took place regularly. Then there were the annual Rules and Regulations examinations, monthly level crossing checks, storage and security of detonators, testing of electrification phones of which there were 53, and four-weekly visits to see each signalman. This is just a sample of the checks that had to be completed during the month and submitted to the Safety Department for evaluating. For the first couple of checks under this new system, we could only achieve a value of about 80% but as we got used to it we were able to achieve 95% which was one of the best for any area and we were consistently hitting that target through a lot of hard work by me and the MOM s and AMI.

  So now that I have established how the system worked, the intricacy of the system now needs explaining. It also involved monthly checks of CCTV and AHB Level Crossings, which included road signs, visibility upside and downside, description of the sign, public telephones, barrier arms, condition of lights, condition of boom, condition of skirt, red and white reflective material, timing cycle both sides, how long the amber lights illuminates (3 seconds), how long after the red flashing lights started did the barriers descend (4-8 seconds), how long did the facing barrier take to descend (6-10 seconds), did the barriers raise simultaneously after the train passed, crossing surface type and condition, Bowmac, timber, road markings, stop lines approaching the crossing, and plastic road studs (cats-eyes). This was only one of the many forms that needed to be completed each month to gain the percentage required by our area to pass.

  As we had little or no knowledge of computers in those days and were at a loss to know how to use them, I asked for some assistance to deal with some of the paper work, so Clive Ayling, one of the Supervisors from Ascot, was seconded to us to deal with it. This situation worked well as I had known Clive from his guard’s days at Staines and he took to the job like a duck to water, so with this little problem sorted it was time for us to prove what we could do.

  I remember one occasion when Frank came to me with a serious complaint from the Panel Regulator concerning car owners crossing at Englemere Occupational Crossing at Ascot without phoning the signalman and waiting for permission to cross. This caused the drivers of trains to either apply the brakes or hope that they did not hit the cars, which resulted in some of these incidents being classed a “near miss” which had to be reported. So we came up with the idea of spending a Saturday morning filming the offenders. Frank and I, armed with a video camera, descended on the crossing early in the morning on the next available Saturday. Before setting our surveillance up, we made sure that the signs on the crossing were in accordance with the standards required by legislation and recorded this on tape. We then telephoned the Panel from the crossing phone to ensure that the phone was working and to tell the signalman of our intentions. Then we camouflaged ourselves just off the pathway which gave us a clear view of the crossing, and we set up our surveillance camera.

  It was not very long before we netted our first victim; a car approached the crossing, the driver opened the gate on the near side, walked across, opened the gate on the off side, then with a swift look both ways, went back to the other side, jumped into the car and sped across without contacting the signalman. This incident, including the car’s registration number was all captured on tape. A quick call to the Panel confirmed with the signalman that no contact had been made from the crossing and we told him that the evidence of this stupidity had all been recorded.

  As the morning progressed, it became evident that this sort of behaviour was the norm as car after car driver made no attempt to telephone the panel for permission. Even the post van was at fault, but as we had no legal powers to do anything about this we could not stop car drivers and remonstrate with them. All that we were allowed to do was to record the incidents and forward our findings to the British Transport Police for them to take action. By the early afternoon we decided that we had enough evidence on tape to satisfy our friends in the BTP, so we packed up our equipment and made our way to Bert’s Café on the Bagshot by-pass for some well earned food and a chat about our morning’s work.

  On the Monday, Frank set out for th
e BTP’s office at Waterloo to present our evidence to them and, as he later reported, they were amazed at the lack of intelligence of the car owners who we had captured on tape and were all too willing to do something about it. Later in the week we received a call from them telling us that they had visited the area and given the residents concerned a stern warning about their behaviour. They advised them that if they should persist in this manner, we would have no alternative but to prosecute them. Needless to say, the incidents from this crossing dramatically reduced from then on, which was proven when I checked the signalman’s occurrence book.

  At home, that year Jenny decided that she would like to do an Open University degree in science which started in the spring of 1991. We had to fit this into our busy lives for the next 6 years. During August, we holidayed at Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight just before Jenny was due her attend her first summer school. She had to leave early on our last Saturday, so it was down to me to look after the children and get them home safely, but unfortunately while we were crossing the Solent to Lymington my daughter, Holly, lost her teddy bear over the side of the boat at Lymington. When we disembarked, we spent the next couple of hours with the help of a kindly boatman looking for it, unfortunately to no avail, so it was tears most of the way home and for the next day. Even though she is now grown up, this is still sometimes brought up in conversation.