Interview about working as an engine driver, based for some years in Bletchley.
David Hillier describes a typical day’s work as a driver based in Bletchley and comments on the changes whenthe branch lines closed. The work was shift-based, times were variable, and the driver usually worked on his own, except for freight or parcel trains. He comments: ‘I would say I thoroughly enjoyed my career on the railway bar the last couple of years. Privatisation killed it for me…’ He was a member of ASLEF and on balance considers they did a good job on aspects of safety and conditions of service. ‘I would not like to have worked on the railway without the Union behind me’. He comments on changing pay rates over time. Establishing close friendships at work was difficult because of shifts; it could be difficult for families too. But he regularly visited the Railway Club and mentions performers there such as Lonnie Donegan and the Barron Knights. He then describes various railway incidents in the Bletchley area, including derailments, and appalling weather conditions. Finally he talks of the reluctance of some of the original Bletchley staff to talk to the younger ‘foreign’ drivers who moved to Bletchley in the early 1960s. He recalls the use of the terms for Bletchley railway men: Bletchley Wills and Bletchley Won’ts. He still uses the statement: ‘It’s a bit black over Will’s mother’s’ to mean ‘it’s cloudy over Bletchley’, but does not know its origin.
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