Ramblings of a Railwayman by Geoff Burch
Geoff Burch grew up beside the Portsmouth main line. Like many of his school peers he started trainspotting, got hold of a cheap Ian Allan ABC spotters book and took to ‘bunking’ round the surviving steam loco sheds in the London area. Time was already fast running out for steam and the quest to collect as many loco numbers as possible was overpowering. He recalls creeping into Willesden shed, (City of London in steam), then Liverpool Street (Britannias) and Kings Cross (A4s Miles Beevor and Silver Fox). Stewarts Lane was quite hard to get into undetected - you had to shuffle along sideways beside an incoming loco to escape the vigilance of the shed master.
On one day in 1961 at Brookwood station, Geoff’s log of sightings in a period of just over four hours clocked up to no less than sixty steam locos passing through - those were the days! On another day he approached the crew of a stationary light engine at the platform and timidly asked whether he could climb onto the footplate. This was Geoff’s eureka moment. Once there Geoff knew in a flash what he wanted to do to earn his living - he was about to leave school. Very soon after, aged 15, Geoff was accepted by British Railways and began his railway career at Guildford Shed.
Geoff’s entertaining talk, supplemented by brilliant photography and clips of cine film, described his experiences, first as a loco cleaner and later as a fireman. From his first day’s work when he received his overalls and rule book, Geoff described his daily work and the colleagues with whom he was rostered. The first thing that shocked him, apart from the filthy conditions of the shed itself, was the bad language which everyone habitually used (Geoff’s family didn’t swear at all)! They say that railways run on two things: tea and bad language, and as a junior office boy Geoff was tasked with making and delivering to his mates endless cups of tea. And the lunches too; his memory is of stacks of plates of hot food from which the gravy continually spurted out and ran over everything. He recalls that Guildford shed was a very dangerous place to work. There were trip hazards lurking everywhere, abandoned clutter piled up, oil spills, signs unreadable through dirt; not to mention upturned sleepers with large nails protruding, one of which pierced young Geoff’s boot and impaled his foot. Luckily the local hospital was nearby.
Geoff described in acute detail, supplemented by cine film, the bodily contortions required to get in the boiler. You had to climb in backwards through the smokebox door and squeeze yourself along between the brick arches where the impurities of the coal would stick to the tube plates - not for the claustrophobic or less agile. But Geoff managed and was promoted to senior cleaner at a good wage of £7 per week. Soon after in early 1962, he was appointed to trainee fireman and attended classes where he was taught the secret of good enginemanship.
On 9 April 1962, aged 16, he was appointed junior fireman and began his first footplate turns. A Reading to Redhill return goods trip would take a little matter of eight hours, with two hours before and after the actual journey. But there was an engineman’s special delicacy to enjoy- breakfast cooked on the shovel, as well as refreshment at lunchtime pubs. Geoff recalls visits to Feltham Yard which involved a half hour walk from the station to the yard. There were also passenger train turns on the main line down to Bournemouth. and he has the fondest memories of the cross country branch to Horsham via Peasmarsh junction and Christs Hospital, especially of the superb display of dahlias on Baynards station platform. The line was mainly single track with passing loops and ‘staff and ticket’ single line working, with very snappy working required. All gone now, closed in the Beeching year of 1965 - what a pity, and how useful the residents of Cranleigh would find this route today!
Geoff remarked that in 1964 there were still 84 drivers registered available for duty as well as 73 passed firemen. But the end for steam was nigh, and in June 1967 the curtain finally came down on Southern steam, leaving poor Geoff, not yet 23!, too young to achieve his ambition to be passed out as a steam loco driver. But he had enjoyed an incident packed career and while his favourite locos were the merchant navies, the least of his favourites were Great Western pannier tanks. He remembers the rich characters he got to know at Guildford Shed, who were rough, tough and full of humour and courageous to boot, after all many had lived through two world wars, and unlike today’s early retirees, many of his erstwhile colleagues would only survive the end of their working lives by a very few years before departing this life. Geoff on the other hand was a young man and enjoyed a very successful professional railway career right through the later British Rail years and into privatisation.