R h n hardy collection
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RH78 Driver Jas Smith and Fireman George Usher on Eng 202 at Doncaster station waiting for the 1257 Doncaster-Leeds, a heavy London train. The print shows the footplate fittings of a left hand drive K3 fitted with the steam and vacuum combination brake. L-R Vacuum brake ejector and application handle, vertical reversing screw, steam brake valve and application handle, faceplate injector, steam valve shut and water handle fallen open to position it would be when steam is applied, gauge glasses, F class exhaust injector. Centre below feeder and tea bottle, GN/LNER firehole door with fire made up and trap door open where it will remain until Lofthouse is passed to run the fire down for the downhill stretch to Leeds. No more coal added after Lofthouse. Boiler level lowered to allow space to keep the engine quiet downhill. RH 79 K3 231, no longer clean; always a good engine. Garden Sidings 1943. Fireman Eddie Thompson, Driver Threnie Marsden. RH80 Doncaster station 1944. 4481 is now a Copley Hill engine and not a very good machine at the time, probably why it was sent to Leeds but it only stayed a few months. Early 1944. Driver Ernest Brown who distinguished himself on the Pullmans in the ‘50s: then in the second tankie gang(No 3), a delightful man, always the same, happy outlook and at peace with the world. His stoker, RH, was by now a few months past 20 years of age. RH81 Fireman George Usher and Driver Jas Smith Eng 202. Waiting for the 1257 London at Doncaster. RH82 This is Holbeck on a spring evening in 1942 with the 2130 Kings Cross ex Leeds Central and taken while they were loading the mail which had no doubt come down the NE section which used the Low Level. The load from Wakefield will be up to 17 bogies, a fair load for an Atlantic. L-R: Donald Douglas, a boyhood friend having a clandestine footplate trip on a Saturday evening. Bob Foster, driver and Ernest Fearnley, fireman. This is the journey when I was driving from Kirkgate and, instead of stopping exactly by South Elmsall box as directed by the signalman and his red light, I went a yard past so that Ernest had to get down to speak to the signal man. He came back and gave me a bollocking: “Whoa means whoa, Dick, and don’t bloody well forget it in future”. I never have. RH83 Doncaster station behind the North Box waiting for a down London on a Sunday afternoon in 1944. 4481, St Simon, for a short time, a Leeds engine and no loss when she went away. Arthur Webster, in clogs, the younger brother of Wilfred, also a clog man with Driver Ernest Brown, glad to be on a Pacific if only on a Sunday. RH84 Garden Sidings, Doncaster. Thernie Marsden and Eddie Thompson. A well-matched pair. Thernie was a good engineman but his mate did the oiling underneath (NB waistcoat and trousers or rather lack of overalls!). He was also a good companion rather given to romancing and his tales, very seriously propagated, became longer for the telling. He fired for a Driver Mitchell who was frequently incapacitated on a temporary basis whereupon Thernie had to both drive and fire the engine across the West Riding to Leeds. Eddie was also very competent and by no means hampered by his build. RH85 One of the three Copley Hill N5s, 5533, 5535 or 5547. These were good little engines if correctly fired and driven with a sloping fire and thin at the front of a sloping grate. We were Leeds Central-Bradford via Pudsey. Fireman Horace Pound, quiet, serious and always friendly and Passed Fireman Harry Bradshaw, once Bob Foster’s mate and. Once you know him, splendid company. He lived in a back to back house in Wortley and I spent a very enjoyable afternoon with the family in that little house. He was ex-GER Doncaster, redundant when the shed was closed after the Grouping and came to Leeds as a fireman. One’s life is arranged in a mysterious way. Harry was at first reserved and the night I joined Bob Foster on 6100 at Kirkgate, Harry had asked for the night off and his replacement was Stan Hodgson, the extrovert and that night I was invited to ride on 6100 by the fireman! My life could have been very different had Stan not been there to introduce me to the West Riding. RH86 With 3300, class C1, in my early days, summer 1941. Three out of the four cloth caps rather than uniform which is how I was given somebody’s spare! L-R: Driver Alf Cartwright, a dead pan humorist (more of him later); his fireman, Percy Hudson (both near the top of the No2 tankie link); Driver Arthur Scott (Scotty) who finished in Aug 1941, one of the very old school and his fireman, Len Clark, shortly to be passed for driving and younger brother of the fiery Ernest Clarke (“Dick” he said one day “You keep turning up like a ……. bad penny; come on up!”) RH87 The best of the three wonderful Copley