大象传媒

This story has been contributed by Val Potter of Age Concern, Hellifield. It was originally contributed to Age Concern in 1990.
Mrs. Hoggatt was cleaning railway carriages during the war years.
They had to be cleaned first inside then out. First, the cleaners lit a fire under a copper in the sidings. Then they had to carry the hot water in buckets across the rails to the carriages, sweep and then go over the floors with a cloth and their bucket of hot water. They were given a box to collect the dirt in. The outside of the carriages had to be cleaned with a brush and hot water. They had to work on Sundays as well. Another of their tasks was to fill the toilet cisterns from a tank in the sidings. To do this, they had to walk along the roofs of the carriages. One Sunday, her nerve failed and from then on the staff had to fill the cisterns in the mornings when they came on duty at 7 a.m. Their hours of work were from 7 a.m. till 5 p.m.
There was an Italian prisoner of war camp near the sidings. One day the Italians killed a cat, skinned it, cooked it and ate it! Often, one of them went and collected a handkerchief full of snails for the pot! One day, a passenger lost a watch and reported it. One of the staff finally found it all in pieces in one of the carriages. Another day, Mrs. Hoggatt found a tiny bottle of gin under a seat in the first class carriage. She closed the door and drank it! The Italians used to nip into the first class carriages for a nap after their lunch - they would watch the staff's feet disappearing under the carriages and then take their chance!
The ladies who did the cleaning had to wear dungarees issued by the railway - they used to scrub them at work after they had cleaned the carriages. There were 4 or 5 trains to clean each day and 2 or 3 cleaners on them There was one train that went to Carlisle every day that was their special pride and they shone the brasses on it until everyone remarked how good it looked.

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