Geoff Body - False Starts, Near Misses and Dangerous Goods: Railwaymen’s Stories about the Challenges of Running a Railway

Arriva Train Wales unit 150230 runs into Platform 7 at Cardiff Central with a Valleys service heading for Barry Island.

Cover illustration: A scene of locomotive neglect typical of many places with the coming of the end of steam.

First published in 2017

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2017

All rights reserved

Geoff and Ian Body, 2017

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EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 8189 7

Original typesetting by The History Press

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Transport is a highly complex business, nowhere more so than in its railway arm. Paradoxically, it is an industry that seeks constantly and earnestly to be routine and orderly but stands no chance of total and consistent achievement of that objective. There is no certainty in the day-to-day operation and the plan, however carefully organised, is always liable to interruption: an unexpected influx of passengers, mechanical breakdown, the vagaries of weather, the acts of trespassers and vandals the possibilities are endless.

A great dividend from this uncertainty is that railwaymen are permanently schooled and ready to deal with the unexpected and challenging. Indeed, they have been doing so since the birth of the railway. It follows that significant incidents in a railwaymans career tend to be etched deeply in his memory and the aim of False Starts, Near Misses and Dangerous Goods has been to unearth a range of these recollections and put them together in a readable and entertaining form that also reveals something of the complexities of the railway business and how the industry is organised to manage them.

The writers between them have a good few, strong memories of their own, but this book could not have been prepared without the huge input from its contributors. Most of them are names that have appeared in the acknowledgements in previous books, and to everyone mentioned in the heading for each entry we are extremely grateful. To single out anyone would be an invidious task but, once again, Bryan Stone has done us proud from his photographic library, recalling in his present home in Switzerland the years when his wisdom resulted in a record of the detail of railway working that others had overlooked. New contributor David Barraclough has poured out a wealth of material from his time at Boston, Wath and Glasgow, and this book would not have happened without the efforts of long-term colleague and good friend Bill Parker. For inspiring contributions, his ideas, checking and much other help, thank you Bill.

As so often before, Amy Rigg and the editorial staff at The History Press have combined efficiency with unending helpfulness. Our thanks to them and the promotion, sales and other folk at The History Press.

Except where otherwise credited, the illustrations used in the book are all from the authors collections.

The departure board at Basingstoke gives echoes of the past: Burford, Itchen Abbas, Torrington, Bideford, Lynton stations long gone.