Form BR.87219

David Druce has emailed :

One other item I 'preserved' on that fateful day was a British Railways accounts-type ledger book about 6.5"x 5" with daily entries from 24th May 1965 - 21st September 1965. The left hand column lists in pencil, a mixture of various loco numbers, each followed across the page by an hours/mins log, 'engine sump' and 'axle box' and then a monetary figure e.g. 2/-. The name on the front of the book is D.Gaines. Can you throw any light on this? I've shown it to Nigel Whitwell, another recent ex-BR email contributor to your site and he thinks it might be a cleaners log, but I'm more inclined to think it might be a fitters log, possibly relating to lubrication. The book has obviously been adapted for this purpose by D. Gaines as he he has changed the printed page headings. The official printed number on each page is BR 87219. Any thoughts on its use?

I've been a huge fan of this site for ages, as I spent countless hours visiting 70A during 1966/67 as a South London schoolboy and still have my copious notebook records. Seeing Geoffrey Catlin's essay and pictures of 'The Final Day' once again brought memories flooding back - particularly as the photographs were all in colour. Much better than all the black and white ones I took on the following day (10th July 1967). I was drawn to his mention of 'Pocket Rocket' 76064, because not many people will know that a small part of this loco is preserved and operational to this day. One of the standard BR gauge glass covers was 'preserved' by yours truly on that day and subsequently donated to 35027 Port Line during final restoration fitting up at Swindon. This loco is now part of Jeremy Hoskins' fleet and I believe intended for main line certification. It is therefore not inconceivable that a part of 76064 will steam past the Nine Elms water tower again in the not too distant future!

Bob Cartwright replied:
Re David Druce's question about this publication. The original B.R. 87219 publication was a Drivers note book. I used these books to keep a record of my daily workings during the early part of my railway career and still today they are an oft used reference. They were designed to enable a driver to keep a record of the date, train worked, engine number, firemans name,train loadings and other details that he might need to fill in his daily Drivers Ticket,(time sheet). He could also make note of any information required to fill out reports or lost time tickets. The only D Gaines that I knew was Derek, who went on to become a respected instructor at the W'loo Southside training school. David's book might be a modified version of the steam drivers book or B.R. may have published a modern traction version, if they did I never saw one. Interestingly an entry in one of these books shows me as fireman on the late running 09.30 W'loo/Bomo, loco number 34018 on the 19th Oct 1965. Just before we left George Bollen, the Nine Elms Inspector, turned up with one J Lester in tow who was taking his practical drivers exam. My mate, Des Holley went back in the train and of we went to Eastleigh, with me on the shovel, where I got relief. If Jim had passed out 3 days later he would have done so on 34051, for that is the engine we had on the Friday.

Jim Lester writes:

I thought I recognised the description of the small British Railways booklet B.R. 87219 as being the very same in which I recorded all my locomotive activities when I was firing. They provided the source of all the information that I then used in my account of those times in 'Southern Region Engineman'. Clearly in those times they were Driver's Logs in which the daily details of work performed could be recorded and used as an 'aide memoir' in the event of any later need of information. When required I used to get mine from the depot office and I would normally enter the firing duty details of each day, attached is an example of an entry going back to March 1962. When I had the time I would take sometime to write up the events using the form of lettering that I was very interested in at that time, which upon reflection I can hardly now believe that it is almost fifty years ago since this one was inscribed when I was nineteen!

I'm sure Derek Gaines (ex -72B) will be more than interested to learn that you have one of his old logs of those times! I'll be seeing him at the next meeting of the 'Old Southeronians' early in March and will pass on this interesting correspondence. No doubt it would be fascinating to recall his entries at that time, particularly the bit with monetary reference of 2/- !

No doubt like a few more railwaymen both Bob (Ben) Cartwright and I were misled by the name, D. Gaines, that was entered in the B.R.87219 Driver's Log Book. Certainly when recently asked Derek had no knowledge of the book that was initially described on the website. Ironically we have since learned that there was in fact a fitter at the Elms by the name of Gaines and it seems quite likely that it belonged to him. Well for sure the discussion brought out some interesting aspects concerning that little log book!

Yes, as Bob recalls, there were indeed rivalries between most of the depots in those days, much brought about from the allocation of work during those times. Each depot's 'Local Departmental Committee', the union officials representing the footplate grade, would fiercely argue their corner during negotiations over work. It was a form of protectionism and Nine Elms was particularly active in maintaining the level and standard of work at the depot.

Actually my earliest recollection of Bob go back to that day in in October 1965 when we met for the first time at Waterloo whilst on my practical driving examination. I found Bob's reference to No. 34051 being on the turn a few days later very interesting, that really would have been special for me to have taken my exam on the locomotive some nine months after the funeral train. I am glad to say that after all the years that have passed I'm more than pleased to count Bob as one of many friends with whom I still share a fascination of those times and look forward to his company at the Nine Elms Enginemen's reunion!