Ladies' Guild Meeting - June 2011
The June meeting brought the longest evening, the greatest amount of daylight and the speaker, Bill Davies, who would have liked to bring the evocative smell of steam to the hall. This he could not manage but he brought laughter and enthusiasm with him as he spoke about his 42 years as a railwayman. The talk was entitled “On and off the footplate.” He leapt from talk about the job and the state of the railways to digress with funny stories. He claimed to be a fund of useless information. He talked about raves at Sundon where one driver saw a naked couple alongside the line who claimed to be looking for peace. Another tale was of the days when the crews took packed lunches to work. One fireman was very put out when his wife forgot to supply him with a knife and fork. The next day the man came with a heavy bag and said with satisfaction, “Now let us see how she does without a knife and fork.”
His long service started at the age of sixteen but had been planned by him for many years as he had decided, from when he first saw a steam engine at the age of three, that he wanted to be an engine driver. He told us that he had been adopted in 1948 by a school headmaster, a historian, and his wife who was very artistic. His father believed that if you educate a woman you educate a family. From this academic household he emerged with O-levels (his father paid him 12 shillings and 6 pence to sit the exams) but he still had the burning desire to work for the railway. In school, he fell hard for a teacher called Miss Sally Vanskey who inspired him with poetry and her skills as a hockey player but the trains won. Later in life, his wife told him he should have married an engine. Bill Davies developed his career as British Rail devolved into a variety of companies with changing names, logos and uniforms. He had a collection of ties on the table; each time the company changed they issued a new uniform with ties. He gave the uniforms to charity but kept the ties so he has his own record of his past in the variety of coloured ties and mugs; the trains still ran whatever the colour of the paint on the coaches and the confusing changes of names.
His career timing was not too good as Richard Beeching’s axe was looming which led to cuts in lines and services. Beeching believed in no duplication and the transfer from steam, dominated by the coal which powered our landscape and industry, to diesel. Bill lamented the closure of the Great Central Railway. Lord Beeching had declared that it did not serve the great centres of population but strange to say the M1 follows the route closely. Bill admired the speed and modern methods of the Great Central Railway.
Bill was relegated to shunt engines as redundancy became a threat in the Nottingham area. The time had come to move to London if he wanted to maintain his position as a driver. He regained his position on the seniority ladder in the capital. He drove “Parlies”, the trains MPs took to work and back, early and late, moving up to express trains. For four years, he worked as a driver out of Charring Cross while living in Bedford. 1978 brought the electrification of the local line; the Bed Pan line (Bedford to St Pancras) was punctual and successful. Then came the days of franchises when every so often it was “all change but do the same.” Bill took on the training of drivers then went into management to enhance his pension. He had 30 drivers in a team and entered the world of flip charts and computer PowerPoint. By the time he was asked to apply for his own job by First Capital Connect he left at the age of 58.
He then was able to develop a new career as a speaker, writer and traveller with rail pass (accompanied by his yellow Labrador dog). He spoke of a good day out being a day trip to Llandudno from platform 6 at Milton Keynes and a return to Milton Keynes platform 4 in the evening. The story he told against himself was of the day he was assessing a lady driver on her knowledge of routes but broke off to help a blind lady with guide dog cross the road. She took his arm and crossed with his help and then explained that she was a trainer who could see but it was good for the dog. We saw slides at the end of the presentation that were gleaned from his travels. We were told that Bill’s wife is an artist who paints trains. The cards of her paintings were delightful. We all enjoyed his stories and probably would like to own the “magic pass” to the railways that he earned upon his retirement.