大象传媒

I joined the railway in 1934 as a junior engine cleaner but was used as a 'knocker up' getting drivers, guards and fireman up to go to work. This was in the days when railway workers were duty bound to report for duty or the trains didn't run. Then in 1938 I was promoted to a fireman on the railways working all hours of the day or night working different shifts every week. When war broke out in 1939 I was in Liverpool I was called up into the army for national service but it left the railways short so I was sent home after 3 hours but I still got paid 6 shillings. Railway workers were what was called 'essential workers'. For the whole of the war I was a fireman dealing with all sorts of ammunition trains, passengers, troop trains. The troop trains were usually going from training units to whatever regiment they were being assigned to. There were many laughable/serious incidents during the war. One particular morning there was an air raid on the city of Leeds, which we were heading. We stopped for the safety of the city of Leeds and where we were positioned was near to the 'ack ack' guns and the shaprnel was coming down and the driver decided to take cover underneath the wagon. When the all clear went we went to rejoin our locomotive we looked at the label of the wagon which read HIGH EXPLOSIVES ! Lots of railway workers were killed. One of my colleague George Wilkinson who was a firemen won the Gorge medal for bravery one year.He was the firemen on an ammunitions train, the Germans had dropped incendiary bombs and set fire to one of the wagons. George and a guard isolated the wagon which blew up and caused some damage but saved 37 wagons and most of the Liverpool area of Stanley. I also lost a driver, we'd finished work at 2am and were walking home when we had to separate, me going left down the road amd him going straight on to his house. He never reached home as it was bombed and no trace of him was ever found.

When Dunkirk took place trains had to be used to ferry thousands of troops from the South coast to holding camps further North. Railwaymen were called upon to work execssive hours to transport all those men from the beaches of Dunkirk. We had special Red Cross tains to transport those who were injured. The southern railway men were the ones who bore the brunt of the work and worked days without a break. They then handed the trains over to Great North Western and the North Western to take the men the hospitals and reception camps. Railwaymen were the only workers who didn't receive danger money and were our unsung heroes during World War 2.

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