R h n hardy collection
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- 560– 575 are all footplate scenes and worth looking at. RH 560
RH509-515. These are all taken before, during and after lunch on our last visit to Jeumont with the 0810 ex Paris Nord returning about 1435, I believe. Andre had changed over so that he could look after us and so we had yet another fireman, Georges Povells, and certainly a character although his firing did not gain universal approval from Andre who was in fact very particular. So.509 shows us at the auberge across the Sambre with James,Monsieur Le Patron, Madame La Patronne, their daughter, Grandmere, Andre, Daniel, the shed driver at Jeumont and Georges and the little dog! 510 has Andre, Georges and myself with a set of Aulnoye men on their way home. 511, we have lunched well and here is proof! 512, the Aulnoye men again with JC-F. 513 the auberge including James. 514 lunch with Andre and Georges and finally 515 , yet again, the auberge, full supporting cast and RH. RH516 Richard, Madame Duteil and Andre in their dining-cum-sitting room in the flat at Epinay-sur-Seine where we had many marvellous meals prepared by madame as big as Andre was small, a mere 5 ft! When they moved to Epinay from Crepy in 1959, one had a marvellous view of Paris but in time more tower blocks grew up and that was that. What happiness that family gave so many of us long after Andre retired in 1964. RH517 Andre and Richard outside the block and probably about to set off to the station after a magnificent “brunch” ready to make the journey back to Calais firstly with an ex steam man on the BB16000 and then a wonderful flowing journey on a Chapelon 231E and at Calais, straight onto the”Invicta” and into Stan’s cabin for wash up and a pot of tea and plenty of toast, butter and jam! RH518 Here we are at Jeumont outside the messroom where the inhabitants of the little depot used to congregate to talk to these mysterious Englishmen who suddenly descended on their little frontier outpost to Belguim. L-R Mimille, coal crane driver and general factotum, Henri Gress, eleve-mecanicien and shortly mecru at Beaumont on the huge141TQs and their pull and push trains. Daniel is standing in the middle with his polished goggles which he wore despite being solely a shed engineman and driver in charge. And then Andre and James. RH519 Henri Gress,a square Frenchman and a comic if ever there was one. RH520 The four of us in the messroom at Jeumont. We have had a marvellous lunch and will soon be ready for off after we have been across the Sambre for cognac and coffee. We have had a perfect meal far, far better than sandwiches and tea. RH521 Andre, Henri and James, a lovely photo with Andre still wearing his BR cap but not for long unless he wears it back to front so there is room for the goggles. RH522 Henri Douillet and Andre walking from the engine to the messroom with lunch for four! RH523 Crossing the Sambre canal after the cognac and coffee, this time with Alain, Andre’s elder son, Henri Douillet, Andre and James. RH524 Outside the auberge once more, with some of the family and an Aulnoye equipe, the fireman being young for the SNCF but probably an eleve and certainly very good looking. RH525 Henri stands on the cab roof to direct Mimille and the placing of the screened and pebble sized coal so essential for use in a mechanical stoker. Lumps jam in the screw beneath the cab and block the feed to the thin white fire. Not only block it but wreck it which why the class 9s on the Saltley-Carlisle jobs were a failure:no fault of the engine or fireman, simply the wrong coal and thoroughly bad management at Motive Power HQ. RH526 A lovely picture of Henri Douillet taking water. RH527 In the auberge, James, Andre, Henri and Alain. RH528 Another portrait of Henri, always smiling and cheerful, this time framed in the side window of the cab of the De Caso S1. RH529 The driver’s corner of the S1 or 2 but I think it was his own engine,S2. I’ll do my best to remember the fittings although it is 44 years(2004) since I was on a De Caso Baltic but much of that last journey is fresh in my mind as I was the driver from Aulnoye to Paris Nord, mostly in the dark. He thress taps are the air sand, driving, trailing and back gear. Below the taps is the application handle of the straight air brake for light engine use, below that and above the reversing wheel is the big Westo valves which controls both train and engine and tender brakes.In the cab window, so to speak, is the by pass used for starting and closed immediately the engine has begun to move when it goes over to full compound working. The other handle was never used . Straight down is the Flaman speed recorder right in the driver’s vision, to its right is the cut-off indicator and then the timings of the