Hill Atlantics, 3300, still green in the Garden Sidings, Aug 1941. Percy Hudson and Alf Cartwright and a splendid pair. Alf used to enjoy firing and was only about 54 and was a splendid driver though Percy used to mutter that he spent more time gossiping than oiling the engine. A very droll humorist who usually wore a celluloid collar which was washed each day under the tap as good as new next day. One day in 1943, Alf and I set off for Castleford on 3190, the first N1, with the long tanks, which had been a Leeds for many years. Percy was in the train. We stopped at Holbeck and then at Beeston whereupon the stationmaster appeared and gave me a rollocking for stopping. Alf had misread or not read his staff book and we were Holbeck and fast to Ardsley. I felt quite unable to cope with the stationmaster so Alf shambled across, looked down at the very fierce but very short stationmaster and drawled in his broad accent: “Well, it’s a long time since we saw you, so we thought we would call to see how you were goin’ on and its been right good to see you”. The stationmaster bid us farewell in lurid tones and no doubt reported the incident! (Nothing was ever heard at Copley Hill). Percy was always at Copley Hill, Alf a GC man from Staveley. RH88 The late summer of 1942 not long before Jack Burgon went up to pass for driving early in 1943. A splendid portrait of both men, Jack Burgon, the great enthusiast despite his 23 years firing and Arthur Moss with his arthritis so bad that it was a struggle to get up and down from the cab and yet he did his work without complaint. No doubt, Jack did the oiling and examination for him. Arthur was inclined to be heavy with an engine and did not run downhill very fast but the got on remarkably well. Arthur has a nice pair of clogs. The engine was one of the Doncaster new V2s in the 365 series, built at Darlington in 1942. Why Copley Hill had her on what was normally a K3 turn, I cannot remember. The set on the right is old NER stock, probably a Jull set. Botanic men came into the Garden Sidings about 2030 and stood alongside us. The V2 would work the 2201 ex London back to Leeds. Double summer time. RH89 Alf Cartwright at Bournemouth after the war, given to me by Alf himself. No celluloid collar here and I do think the hat suits him! RH90 Fireman Alf Woollard and Driver Harry White, the “Perfect Driver”. I think Alf was not his regular mate but whom he was with, I cannot recall. He was a quiet man and an excellent fireman but he did not like GC engines, reckoned they burned too much coal, made too much noise and were filthy dirty old “Poggies”. A lot of GN men held to that opinion but both GN and GC men were united on the merits of the GN Atlantic, a real fireman’s engine. Alf left the railway before he went up for driving but something went wrong and I heard he had come back as a freight guard at Wath. Engine 4470, Great Northern summer 1944. RH91 By now Copley Hill had more than one Pacific and here is 2552 Sansovino behind the Doncaster North box waiting for the 2008 London. The hatchet faced fireman, Matt Duck, had left Ernest Hine and was now in the top link, near enough 50 years of age and still firing but not for long for by 1945, thinks had begun to move much more quickly especially after the war in Europe. He was a very good fireman and very strong although Thernie Marsden was a light driver. I remember when 2552 was a Neasden engine when I was about to join the railway. RH92 Grantham on a Saturday PM in Dec 1944. 2554, the first Pacific on which I travelled as a school boy early 1940 on the Manchester Mail from Marylebone. Driver Ted Simpson and Fireman Sam Oldknow of Neasden as far as Aylesbury. I caught the last Met home to Amersham. By now, Percy Hudson is driving and Alf Cartwright’s new mate is Tommy Hopkinson about 1922 seniority. Alf had at least nine years in the top link or Pullman link and drove 990 on the return from Leeds to Kings Cross in l953. 2554 is now an A3 but still has RH drive: see the bridle rod below the middle and rear splashers. RH93 “Tea in the Garden”. Len Richmond and Harry White taking it easy on a summer evening in 1943 in the Garden Sidings before working the Colchester to Leeds. Traditional bottles of cold tea without milk, the most refreshing drink of all. The only time I ever saw Harry in a uniform cap and this looks too big for him. RH94 Leaving Fitzwilliam Halt, Eng 4433, with the 1120 slow from Doncaster to Leeds. Not a good photograph but it shows the faceplate, the cramped little cab, the Spartan fittings and Percy Hudson with Alf Cartwright, “The Old Firm” for they were together in both No2 and No1 links and enjoyed each others company. Alf has the first port of the regulator full open, full head of steam and uphill until the top is turned near Nostell. He is wearing his celebrated