Interview about railways, railway communities and changes on the railways in past and future.
Dennis Lovett describes his first job and subsequent career at Euston Travel Centre, covering a wide range of administrative aspects of the railways. Working in the corporate affairs department, he was usually involved in promoting the railways politically and to the media. In particular he recalls his role in testing new Virgin trains. When he joined the railways, in his opinion: ‘they had just suffered a lot of closures … they were still reeling from that’; but when he returned in 1979 he found that they had started to invest. He discusses the major changes in Bletchley to the town and the station during his lifetime, such as the closure of the line to Oxford and Cambridge and speculates on what his ancestors would think of today’s railways, and of modern Bletchley. He discusses the importance of railway communities throughout the country in the 1950s and 1960s. He notes there was a massive learning curve for staff from steam to diesel, and comments on the changes in working practices and operating methods between then and now. He also talks of the use of the railways during the war and the important roles staff played. Finally he comments: ‘The railways continue to move vast amounts of people and a lot of freight because we are now a mobile nation.’
Creator
Lovett, Dennis
Reference number
WLM/042/001
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