journey in a metal case hanging on a hook. Coming to the right, the lowest gauges are marked”Frein”- brake-, the top two are the boiler pressure, and the steam pressure in the high and low pressure steam chests. The wheels control steam hear and other functions one of which is the steam supply to the train and another for the Westo pump.The gauge is the steam heating pressure. RH530 The Lilliputian Andre prospecting the top of the smokebox of the greatest of all De Caso Chapelon Baltics, the 232U1, an amusing picture. RH531 Andre oiling the LH big end and trailing side rod of S2 . Just right for a little man although the text book says you can do better than that in setting the engine with the RH big end on the back quarter or am I talking out of the back of my head? RH532 Mimille ”Roi des Cornichons”, literally ”King of Gerkhins” and meaning something ruder, at work on his crane and coaling our S001. Note the pebble sized coal heap, the elderly long jibbed and very useful crane(they have one at Calais for the same purpose and this coal and NO LARGER is ideal for the mechanical stokers on the SNCF and anywhere else. If only HQ BR had done the same we might have had a stoker fired Duchess and that would have been a very fair machine. RH533 We are at the auberge once more while we wait for our cognac and coffee, James, Andre and Henri Douillet. RH534 The S002 in all her glory, a magnificent machine standing unattended at Jeumont. RH535 Lastly and for the time being, we shall leave Andre preparing lunch in the messroom at Jeumont. There is some movement but the potential size of our luncheon may be noted and now back to Calais. RH536-RH540 show Colin Morris, the most experienced and respected Motive Power officer on the Eastern Region, on a visit to France. He was a born deadpan humorist; one of the funniest yet most serious of men with whom it has been my honour to work. . RH536 Calais Maritime, 12 Mar 1966, Train 34 with a PLM Pacific on which we travelled to Rang-du-Fliers and worked our passage. L-R: Alfred George White, BR (Shipping) interpreter, born of English parents in Bleriot-Plage, Calais in 1920. He spoke English with a touch of French accent superimposed on what was more or less a “Brummy” accent. In 1940, his father returned to England whilst his mother remained in Calais until advised to go south with Fred. They were cut off at Amiens and returned to a village not far from Calais where they lived under the noses of the Germans for the rest of the war. RH, Colin Morris, Mécanicien Lucien Ducrocq (a spare driver always covering in Roulements 1 and 2 and passed to drive the Chapelon Pacifics), and Eleve Mecanicien Michel Robillard, Passed Fireman and under training for driving. RH537 The station at Rang-du-Fliers. The entire staff turned out to welcome Colin and myself and Colin was presented with a long-handled SNCF broom to take home as a keepsake. Fourth from the left is Mons Marcel Gille, Chef-de-Gare wearing his uniform cap and a sports jacket. Mons Morris is “bedding plants” in the foreground assisted by two men who are removing non-existent weeds. The chef-de-poste (signalman) is second from the right and the “Baton” is in the hands of the “agent” who gives the right away to the driver, the forerunner of the “bats” used in the UK today. This was a wayside station with a small yard but when train 27 arrived, it disgorged a huge assortment of returning shoppers from Amiens or Abbeville. RH538 Our garden in Surbiton, summer 1966, when Colin and I worked together at Kings Cross. Ever the comedian, he found Peter’s scooter and this is the result. RH539 Back to 12 March 1966. Train 27 loaded to close on 650 tons has arrived at Boulogne Ville with a 141R of the later series with Box-pox coupled wheels and the Kylchap exhaust. These were thrilling, powerful machines, American design modified and greatly improved by Chapelon and used all over France. By now, Henri Dutertre was sharing 231 G42 with René Gauchet who has the engine that day. Henri has worked the 0800 Calais Ville to Amiens returning with train 27 after which the Calais boys took us out to dinner. The chauffeur is “Little Louis” Lapierre who had fired on 231 E17 whilst Henri had had E16 and the E9 as his “machine titulaire”. A shovel in Louis’ hands looked like a salt-spoon. The 141Rs on the Nord were all “stoker-fired” and they could be thrashed unmercifully if necessary. The next station was Boulogne-Tintellerie on a 1 in 100 gradient on which the engine started 650 tons with no difficulty at all but there was pandemonium in the tunnels through which we made our start. RH540 Back to France with Colin Morris who is waiting on the platform at Rang-du-Fliers for train 27. The station staff have gone about their business; the broom is unfortunately out of sight but