Socialising after a day of volunteering

I used to watch an old Channel 4 documentary called.. "The emotive locomotive" quite a lot.

I think it was filmed around 1989 on various steam railways.

one part caught my attention and I always thought if I were to become a volunteer I wouldnt mind a bit of that..

it was a lady fireman at the Worth valley railway who's husband was also a driver.

she was being interviewed and talking about the social side of volunteering, after a day of working on the engines they would go to a pub, in her words get absolutley rat arsed, then back to the mess room, have a few bottles of wine, dance on the tables, and be up for 6 oclock in the morning firing the engines up


what Id like to hear is your similar stories, are there good pubs and stay behinds for you at your railway, parties in mess rooms etc, or even the opposite, is everyone tucked up early?

do you like a good few pints after track laying, firing, driving etc. what are the characters like etc etc.

cheers

Mike

 

All depends what the following day holds. If back doing railway work its a pint and then to bed. No achohol in the system is allowed when signing on duty and whilst on duty....

 

sounds like the good old days, ,going down the pub ,having a meal we never used to get rat- arsed , well not that often and if we did we were not on duty the following day but we did used to take over our local it was a good way to round off the day after a hard days graft on the footplate or in the shed it was always a fun evening plus it was better than having to cook after a totally knackering day

 

Important to note that footplate staff often don't realise how much sweat is lost whilst working - and how much salt is replaced by a couple of pints. Once told by a Camden driver that when he worked a Perth service from Carlisle throughout to Euston the crew would leave the loco to a disposal crew and pop into the nearest bar. The first couple of pints wrren't even tasted as they went down but it did replace the sweated salts very quickly.

 

yeah

a guy who I grew up with who we just sadly lost a year ago (83) was an ex Liverpool Bank hall and Edge hill driver, started in 1941 as a cleaner, stories he told me about drinking where outstanding.

such as secret knocks on pub doors in places like Windermere where the landlady would open the door for railwaymen, days when the pubs where shut in the afternoon and theyd have a few pints.

he told me about the pubs they had to sneak too in London far away enough from Euston

this was all mainly in the steam era.

but regards preservation, just interested to know if parties are held, or anything like that, like on a sunday when the works finished

but dont want to get anyone into trouble

Mike

 

I believe that the lady's comments caused quite an embarrassment, at the time!

Things have certainly changed over the years. In my much younger days, the Talyllyn volunteers would occasionally organise an anonymous coach trip to the Festiniog for their evening train with the intention of drinking the buffet car dry. The FR guys would usuually get to know and lay on extra stock of beer. In the days after the introduction of the breathalyser, it was not unknown for trains to be run to the pub at the other end of the line. You could have a good few pints and no worries about being breathalysed on the way back! If you had a hangover the next day, people were generally more amused than concerned. Such goings-on were quite common in the 60's & 70's on those railways that were operating. Nowadays, it's generally a leisurely pint and an early night if on duty the next day. Heritage Railways are governed by the same legal requirements as the big railway, both in terms of alcohol levels and hours of rest. And that's not just for footplate crew.

 

The difference in the old days was that men who thought they could take their drink became drunk by mistake. Now people set out to get smashed senseless as quick as possible.

 

I spoke to a couple of old BR crew and they were pretty clear that a fair amount of drinking went on in BR days - which I'd characterise as "steady state" rather than "get smashed". Basically, in downtimes on duties, a trip to a pub for a pint or two was not uncommon; over an 8 hour shift, you might end up drinking 6 or 8 pints, if their stories were to be believed.

Interestingly, though, they reckoned it all stopped pretty quick when the diesels came in. One of the explanations (and remember, this is an old steam romantic talking) was that driving diesels was too boring - nothing much to do except press go and watch the signals. So if you'd had a few pints, it was too easy to fall asleep with possibly disastrous, or at least disciplinary, consequences. Whereas you could never fall asleep on a steam footplate. So when the diesels came in, everybody either stopped drinking (if they could) or, if they were too reliant on drink, either gave up the job or else were slung out on disciplinary grounds.

