I left the Motive Power and worked in a factory for 6 months before returning to work on the Railway in the S&T Department. I don’t wish to bore you with my 6 months in the factory but there was incident I would like to tell you about. My job involved operating a guillotine machine, which basically is used to cut sheets of fibre into exact lengths. Adjustments were made for different jobs and they needed to be very precise, but we were put under pressure from a bonus scheme that was in force. A school mate of mine was also a guillotine operator and had worked at the factory since leaving school. A new guillotine machine had been installed which he moved onto leaving the old machine vacant, which is where I came onto the scene. My machine was very old. It was electric but its gears operating the machine were turned by a huge wheel that could be used to manually operate it. A red and green button turned the machine on and off. A wooden foot pedal when pressed brought the guillotine blade down.
There was one problem that you needed to be aware of. If you depressed the treadle the machine remembered this and therefore when you switched the power on the guillotine blade would come down. When my school mate worked the old machine (before I arrived of course) he was setting up the guillotine for a very infinite cut and was having problems positioning the fibre sheet. One hand was well into the machine and he used the other hand to press the green button to start the machine. The treadle had been pushed though and immediately the guillotine blade came down. One of his fingers was cut cleanly off and ended up in the collecting basket at the rear of the machine. My mate was a tough lad thank goodness. He was a prolific boxer. Anyway he went to the back of the machine and picked up his finger. He then went to his Foreman. With his four fingered hand held out, blood shooting out, and the severed finger held in the upturned palm of his other hand he said, “Look what I’ve done”.
The Foreman fainted and ended up on the floor.
Anyway back to the Railway. S&T (Signalling and Telecommunications). I think my post was actually a labourer, before they commenced with the term “Railman”. Signalling or Telecommunications? It was their decision.
Signalling it was and I was posted into the Mechanical Signalling gang. Going up the ladder from me at the bottom there was the Striker, Blacksmith, Mechanical Fitter and Ganger.
Our mess facilities were in an old wagon van, in fact there were 2 wagon vans, 1 for the mechanical gang and the other for the telecoms gang, parked up to the buffer stops adjacent to the Telecomm Exchange. The Telecomm exchange was full of GPO style relays + a Switchboard. Internal railway telephones worked automatically but switchboard operators received incoming GPO calls and switched them through to their desired location. Climbing the steps into our van we entered the store room filled with tools, a work bench and boxes full of nuts, bolts, washers, pins, springs, etc. Moving into the wagon we accessed the messing facilities consisting of a coal burning stove a long table and benches down each side covered with cushions very similar if not identical to those found in passenger train carriages.
07.15 in the morning the first job was to sign the register left open on the table. Second job- light the fire and then put the kettle on.
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