the camera has captured a perfect study of my dear friend Colin. RH 541A The E9 and G266. The groups include left to right, Henri Dutertre, Michel Rock, Raymond Lasquellec, Fernand Chaussoy, the platform inspector, RH and Andre Corbier. RH 541B: A similar but better photograph with George Barlow of the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Rly instead of RH. This is a much more cheerful photograph than 541 and is to be recommended. Raymond had a sister who lived in Dunstable married to a Vauxhall car worker and his hilarious attempts to pronounce Dunstable, St Albans( Sant Olbons) and Whipsnade (Vipsnard) were memorable and ”Doonstarb” was his French nickname for the rest of his railway life. RH 541C: Calais Maritime on the platform after arrival with train 19, engine K65, a temporary replacement from another depot. We have had a wonderful journey, I have done the firing but seemed to be cleaner than the other contestants who are Maurice Vasseur, a well-known character and his long time fireman Louis Sauvage. They were a wonderful pair and Maurice was the only driver I ever met on the SNCF who shared the driving with his fireman. Georges Chatillon is the chef du depot and completes the group. RH 541D: Boulogne Ville – K82 is the regular engine allocated to Henri Dutertre and Rene Gauchet. On the left is Dick Lawrence an old friend who badly needed cheering up and his trip to Paris provided him with many happy memories. Henri stands against the water column and his Eleve Mecanicien, Claude Dantrueil, who was a splendid railwayman and moved once he was a mecru to Vierzon. Before joining the railway he had been a miner at Bethune. RH 541E: Boulogne Ville – another happy group with K22 which was the engine that came to England and was stabled at Carnforth in the ex BR depot. This time we have the incomparable Danny Whelan who worked so happily with me in Liverpool and who missed not a single trick when he was in France. The driver is François Joly and the fireman with whom I rode many times is René Vaillant, both Calais men and highly experienced enginemen. RH 541F and 542: In 1962 I took Len Theobald, the Eastern Region chief locomotive inspector, to France for the second time. He was a great franco-phile. On 546 he is seen with Rene Gauchet and his fireman, Emilon Delattre at Boulogne Tintelleries on train 19. We have just made the sort of stop at the end of the platform that was too perfect to be true. One application of the Westinghouse brake stopped us at exactly the right position and this is what the French mécanicien were trained to do and very rarely slipped up. 547 shows me in the centre of the group rather than Len Theobald. RH 543: Boulogne Ville in diesel days. In the distance is one of the 66000 class of diesel locomotive, not to be compared in performance with the steam locomotives that it replaced. Where Jean Querlin has found a penny farthing is a mystery, but here he is on the platform on a Sunday morning as we wait for train 9 to take us back to Calais. RH 544: On the same day as 548, we are on the platform at Etaples with Frank Mayes, a splendid friend who died far too young and originated from Barnsley. I met him when he came to Stratford as a driver from Kings Cross where he had fired on “Woodcock”, 60029 on the Newcastle jobs. He retired as a locomotive inspector and then became a Provident Mutual salesman and a very good one at that. RH 545: Boulogne Ville, this time with an American engine, a 141 R and a group of Calais characters with Bill Thomas on the left. Louis Lapierre (P’tit Louis), Maurice Vasseur and my dear friend, Edmond Godry, the chef mecanicien at Calais. RH 546: For a change, we were taken (Danny and I) to the site of a V2 base at Wattem, between Calais and St Omer. With us is a group of our old SNCF friends who have all appeared on the footplate in this collection. After the tour of the V2 bunker there was a small ceremony in which I took part. Edmond Godry raised the Tricoleur on the flag pole and I raised the Union Jack and was then asked to say a few words about my French friends and why Danny and I had come to France. RH 547: Diesel days again but the same lovely people. All Calais men but we are at Boulogne. Train 9 has arrived from Paris in charge of Gilbert Sueur (R) and with Edmond Godry and Frank Mayes is Louis Sauvage who returned to his home town of Boulogne after he retired. Before joining the SNCF, he had been in the navy and then a fisherman and then joined the railway at Boulogne before moving to Calais and living in the little gatehouse between the Maritime and Calais Ville where he kept a magnificent cellar. As for Gilbert, he was exactly as he looks, a great character always smiling but took his work very seriously. RH 548: Probably one of my last journeys on the footplate