Interesting at least anecdotal corroboration of that view was the Eltham rail crash in 1972, which was attributed to the crew being drunk - this would have been at a time when the drinking culture was still recent and presumably still accepted by at least some railwaymen. The driver concerned was reckoned to be able to "carry his beer", so his drinking on the day in question clearly wasn't an unknown occurrence.

There's probably an interesting PhD thesis on attitudes to drink on the footplate! It's notable that the temperance movement was very strong on the Edwardian era railways, presumably because management recognised that there was a problem to be vigourously tackled.

Tom

 

The ban on drinking alcohol or being on duty whilst under the infuence was brought in about 1992. Following the publicity which followed what was said in the programme "Emotive Locomotive" the socialising after a days duty on Heritage Railways was not publicised or talked about in case it causes embarrassement to the railways concerned. I understand that the lady talking in that programme was subsequently dismissed for the remarks she said.

 

I knew said lady, and her husband at that time is a very good friend of mine to this day. Tread carefully.

 

Hi guys

socialising doesnt necessarily mean drinking or getting smashed.

I think what I was wondering, was does your railway have a get together on the evenings after working?
even if its a quick hour in a mess room with cups of tea and some sandwiches, have a talk with freinds whove been doing different jobs.
could be mess room, pub on site or in the local pubs or the other extreme, parties, either friday, saturday night.

or is it more a case of when the doors are shut on sunday,its a case of goodbye see you next week.

Mike

 

This is totally over the top and not as I understand it. As far as I am aware, the rules are the same as for car drivers, ie. 80mg/l alcohol/blood, 35mcg.per ltr. breath
on commencement of duty and no consumption during duty. We always have a few pints in the evening, with a full meal, then a good nights sleep. No problems next morning.

Regards,

 

As far as I know the railways I have visited allow 0 units of alcohol in the system at signing on

 

The enforcable law is Section 27 Transport and Works Act 1992.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/42/section/27

and JTX is correct, the prescribed limit is the same as drink driving offences.

Beware though; the T & WA isn't just drivers on railways.

The definition of a Transport system is contained in Section 26; where, basically, if your railway carries members of the public - you are bound by the TWA.

 

Railway Group Standards lay down no more than 29 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, or more than 13 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. I thought that most, if not all, of the leading railways had adopted these levels in their rules. Certainly the NYMR do, along with random testing, and it is not just for those working on the EVL.

 

Exactly. The industry, or individual operators can lay down their own rules. Many drivers complain that the rules should be the same as they are under Road Traffic legislation.

There is much more enforcement done by Railway Managers and internal discipline than by police/prosecution activity.

 

Exactly. I'm glad i'm old enough to remember those days, we had a few pints, nobody had any trouble next day, everyone was happy, there was a good atmosphere .
Nowadays it seems everyone takes themselves far too seriously, the pubs are empty of volunteers & staff at weekends ,Boring!
There's a huge difference between having a nice soicial drink & 'bonding' with mates, than getting smashed out of your head, which all the bad publicity is about in city centers say, which everyone is so frightened of.

 

Maybe that's symptomatic of the country in general? Why go out when you can sit inside with your games consoles and cheap supermarket lager?

I'd force supermarkets to sell drink at the same price as pubs then maybe the younger generation would get off their sofas and join the real world in the pubs, mixing with other generations and learning how to enjoy a pint or two without getting legless, and maybe learn one or two things into the bargain. That's what we did, and many are the interesting characters we met along the way.

 

Careful Sheff, you might be accused of talking common-sense!

 

Yes it is common sense! Could'nt have put it better myself. The only trouble is , there arn't many characters in the pubs now! Scared off by political correctness & the smoking ban!
You're right about the supermarkets, the've got a lot to answer for as to the price of beer.