Stratford Depot and Recollections from 1988

Today’s speaker was branch committee member Hugh Driscoll. Hugh has spent his whole working career on the railway. Today’s presentation recalled his experiences as an apprentice at Stratford depot in 1988. Having been trained in engineering at RTC Derby, Hugh then joined the staff at Stratford, describing the layout and facilities on the huge site at that time, with the aid of photographs and maps. As an apprentice you start at the bottom often getting the mundane and very dirty jobs, but making career progress.

Hugh went on to explain the vast number of others sites and their purpose that came under Stratford’s control spread across the east side of London. We went on the hear about the large number of differences between locomotives within the same Class, primarily Classes 08, 31, 37 and 47’s. Many had completely different electrical circuits, different braking and power systems. It was also surprising to see just how basic the driver’s controls were. We were shown just how difficult and dirty inside the maintenance depot working conditions were, often being open to the weather. Hugh had servicing / maintenance details of the loco’s and information of what was required for each loco exam. One of the other sites Stratford covered was Ripple Lane with its hump shunt and 47 roads. Among the facts we were shown was that Stratford used 15 million litres of fuel a year and Ripple Lane 6 million.

A memorable presentation that went down well with everyone there.

Dave Elsdon

Branch Secretary