with Calais men and we had 67616, one of the larger engines that worked across to Amiens from Calais where the photo was taken, train 34. With the exception of Claud Bomy, Chef Mecanaicien but an old steam man and the Calais conducteur, the group is virtually the old firm. Henri Dutertre, James and Peter Hardy and Edmond Godry who had just retired in 1979 as Chef de depot, a truly worthy promotion. RH 549:: The effete 66000 class had arrived and we made our journey on the Fleche hauled by 66196 and in double traction with another. One thing you can say in their favour is that the front of these engines provided an excellent gallery for photography. Top row are Edmond Godry, John Shone on his first journey to France( never to be forgotten for he was a great favourite) although he knew little about the railway. Then the splendid and controversial Maurice Saison and Henri. On the ground are Georges Chatillon, Eugene Lavieville now retired and the inevitable Fred White, BR Interpreter. RH 550: This must have been about 1975 as we had a big 72000, a ponderous but powerful machine but not to be compared with a Deltic. RH, then Francoise Godry, Alfred Cordier, Denise Godry and finally dear Edmond himself. RH 551; Boulogne with train 16 when we went through to Etaples on a Sunday morning and then to Jean Querlin for lunch before taking the boat home. Frank Mayes, once of Barnsley, Kings Cross and Stratford and now an Inspector at Liverpool St, Louis Sauvage now living at Boulogne and having put on weight since he finished with steam and the inimitable Gilbert Sueur, very near retirement and once in charge of E41 and then E14, a mecru who like Maurice Vasseur and several others had been chauffeurs for 15 years or so before asking to be trained as mecaniciens. RH 552 Calais with a 72000 and Michel Robillard, very much an ex-steam man, along with Henri now deep in retirement and Douglas Power, then CM&EE of the Western Region who gloried in his weekend with the Calais boys and his visit to the De Fumichon’s at Orleans. RH 553: Another group at the Maritime. The driver is very much one of the new conducteurs who had never been on steam and was from Amiens whereas the rest of the group are once more the old firm, Lucien Fasquelle, who served white wine on his engine before 1000 and red wine afterwards, Edmond Godry, Peter Hardy and Henri, what wonderful men they were and as I write in 2005, they are all alive and in good form despite being Frenchmen and professional hypochondriacs. RH 554: My last journey with Albert Annicote who was being trained by the sinister looking but charming instructor with the dark glasses from Longueau and it was also Bill Thomas’s last visit to France where we spent the night in Paris and next morning with Raymond Garde, by then Assistant Locomotive Supt of the Nord. Raymond was a lovely man and the last time I met him was in Kaisersbourg in Alsace in 1985. Gwenda and I had been to the PO to post him a letter and were walking away when who should come round the corner but Raymond and Madame Garde- incredible. On the photo: Edmond, Fred White, Albert and James Hardy doing his second summer stint as a temporary steward on TSS Invicta for the summer. RH 555: This is also taken at the Maritime and is quite unusual as the entire mob are members of London Midland Sectional Council B for whom I arranged (at the request of Bob Arnott, Chief Operating Manager of the LM) a few days from them on the SNCF and it was an enormous success but landed me in hot water with the Euston HQ diehards not excluding the new GM, D.M. Bowick. This was May 1971 but it was worth it. In the cab is Jim Cox of Preston and Secretary, then Dick Waters of Euston, then Jack Davies of Wolverhampton and finally the Chairman, Alf Milnes in his last year of service and who was ex Gorton and started in 1927 cleaning 5434”The Earl of Kerry”. Because of this we got on very well but in general the SC B on the LM carried on very differently to the SC B of the ER Ernest Porter/Bill Doughty era. They were a great success in France and covered more miles in a week than they had done on BR in a year! RH 556: Here are the same four SC drivers along with an enormous collection of SNCF well wishers on the platform at the Maritime and it was amazing that the fact that they were coming drew so many men so here is Georges Chatillon, Henri, his old fireman Arnaud Flament wearing a BR cap as is Michel Lacroix, then Alf Milnes, behind him is Lucien Ducros, then Pierre Pichel, Jim Cox, Fred White, Lucien Fasquelle, Jack Davies, Paul Bomy, Jean Querlin and Dick Waters. “Steam in the Blood” came out a week later in May 1971 and this increased my unpopularity with the LM management of the day. But that is another story which need not be told here nor anywhere else. RH 556A: And