celluloid collar, standing as was usual on a GN Atlantic. Gauges L-R: Steam heat, boiler pressure, vacuum showing barely 20” on the train side though the chamber side is standing up to 21”. Above Alf’s hand is the RH injector of the lifting pattern and the injector steam key is immediately above his hand. Vacuum brake ejector and application handle to the right. Small ejector steam valve, “Pepperpot”, set at 21” vacuum, top of brake handle silhouetted in the bottom cab window. A tranquil scene, sorry about the movement. RH 95 Aug 1941 in the Garden Sidings, Doncaster. Engine 203, class K3. Returning the Leeds with the 1737 slow. Fireman Percy Carline: Fireman Jack Burgon and Driver Bob Foster. An old friend of Bob’s, Emily Hepworth, said to Bob “You look as if you are saying ‘Please spare a copper for the aged!’” Bob was not amused. Emily had been Emily Duckmanton of Wakefield GC: her father was John Duckmanton, the senior passenger driver at Wakefield, taking the D9 105 to Cleethorpes daily and her brother finished his career at Kings Cross in the top link retiring when I was Divisional Manager in 1966. Emily was a box girl at Wakefield during the first war and married Charlie Hepworth who was Bob’s fireman at Wakefield. She knew here railways. The son, Ralph, also went on the footplate at Mexborough and became a Locomotive Inspector. RH96 Lausanne in St Francois Square (I think) and tram junction in 1936. My camera was given to me to photograph the scenery but it came back with lake steamers and trams much to my parents amazement! Here is one of the modern and very fast trams built in the 1930s. They worked the hill Ouchy service and used to climb marvellously. The little one on the left is 61, a much more modest affair of a type that groaned instead of singing as did the later trams. RH97 Fireman Ralph Brook with Ernest Brown in Copley Hill Loco early in 1945. The N5 is 5547, one of the three Copley Hill N5s used largely on Castleford and Bradford work often via Pudsey. They were good little engines with only one fault: they would not coast freely. This did not matter when going down the severe banks but when running into a station on the level, steam needed to be kept on later than with, say a C12 which ran very freely indeed. RH98 Driver Johnny Jeffs of Copley Hill with Fireman Tommy Senior in the shunting neck outside Bradford in July 1945, one of the last pictures that I took in the West Riding. RH99 This is a historical photograph. Taken autumn 1942 at Leeds Central. The engine is Earl Beatty, 6164, class B3, Caprotti and run down. It has been to Doncaster and back with the 1257 from Doncaster with 16 cars at Wakefield, Driver Fen Lewis, and done quite well considering its condition. This is the second round: on Saturday, the engine for the 2008 ex Doncaster, a very heavy train, double headed the 1555 ex Leeds slow to Doncaster and the 1555 engine came back with the Colchester as all week. The front engine is the K3 91 with Arthur Moss: this side of the cambox is Alf Cartwright, complete with celluloid collar: sitting are Firemen Jack Burgon and Percy Hudson and our guard, George Wrigglesworth of Leeds. I travelled with them only as far as Holbeck, returning to Leeds on the next train. The Caprotti gear of those days allowed for complete reversal fore and back gear with one turn of the reverser which was a huge wheel with a large number of finely spaced teeth to catch the claw to engage any given and infinitely variable cut off. A notice to this effect was posted in the cab and also a notice insisting on full regulator when it was open in connection with the steam operation of the poppet valves. We started off in full gear and, then quite deliberately, Alf pulled the gear up half a turn, which took it to mid gear so that the beat disappeared. Alf looked round with a wondering expression and a gleam of amusement in his eyes. He was a glorious deadpan and very dry humorist. Of course, he then put the gear where it should be with two engines and six coaches with the regulator wide open! RH100-188 Sheffield GC – Doncaster Carr – Doncaster Plant – Mexboro’ – Doncaster Digs/Landlady – Edward Thompson’s Family RH 100 March 1945 in the “Lanky Loco” on the up side at York station. Driver Joe Oglesby of Darnall was a lovely man and the sort of mate that firemen dreamed of and so did I. We became very great friends and I fired for him to Manchester, Leicester, York Cleethorpes and once to Liverpool. We had worked the 1520 SO Sheffield-York via Rotherham (GC) Mexboro’, Doncaster and Selby. Joe always had a surprise up his sleeve. I fired for him on this journey with his mate, Cyril Golding in the train. We stopped at Selby after a real dash across the flat from Doncaster. Joe said “What have you got in there?” (meaning the firebox). “Enough for York when it is