From Litchurch Lane to Temple Mills via Paris

Branch committee member Hugh Driscoll, our speaker today, gave us a thorough insight into his long career on the railway.

Following a brief induction course Hugh’s first placement was at the Derby Carriage Works training school, transferring to Stratford Depot in 1988. We had a full description, with track diagram maps, covering the whole site. At this time the depot usually had 18 locos in for servicing and 8 or 9 in for repair, these were primarily Class 31, 37 and 47 locos, the main stay of the Great Eastern regions fleet in that era.

Hugh was transferred around various departments to gain experience, one such department was the wagon shop at Barking which mainly dealt with Cartic wagons, due the its close proximity to the Ford car plant. A spell at Derby loco works followed, before a year at college and a return to Derby. In 1990 some time was spent in the NSE design Office before getting a three-month placement in Frankfurt to see how our counterparts did things. Hugh followed this with a look at his time on the electrification in Kent and work at Washwood Heath before spending some time at Bounds Green, where majority of his work was on the Class 91’s and HST’s.

Hugh joined Eurostar at North Pole International in 1994. Eurostar sets were very complicated, compared the Class 91’s, due to their varying voltage pick-ups and differing signalling systems on route.  Here there was a six-road servicing shed that could take the 400m train sets. All work and service checks here were very stringent due to the high speeds involved.

North Pole closed and all servicing went to Temple Mills where there was a new eight road shed with all new facilities. In 2015 the Queen used Eurostar for her visit to France, particular attention to detail and cleanliness to the chosen set was paramount. With the introduction of the Class 374’s new procedures were introduced as the sets were so different to the 373’s. Hugh also visited the French and Belgian depots - where all servicing was carried out in the open air without any cover. His involvement at Eurostar continued until his recent retirement.

A truly fascinating afternoon.

Dave Elsdon

Branch Secretary