back to steam and March 1960 at La Chapelle depot when Len Theobald and I had come across on the Night Ferry and were about to take the Fleche back to Calais but this engine E23 of Chapelle is ”La Machine de Reserve” in other words the Pilot to replace an engine that would never,never fail! RH 557: The same group with the driver and fireman as well as Len Theobald. RH 558: E23 with M. Vincent, Philippe Leroy and Len Theobald. RH 559: A later occasion in the same place but this time the Machine de Reserve is E47 with Geoffrey Ford (DMPS Norwich), a wonderful cartoonist who died young and still at work. 560– 575 are all footplate scenes and worth looking at. RH 560: March 1960 again, Len Theobald and I travelled back from Paris on Train 19 with the Calais men on E46. It was a wonderful journey and the engine was never worked hard despite a very heavy train. The driver was Henri Odent and the enormous chauffeur, Robert Gourdin, and here he is in far from vigorous action as he flicked the coal here and there in the firebox exactly as required. No effort whatsoever! RH 561: Here is Alfred Regnier of Calais shortly before his retirement in 1961. His engine was E5 which was taken over by Pierre Beghin until the end of steam at Calais. RH 562: Here are another wonderful pair whom we met on our very first journey in 1958 but this is taken in 1961. The chauffeur (left) is Jacques Deseigne, later to be a Communist councillor in Calais, much to everybody’s amusement for I never came across anybody less like a councillor of any persuasion. His driver is Emile Lefebvre, another charming man and a devoted railwayman and they have their machine titulaire E36 on train 19. RH 563 & 564: Jacques Deseigne in action. Like the majority of firemen, they fire from the left despite the driver being on the left himself which suited me because I always fire that way myself. RH 565: This was taken in the summer of 1961. Harry Noden, our carriage and wagon assistant at Liverpool Street had a wagon foreman in Zeebrugge and having crossed from Harwich, we returned to Paris on the engine with Andre Duteil and thence the next day with Henri Dutertre from Amiens. Here they are nearing Calais. RH 566: Another journey, this time on my own with Henri (slightly out of focus) and an eleve mecanicien by the name of Georges Petit, between Amiens and Calais. Henri is wearing his BR cap. RH 567: Yet another photograph of Henri with the reversing gear, brake and speed recorder in view with another eleve mecanicien, Fernand Veron. RH 568: This is E41 and we are on train 82, La Fleche D’Or, and a week after a SNCF strike so that we have on the left Rene Hochart who normally fired for Gilbert Sueur but on this occasion Jean Guelton is driving Gilbert’s engine. Jean was a very large, gentle and placid individual and the myth that the French are all excitable was dispelled by the majority of the Calais drivers and firemen with whom I travelled. The engine is E41 and it needs a good clean up! RH 569: An early journey with Henri and his BR cap but with his new fireman, Arnaud Flament, who was champion billiard player of the SNCF Nord as well as becoming after a couple of years with Henri, a firing instructor, in French “moniteur de chauffe”. Here he is with his bright eyes and his tendency was at times to disagree with Henri. James Colyer-Ferguson, who died in January 2004, took me to France in 1958 and we returned many times. RH570: Here we are on E7 somewhere on the climb to Dannes-Camiers with train 19. We are on Maurice Vasseur’s engine and with him is James Collyer-Ferguson. RH 571: Harry Noden (C and W assistant Liverpool Street) and Arnaud Flament are enjoying themselves on the E9 between Amiens and Calais, Henri Dutertre, the driver out of sight. On the left are (top) the control wheel for the ACFI feedwater heater (a delicate touch is required). Below that is the lubricator for the pump and the handle protruding gives you a visual idea of how fast the pump is working. The wheel below is the control valve for the right-hand live steam injector. RH 572: A cab view taken from the fireman’s side of E46 in 1960 climbing to Caffiers from Marquise-Rixent. Note the semaphore signals in both directions this side of the bridge. RH 573: On E46 again with Len Theobald (chief loco inspector, Liverpool Street) and Henri Odent. His hand is on the reversing screw and at the bottom of the photograph can be seen the clutch that controls whether the screw works the low pressure or high pressure valve gear. The small lower wheel controls the coal watering pipe and attached to the body of the left hand injector and the valve at the top right controls, I think, the amount of steam heating to the train. Download 0.62 Mb. Share with your friends:
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