levelled with the poker”. “Right, take her to Challoners Whin”, and over the other side I went for the final stretch to the outskirts of York. Our engine is 4452, a Sheffield Atlantic, the first piston valve superheated C1 built at Doncaster in 1910. RH101 Jan 1944, the Doncaster Carr Loco Breakdown Crane after a rerailing job. Our excellent crane is a 45 ton Cowans Sheldon and I was the apprentice along with Pete Wright attached to the gang for experience. We have the full gang on this occasion as follows: Ernie Newby, crane driver on the crane; (L-R) Herbert Ealham, Syd Grindell, Walt Green (Fitter), Fred Hague (guard), Bernard Ogden, Mr Charlie Walker (Mechanical Foreman) who had been a chargehand fitter at Mexboro’ before promotion to Doncaster; (Sitting L-R) Pete Wright, Stan Harrison, Ted Booth and Jim Ashton. The gang was made up of Fitters Mates, highly experienced breakdown men who know the job inside out and with a splendid foreman. I was more or less their mascot and had a grand time. The camaraderie of a good gang was something remarkable. RH102 July 1944. The drop pit was manned over 24 hours and here are two of the fitters in charge at the change over of shift at 1400 down the back end of the Running Shed on a V2 3668 fairly new. L-R: Bernard Rushforth, Jimmy (a 15 year old apprentice) and Walt Green, later to become Mechanical Foreman and who used to relieve the Chargehand Fitters. Very long headed men, both of them and very friendly disposed to me. On arrival at the Carr, I was put on the drop pit for a month so worked with all three fitters. RH103 The Big End Gang at the Carr Loco against a dismantled “A” engine, class J6 of which we had quite a few at Doncaster. The two fitters worked days and afternoons on big and small end routine maintenance and repairs but as both mates were members of the breakdown gang the fitters would be given a spare man or another mate on overtime to finish whatever job he had. L-R: Syd Grindell, Fred Stace (Fitter), Bill Ward (Fitter) and Ernie Newby. Like most of the fitters at the Carr Loco, Fred and Bill had served their time there or at Mexboro. RH104 April 1944 at Hickleton Main colliery where we had been rerailing wagons and an engine. A misty morning after thickish fog. After the job had been done, the gang would pose for photographs: Syd Grindell of the squeaky voice an ex-miner Bernard Ogden, another ex-miner and one of the best unless put out and “Gentleman Jack” Jupp, a laid back but able fitter. RH105 Feb 1945. The small boy in the centre had just returned from America where his parents had sent him, along with his younger sister, during the war. He had a perfect railway weekend with me and he is the brother of Basil de Iongh of the RAF but one time Doncaster apprentice. Peter had been with me in the West Riding the previous day on the engines and I had had to carry him home exhausted off the Mail at 2300 the previous night. Here he is at the back of the Carr Loco with Driver Harry Frith who had just come off the main line through ill health and drove the fitting shop and back end pilot, a J52 which had seen better days. His fireman is a young hand who will now be retired if he stayed with the railway. Harry was a Doncaster GE man of whom there were several at Doncaster and the West Riding. Peter is wearing my uniform cap and looks the part. RH106 Some of the names have gone but Arthur Briars (Fitter) is third from the right and extreme right is Fred Stace big and small end fitter. RH107 Nov 1943. The north end pilot at Doncaster Station, always an Atlantic facing north and the crews are changing over. The No2 link at the Carr was largely C1 work to Leeds, York, hull, Lincoln, Sheffield, Grantham as well as Kings Cross with a big engine. L-R: Driver Bill Addy, Fireman ..?.., Fireman Len Sierson and Driver George Higgs, all of them top class men of whom I knew George Higgs extremely well, calm and resourceful and a pipe smoker. RH108 Fireman Charlie Sharpe later to become a driver and whom I saw when I was Divisional Manager at Kings Cross in 1966. He was firing to John George Wright in the Top Link and is on the South End pilot at Doncaster station in May 1945. 