An accidental but joyous career on the railways
Our February 2024 meeting brought Eddie Pollock to our branch with a small but select audience to talk about his long illustrious career on the railways. From Carlisle, he was initially a farmer/gamekeeper followed by installer of loft insulation earning £10 a day. In 1985 he joined the railway attending Guard school in Lancaster. His initial trips as a guard, were in the “Zombie” link, running between Carlisle to Crewe, so called because the official hours were anytime between 00.01 and 23.59 working on all types of train.
In 1988 he undertook the Trainman Concept and Aptitude tests eventually leading to a driver vacancy in Workington with his first shift a 1.15am start!! This was the most challenging journey of his career driving a freight from Workington to Carlisle through unbelievably thick fog with a tawny owl smashing into his windscreen at one stage.
The introduction of Regional Railways Northwest gave him the Carlisle Barrow service with class 153’s and 142’s aplenty as well as freight locomotives. Eventually this became very routine so in September 1995 he joined the small DRS team. His very proud claim is that in his entire career he has never blocked a line with a broken-down train.
The move doubled his wages and other benefits and he drove the DRS flask trains from Sellafield to Crewe. A routine task was when passing Hest Bank heading North a telephone call was made to the Arnside fish and chip shop to place an order for the crew and the food was collected and consumed en-route!!
His accumulated route knowledge has taken him to many areas of the UK, including as far as Appledore, Dungeness, Sizewell, and many others. Interestingly his favourite routes are the Cumbria coast and the North Wales coastal runs.
He is very honoured to have driven several Royal trains carrying Prince Charles and Diana, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh and still has the breakfast menu from one of these!!
Medical issues meant his driving career had to end changing to “the most boring job on the railways,” duty controller. However, after 13 weeks in this role he was then asked to become the first DRS roster manager, a job he carried out for just over 3 years. Following the roster managers jib he was ask to lead on new rail projects for DRS across the UK, both nuclear and non-nuclear.
In 2022 he joined BSW, a huge international timber company that owns extensive forestry in Western Scotland and control the supply chain from planting seeds to harvesting. He is in charge of the project to develop the new timber depot at Corpach near Fort William where a new railhead is being built to transport the timber southwards, currently operating 3 trains a week, sharing the path with the Alcan trains who have the neighbouring aluminium plant.
He finished his session outlining BSW’s plans in Carlisle where a new marshalling depot, is in the planning stage.
This was a superb session the enthusiasm and energy shined through and he is to be heartily recommended.
Alan Sattenstall 8th February 2024