For the sake of individual privacy, I do not publish the email addresses of correspondents to the Shedmaster.

Nine Elms engine-men were my heroes in the 60's & I was just old enough to visit the depot & Waterloo prior to the demise of steam. Today I have a collection of all the Bullied & Standard types that I was lucky enough to see - all OO gauge. I have a 66/67 timetable & have knowledge of the various speed restrictions & try to imagine that I am in charge of a Weymouth express with the aid of a route map. I have recently acquired a Gresley maroon buffet & was wondering if you are able to confirm which services used the vehicle & did it every run in support of a Restaurant car as other SR buffet's did,also was 85 mph running necessary to keep to time on a fast train of the day to Bournemouth/Weymouth ?

Richard (Dick) George Thomas, was my grandfather. I was born in 1957. Please pass on to Jerry O’Sullivan that I have the British Rail cap badge that my grandfather wore clipped to his spare Cap, which he never used. I would love to know any one who knew him or especially if they have any pictures. I cut my teeth on railways, living at Finchley my parents took me by underground to Waterloo and either accompanied me or put me in the guards van to Stoneleigh station, were Dick would collect me and take me home. Before he retired he brought a train into Waterloo without letting off steam, (it terrified me at that age) my parents have 2 photos of me on the footplate. Dick passed on 30-12-1971, leaving Ethel his second wife, she passed on in 1978. I missed both of them, being too young to ask the questions I want to ask now.

Dick kept all his photo graphs in one drawer, which was empty when my parents arrived, Ethel’s sister Ivy had cleared the lot, we know not where. My parents have family photos of Dick but none on the railways. I have two highly prized photos, of engine No 34088 on the 2:15 pm to Waterloo standing at Bournmouth West on Sunday 25th Feb 1962. specifically because Dick made and framed them for me as a child. The second is an enlargement of the cab with Dick in the window. The comment, of his smart turn out along side his picture would be partly due to Ethel, who would have nothing else.

Can you tell me if Bill Smith can be contacted or if there is a collection of his photographs held anywhere.

I have been researching the Thomas family history for the past 5 years with the help of my wife’s cousin Peter. Several months ago this produced a branch of the family we did not know of and Dick features prominently in this. Dick’s parents are Frederick and Mary Anne (Burton). Dick’s father died when he was two years old. Recently we learnt that Mary Anne remarried a William Terry Wells, giving Dick (along with his two older sisters) a number of half sisters and brothers. From their relatives I have received a number of photographs as apparently Dick and Lilian Wells stayed in contact.

Does any one know if it is possible to find employee records of the Southern Railway, As it plays an important part in my grand fathers early Life. I believe he joined the Southern Region very early probably in and around Portsmouth, before moving to London where he lodged with George Guppy who is stated as a railway servant (porter), Lambeth, at that time. Dick married George’s second daughter Elsie Louise in 1923.

Regards, David R.E. Thomas (the R is for Richard after Dick, his full name is Richard George Thomas)

Jim Lester has sent this reply:

Having read your mail regarding your grandfather on the Nine Elms website I felt I must respond with some of my own recollections. Let me say that he was a fine chap and as a young fireman it was always a pleasure to work with him for he was an out and out locomotive Engineman. He was always smart in appearance despite the fact that we had a difficult, dirty job, something that I admired in him and several other elderly drivers of the same mark.

I loved to get him talking about his experiences in the early days on the railways and indeed I have mentioned him in my recent book 'Southern Region Engineman', that also includes two of Bill Smith's photos of him. I must say I would dearly liked to have had one of the those wonderful chrome and green cap SR badges, I know that he gave one to Bernie Tipping who lived nearby in Stoneleigh. I believe that it was actually Bill Smith who had them made for him all those years ago, in fact Bill gave me one of the original stamped out versions before the chroming process took place, it sits proudly among my small railway collection, a reminder of the past and old friends. Sadly Bill has now passed away so I miss seeing him and talking about old times, whatever happened to his railway collection of photos and memorabilia I don't know, I hope that they were saved. What a great shame it is that you were unable to retain those of your grandfather's memories and times.

I'm sure you will agree that the Nine Elms website has, and continues to, provide a lasting memory of all these men. Long may the photographs keep coming in and the anecdotes of footplate experiences, good, bad and indifferent! Along with John McIvor the Shedmaster I'm astounded by its popularity and support. It really is an extension of the Nine Elms Enginemen's Reunion that then allows the railway talk over a few pints to be recorded forever and the old photo images to be shared with literally 'the world', quite incredible.

I am a former SR fireman from Yeovil Town shed (72C) and have found your excellent site and recognise many faces in the photographs. I am preparing a book on 'Working Memories of the Bulleid Pacifics' Recollections of Drivers & Firemen from the Southern Region Sheds.
For the first time this will be a book with memories from all the Southern Sheds whose crews worked the Packets & West Countries. At Yeovil Town we did not have an allocation of Bulleids, but worked on them every day and night between Salisbury and Exeter.
I would like to enlist your help in tracking down many former drivers and firemen who would like to contribute their recollections and anecdotes for the book and it would be nice for all of the former Southern sheds who worked the Bulleid Pacifics to be represented. Photographs of drivers and firemen at work on the Pacific's would be most apreciated.

