North West Railtrack Office Day-Trip Monday 31/05/99
I was working in Rail House, Crewe, planning all the Charter services for Res/EWS when the idea of a central office was proposed. The final choice of Doncaster pleasing no-one in the offices at Crewe or Nottingham (most of us had already relocated once already when our offices moved away form London!). I had just finished training all the staff in the Charter trains section & we were finally fully staffed - however within weeks of the announcement of "everyone should move to Doncaster" most of our staff decided to go back to previous posts in the West Midlands or North West, even if they were lower graded. A huge number of the experienced staff also didn't see Doncaster as a viable option.
It became clear over 2 or 3 "brain-storming to set up the new office" meetings, held in a local hostelry with free Beer all evening as the enticement to attend, that the Canadian couple in charge of setting up the office were NOT going to take notice of anything we told them to do... it was going to be chaos.
With this in mind my mate Gibbo set up a meeting with the boss of the North West Railtrack train planning office, in the Red Cow pub not 20 seconds from my front door in Nantwich (the promised land).
After a couple of beers I had been given a job as an STP Freight timing clerk (after all I was a Permanent Timetable MS1 for EWS at the time, I never took up this post as I was tasked with sorting out the Charter section first).
On handing in my notice with EWS my boss, who had been towing the line "all move to Doncaster" announced to the assembled office "I think Poodle's done the right thing!"
That just left an informal interview in Manchester (the building was next to Piccadilly station) with my direct line manager, Pete - not happy to have a Southerner he didn't know thrust upon him, to make matters worse it became clear my railway geography was much better than his (I had been timing & planning charters nationwide for a few years) also I was a die-hard Crompton Basher & he was a Fifty Basher!
"There's no cranking in the office" he said. So on just my second day a cry of "there's a Grid on the Brighton!" went up and at least 10 people were gathered around a TOPS terminal to see the Gen. No Cranking my foot.
Andy Princep, the Boss of the STP freight timing section, was a Top Man, one of those quiet unsung types who had a wealth of knowledge on how the railway really works. I picked up my new role easily, I could hardly fail to do so with Andy to learn from.
A couple of months into the role Pete came out of his office "Do you know Howard Jolley?" I don't think so, sorry. "He's a TOPS clerk at Warrington, he doesn't want to go to Doncaster - he's got a brother who's a driver at Chester?" "Oh, do you mean Howie? (of course I only knew his Bashing nickname) then Yes, I have travelled and drank with him in Greece & after Wrenbury beer festival last year he stayed at my house in Nantwich - he's a Top Man!"
So we became the 2 man STP freight timing section "drinking team": most of the office went out after work every Friday around Manchester and were decent drinkers. I was partial to a few pints any day of the week & it transpired that Howie is a Beer Monster!
We decided a Bank Holiday day out, wives & other halves included, would be a sociable outing.
The Honourable Howie lead planner for this. On the outing were Myself (a Crompton Basher) & Frances (my girlfriend), Howie (a 31 Basher), Spud (a notable Scratch merchant) & his Mrs, Mark Charnley (better known as Chimp, a 40 Basher) & his wife. We were accompanied by Betty (he didn't work in the office but was Staff & would have got upset if not invited!) as I drank with him most evenings in the Albion, Crewe.
We were all meeting on the 0807 Birmingham New Street - Holyhead at either Crewe or Chester, the first surprise of the day was when 37377 rolled in vice the booked ETH Tractor!
A surprise enjoyed by most, it wasn't a great period for NB workings around that time so a welcome start to the day. We had all put our class preferences aside for the trip!
37377 Crewe - Bangor 0807 Birmingham NS - Holyhead 80m 71ch
Mini-bus Bangor - Caernarfon
Our first bit of culture, a trip on the Welsh Highland railway from Caernarfon. It was still early days for the preserved narrow gauge line - it was only open as far as Dinas. The draw, however, were the huge Garrett locos used on the line.
NG143 Caernarfon - Dinas 1130 Caernarfon - Dinas
NG143 Dinas - Caernarfon 1200 Dinas - Caernarfon
A good experience, however I believe we all felt it was a bit chingy for such a short journey - but not a problem as the money would go towards their bid to extend the line.
No beer in Caernarfon the upcoming long journey in a Bread Van (mini-bus to most people) meaning you didn't want to suddenly need the Loo!
Bread Van Caernarfon - Porthmadog
The beauty of Howie's planning was that we would, after a couple of pints in Porthmadog, make the steam shuttle to Tan-y-Blwch which ran in front of our main train to Blaenau Ffestiniog, thus getting 2 steamers in the book on the same one-way ticket.
(As the Ffestiniog use names for their locos as opposed to numbers I have shown their locos in Italics for clarity)
Well Prince, the lines oldest kettle, was declared a failure! All the fossils you see in my photo bailed out when they saw the rescue loco was a Dirty Diesel! My Lords!
The rescue loco being the celebrity Vale of Ffestiniog I can never remember if it's supposed to be an imitation 58 or 59? Either way getting a diesel for haulage was a great bonus for us all (I'm sure all our partners were gen'd up enough to know it was Hell, after all they did live with us!)
Vale of Ffestiniog (failed kettle Prince DIT) Porthmadog - Boston Lodge 1425 Porthmadog - Tan-y-Blwch 1m 05ch
Even better, and somewhat unbelievably, when we got to the ground-frame at Boston Lodge depot the diesel dragged Prince off to shed and ANOTHER little diesel appeared to take the train forward. Double result!
Castell Cricieth Boston Lodge - Minfford 1425 Porthmadog - Tan-y-Blwch 00m 78ch
A day of culture involving steam locos turned into a mini-diesel scratch-fest! Unbelievable, it's the sort of thing you hear of happening to other people. As far as I am aware the diesels on the line didn't have any booked turns so a right result. Into the buffet car on the following service train to celebrate.
Iarll Meirionydd Minfford - Blaenau Ffestiniog 1505 Porthmadog - Blaenau Ffestiniog 12m 45ch
Well that was a hellfire visit to the Ffestiniog railway, lots of steam thrash on the main train & lots of small diesel fun after the shuttle loco had failed. The normal's don't like being bowled by a diesel on a steam railway - not to mention the Steam Veg!
As the next train should at least have a toilet it was pub time here in Blaenau, well some of our party went to the Slate museum, but I think we'd done enough culture for one day!
101 677 Blaeanau Ffestiniog - Llandudno Jn 1727 B.Ffestiniog - Llandudno 24m 28ch
The scenic run up to Ludo on the Real Unit was as ever a delight. As it was a Bank Holiday and we were in North Wales to boot it wasn't very warm by this time, some train heat would be appreciated on our homeward journey. It was not to be as 37377 decided we needed more mileage off it!
37377 Llandudno Jn - Crewe 1830 Bangor - Crewe 65m 55ch
A cracking day out, Me, Betty & Frances headed for the Albion for more pleasant banter with the Landlord, Big Al. A rude landlord if ever there was one!
Cheers Poodle.
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