Starting to work on Shelton Bar happened very suddenly, I was working
on George Jones pottery in South Wolfe St, and in Feb 1940 my girl who I
would eventually marry, had been to Jones's dinner and dance at the Kings
Hall in Stoke, when it was finished we were surprised to find that there had
been a heavy snowfall, there were no taxis or buses at that time of the
morning (2am), so it had to be walking. Irene, for that was my girl's name,
was only wearing light shoes so I decided to carry her on my back, it was an
uphill walk for about a mile, when we almost to where she lived at Howards
place I was exhausted and I had to ask her to do the other bit herself and I
felt bad about it. So I trudged back home and there was my dad who had come
off the afternoon shift at 10pm, and he had waited for me, it was now nearly
3am. So I had got the job and was to start that same night at 10pm,so it was
quite hectic that Saturday.
That night I went to work at Shelton
Bar for the first time, there was the war time blackout in force, and the
snow from the previous night had frozen hard and was crunchy and difficult
to walk on. The smoke from the works was swirling round eerily and there was
no one about, if this sounds as if it's going to be a ghost story it
is not it's just how I felt at that time.
Eventually
I did meet another lad who was a little older than I who happened to work in
the shed also. His name was Colin Dunne and was a nephew of the boss over
the fitting and boiler shops as well as the sheds. Colin was a nice lad and
very helpful and at the time was the senior which meant that he would have
been the next to go out as a fireman but instead he decided to join the
Royal Navy, I believe that he died in action.
The most senior lad in the shed
always had the job of bar lad. His job was to clear the grate area of
all the engines in shed and replace warped and burnt bars and put a covering
of coal over them ready for lighting this was a hot and sweaty job because
more often than not there would still be some pressure of steam in the
boiler as well as bits of fire in the corners, it was a tight squeeze to get
into the firebox. The same work had to be done from the pit under the
firebox on the small four wheeled loco's and was a dirtier job, (itchy
cinders down your back!), The firebars usually got burnt because the fireman
had let a hole appear in the fire which with the action of the blast pipe it
causes the hole to flare like a blacksmiths forge, the cause of warping was
more likely to be the fault of the fireman allowing the ashes to build up in
the ash pan until they touch the bars. Hope I don't get drawn over the coals
for this!!!
There would be eight locos in in
at night and there were six cleaners two lads would clean two engines mainly
one on each side the wheels and outside motion with paraffin and cotton
waste then the upper structure, tank cab smoke box etc with colza oil which
is slightly oily. I have only recently discovered that colza comes from
rape seed that yellow plant that a lot of fields are covered with in the
spring.
Janus which was
built by the Yorkshire Engine Co
Photo: 1987
When the aforesaid was finished it was time for all hands to take long
handled shovels and carry them full of red hot coals to the engines which
were due out at six a.m., this was placed on top of the coal already in the
firebox, we then were able to go into the cabin as we called the
little brick built place, for our suppers, this would be about two am. We
had about an hour break to allow the fires to take hold and also to allow the
smoke to disperse.
After our meal which was invariably Spam
or
cheese sandwiches we would play brag the card game of bluff for a
halfpenny a time we had some good wins but as with all gambling it always
gets lost again. Back at work we now went into the pit to clean the inside
motion and inner frame it was better to do this last as we were out of the
smoke, the bar lad in the mean time filled the sand boxes with dry sand and straightened
the bars having got them red hot in the sand kiln.
At six a.m., any lad (myself as well) who felt like it could hang about in the
hope that somewhere in the loco department someone hadn't turned up for work, if
that happened they would take the eldest in seniority as a fireman he would
get double pay for this extra shift as well as his pay for the shed work,
and would gain some experience for firing as well (I have not said that a
fireman was also an under shunter).
We
worked on a system whereby we did seven and then had a day off this meant
that we had a different day off each week and every seventh week we had a
nice long week-end from Friday six a.m. till Monday eight a.m., then we did
one week on days.
When the air-raids were on after Sept 1940 and in 1941 we had many warnings
almost every night at one time and we spent many long nights in the shelters
playing brag as usual, but after a while it was realised that a lot of time was being lost for nothing as only
a few stray
bombs were dropped in the Potteries area, one was on the rolling mills with
very little damage and one night a few incendiaries came down on Etruria gas works but there was no gas in tanks or so they said
at the time. So we now worked as usual unless a red alert was sounded.
At the end of 1941 it was my turn to go outside to do the fire mans
job. I worked fitting in where needed, this meant that I worked all over
place on every engine, I worked with my father quite a lot and used to take
the slag ladles from the blast furnaces up the tip some times when he was
having his meal for the furnaces are one thing that does not stop for tea!
I enjoyed working on Progress most because it was more of a
fireman's job having to concentrate on the performance of the engine whereas
on the other loco's helping the shunter was part of the job, as well such as
changing the points etc.
Progress
Photo: A. W. Croughton
Progress's
job was to take about a dozen empty ten ton capacity wagons up to the deep
pit at Hanley and bringing and bring the same amount back loaded four times
per shift so it did something like 16 miles in that time there were two
shunters on this run because as well as riding with leading wagon as we went
up wagons first, on the way down they had to put the brakes down on the
wagons otherwise Progress couldn't have held them, she as all the other
steam loco's only had steam brakes, which were used with an on and off
motion or else they would lose their grip on the rail; sand would be
used then. This sort of thing happened to me once when I was on Hawarden,
the loco, which is now at Foxfield Railway Society.
Hawarden
Photo: A. C. Baker
I was on my own at night
coming off the slag tip after having tipped a large ladle of molten slag and
the shunter left me so as to hold the safety points on the lower incline the
rail was greasy as it was a murky night and Hawarden started to get out of
control I had difficulty in slowing her down by using sand and putting her
in reverse and opening the regulator, but all my efforts failed to
stop her from hitting the stop block at the bottom of the line a
pretty hefty clout. Talk about the runaway train! .... anyway there was no
harm done and no one ever knew about it because I told no one it was
frightening though I would be about 25 at that time.
All the crews in the loco
dept, were a happy band of and I was happy too, but time goes on
and so did I and I left in early 1947.
While all
the aforesaid was going on I was courting my dear late wife. We had a tandem
bike for quite along time and we had some great days out with it, and
week-ends and even a weeks tour once. We loved North Wales and the
Derbyshire the best, that and all the other quiet pleasures of that age and
we couldn't have asked for more.
To you who have had the
patience to read my own personal memories I Jim Bridden thank you.