4472 was then a low pressure A1 with RH drive stationed at Doncaster where the passenger engines were given a wipe over from time to time. Charlie’s father was in the top link but at most sheds, father and son were never booked together. RH109 Carr Loco Doncaster and a Sheffield Atlantic 4420 which must have failed at the station and come down to the Carr for repairs. As an apprentice one had little knowledge as to why “foreigners” out of steam had arrived for repairs. However, she is the background for a lunchtime photo in )ct 1944 a few days before I was 21 and on my way to the Drawing Office where I was employed as a very ordinary draughtsman. This could possibly be considered as a rogues gallery as it contains some very likeable rascals including the Carr Loco Bookie, the Carr Loco Crown and Anchor Croupier and his assistant and watchman. L-R: Bernard Ogden, Harry Smith, Harry Timlin, Frank Horne, ..?..on gangway, Fred Tate, George Helliwell (on gangway), George Booth, Tommy Nothand, Harry Higgins. RH110 John George Wright now in the Top Link and on the South End pilot with 2547 “Doncaster”, one of our A1 Pacifics. None of the A3s were shedded at Doncaster at that time (July 1945) until they started to come back with 220psi boilers from the Plant. His fireman is Cliff Wood but promotion for the 1919-20 men had at last picked up and Cliff did not have to wait long to be passed for driving after some 25 years service. RH111 The Garratt 2395 came to Doncaster for overhaul in Feb 1945. The photo was taken either at the Carr Loco or the Crimpsall on a Sunday AM in Feb 1945 with Peter De Iongh up. Peter did not come to the railway despite his interest but, after a very successful career as a schoolmaster, he retired as Headmaster of Lathallan School, north of Montrose where his handyman/gardener had been a Corkerhill (Glasgow) fireman! RH112 A J52, 4250, on the downside carriage pilot at Doncaster station in the Western bay platform in 1945. (L) Driver Abe Lawrence always on the late turn and used to view my activities with the Leeds men with a jaundiced eye until we got to know each other and he was kindness itself. Shunting was carried out carefully, no histrionics and without hurry but always to time. Normally, the fireman (a young hand) was never allowed to drive but today he has Charlie Carter, a Passed Fireman so Abe spent the day on the other side, a pleasant change. The old J52s were everywhere on the GN from London to Doncaster: not many in the West Riding where the pilot and freight work was carried out by the “Tango tanks”, class J50. RH113 Sunday morning in Feb 1945 and Peter de Iongh having the weekend of his young life. Here he is getting progressively more dirty with the Crane Driver of the Carr Loco 45 ton Cowans Sheldon crane: not many boys have sat up in that privileged position. RH114 A V2 as background at the Carr Loco, summer 1944. Fitters Bill Noble and George Hattersley, and Ernie Birkhill and ..?.., their mates. Both George and Bill Noble had come from outside industry during the was but had become very useful fitters on running repairs, no easy task when the clock is always the enemy unlike the Plant Works where the enemy was always production. RH115 Tommy Laister was a GC man from Mexborough, his mate being Arthur Davis, a very competent Fitters Mate as he needed to be as Tommy was an outstanding Running Shed Fitter who knew what to do, how to do it in the minimum time, how to save delays, how to coax drivers off the shed with rough old engines they did not want to take. He practised all the arts of skill and expediency and it was at the Carr Loco and when I was with Tommy Laister that I realised for the first time but by no means the last, that as craftsmen and railwaymen the best of the Running Shed artisans, be they fitters of boilermakers, were in a class of their own. RH116 A Doncaster C1 which started life as 1421, a 4 cylinder compound built in 1907 but converted to a piston valve two cylinder superheated Atlantic in 1920. As a compound her fireman for some time was George Wilson in the top link along with his brother Fred in my time at Doncaster. We are at Botanic Gardens on a Sunday afternoon with Fireman Arthur Gell and the fiery Harry Moyer who had a brother at Grimsby, a GC man and some years older than Harry who was in the Atlantic link. Harry got on well with Arthur who was in a lower link and who had changed over with Harry’s regular mate with whom he did not get on too well for Harry was not by any means sunshine and light with his regular mates if they did not measure up. He was a very good engineman and a perfectionist and nothing wrong with that. RH117 The Doncaster breakdown gang pauses for a few minutes after a job and before the jib is lowered on to its truck. Smokers to a man, and so we all were when it was difficult to get a decent smoke. If one got Woodbines, one was in clover, never mind Capstans Full Strength, my favourite weed until I started on Nut Brown and Nosegay at Stratford and years later on Gauloises. L-R: Herbert Ealham, Ted Booth, Bernard Ogden and Syd Grindell. All four good friends to me, three of whom had been underground down the pit but Herbert, reticent about his past, was a cultured man who was quite content to live his life as a fitter’s mate and live in Chilvers St Doncaster. We met again many years later about 1979 to our mutual happiness. Download 0.62 Mb. Share with your friends:
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