Just registered and am now having a look round the site
I started on the railways back in 1950,at Bescot MPD which is in the West Midlands,it was mostly a freight depot and 90% of our work was coal trains throughout the Midlands ...started as cleaner and worked my way up through all the stages and eventually reached the dizzy heights of Driver
after a very long apprenticeship (dont think thats spelt right),anyway by that time Deisels were beginning to make an appearance,and since I was young and wanted some of that,I applied for and eventually got a post as a Deisel instructor,was still an engine driver but was trained so I could train other drivers how to operate Deisel traction....after about 8 years of that it got to the point where everyone was trained,so it started to peter out,and electric locos were starting to put in an appearance,for them there was not the same appeal for some reason,and the possibility of going back to shift working after such a long time,didnt appeal to me ...shortly after that I left the railways breaking a chain that had gone back 3 generations,but the lure of a regular day job was just too much ...My last 20 odd years were served with British Telecom .....