Interview about the work of railway track-laying gangs.
William Boyes talks of the details of working on the tracks: clearing and cleaning, weeding, and the heavy labour of replacing rails by hand using a ‘skid’ and wagon. He worked on various sections of the Bletchley to Bedford line from 1957 onwards; usually in the daytime except for occasional weekend working when longer lengths of track were replaced, or extra work when there was a major crash. He notes that they had little protective clothing until more recent times and compares working conditions then and now. He remembers ‘my two little cabins at Woburn Sands… they haven’t knocked them down’. Recalling some of the characters on his gang, he remembers good times; picking up pheasants killed on the line, going rabbiting: ‘We worked hard but we played, too’. He compares workloads in his time with those required today.
Creator
Boyes, William
Contributor
Whitmore, Tracy
Reference number
WLM/016/001
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