Jim Lester has replied:

I would certainly like to know more about your proposed project for, as you can see from the content of the Nine Elms website, we are covering very similar ground in our 'Memories' section, however we are not as specific as that which you are intending. In general terms we seek to record all activities associated with the footplate crews embracing as many of the various classes of Southern locomotives of those times. The problem today is that we are all getting older and the memories of those personally involved all those years ago are sadly becoming less each year. As you will be relying on such recollections you will have the added task of either recording individual events, or getting written accounts, which is that much more difficult!

I met with Gavin Morrison recently and was presented with a copy of his recent MN photo book. One of the pictures inside is of 35007 heading south from York on 1X20 special which it had worked from KX to York and back on 11th October 1964. Do you know how 35007 got to KX and back and if any timings exist for this train? It seems that 35028 might just be going to repeat this next May.
Peter Starks, MNLPS Operations

Having (somehow) passed the fireman's examination (June '62), I wanted to experience steam before it vanished, and Mark Thom was . . . well . . . very clever with steam, so we both applied for Nine Elms. Apart from what I've written on the 70A Site, there are a few recollections which stand-out quite vividly:
The ghastly stench in the Enginemen's messroom (Autumn '62), later discovered to be emanating from a lump of stale meat wrapped in newspaper in someone's locker! Then the fumigators were called-in to eradicate the rats who had been attracted to this noxious odour, so we had to eat elsewhere for a few days.
Before receiving permanent mates, three of us 'fireboys' were booked 'spare' and engrossed in a game of biddies, when the running foreman poked his head in and asked, "Who wants to go to Branksome?!" With a lump in our throats, the three of us looked quizzically at each other as I, for one, had no idea what lay west of Clapham let alone west of Bournemouth! Fortunately, an older fireman, also 'spare' at the next table (and probably Frank), volunteered and collected his gear for this (mysterious) journey!
I recall how I hated (Prep and Disposal) Duties 96, 97 and 98(?). I booked-on one morning and got another sinking feeling when I read 'Duty 99' . . . until I was directed towards the turntable . . . for an enjoyable day of relaxation with the table gang!

I would like to wish all my old mates who I was fortunate enougth to meet last August a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Every one who I have spoken to have said how lucky we were to have these reunions and I think you and the organisers deserve a vote of thanks, the website is brilliant and the popularity of the yearly get together speaks for itself. Since the first time I have attended the Waterloo/Nine Elms reunion with my mate Terry Keating, a long standing friend of 38 years, I have been in touch with a lot more of my mates from my time on the South Western. As I have said before the railway industry is one of the few remaning industries where long term friendships last so long and personalities are remembered. I think every one had a story to tell of the drivers and firemen/secondmen they worked with over the years and perhaps even some of the ones who had a bit of a reputation for not being very socialble seemed to have mellowed over the years. Here's to 2010.

I am trying to find out any info on Charles A Scott who died of a heart attack on 26/3/37 whilst at Nine Elms. He joined on 18/4/11 at the ripe old age of 16. He did his war service from Sept 1914 until Aug 1919. What would really be helpful is the name of the regiment that he joined.

The driver in the Enginemen section photo on 34052 is definitely Sid Nash. He was my driver in 2 link. I would like to know his whereabouts can anyone help thanks. Apart from Roger Carrell (also in Australia), does anyone remember me?

Many thanks for getting me in touch with a long lost friend, Robert Lee, we are now in regular contact with one another, he resides in Australia and I’m in the States.

I'd like to share with you a funny story which I've never submitted to print before. Although Harry Pope could be quite 'formal' on the footplate, he was a bunch of laughs when relaxing in an enginemen's cabin. (Some depots called them a 'lobby', others a 'messroom' but I'd only ever heard the term 'cabin'.) I'd known Harry at 70A and, after my transfer to Basing' (70D), I happened to walk into our cabin, after reporting for duty, to find Harry (and his fireman) having their 'grub' while chatting to several of our drivers. There was a lot of anecdotes going on accompanied by chortles of laughter. I made a cup of tea and sat down to observe this 'old-timers' gathering. Suddenly, Harry, feeling a sneeze coming on, rummaged into his jacket pocket and withdrew a pair of frilly knickers. The room went deathly silent as Harry sneezed into them, wiped his nose and returned them to his pocket. George Rattue finally broke the silence with a giggle and asked Harry the reason for such a 'feminine' hanky, to which Harry replied that he always takes the wife with him everywhere he goes! The cabin literally shook from the roar of laughter.

I am doing my family research and just wondered if you would be able to point me in the right direction. I am trying to find out any information on my grandfather Edward (Ted) Bennett who started work as a cleaner at Coulsdon around 1926 and then progressed to a fireman and then a driver working from Eastleigh around about 1930 until 1959 when he was tragically killed in a road accident. I have been told by my mother that he occasionally drove the Lord Nelson and the Channel Packet and was quite often at Nine Elms. Here are the only two photo's I have of my grandfather just in case it may help. I would really appreciate any information or help that you may be able to give me.

I was a secondman at Waterloo from July 74 to March 80. I bumped into Tony Aloszko and John Westgate at the Eastleigh 100, and they told me about this site. Great memories of a lot of great blokes. With the help of Tony, John and this site I've got a list of about 150 drivers and secondmen I can remember, so forgive me for not writing all the names down here. I'm still into rock music, looking at big locos and sitting around doing nothing. Oh! And still nutty as a bag of balls. I probably left British Rail because I couldn't handle the responsibility of being a driver. Being a secondman was easy because the drivers were so good. I'll be going to the Bluebell on the 12th August and would like to hear from anybody.

I have just come across your site and I am the the Robert Lee mentioned in Alan Dedman's posting!! We were good mates back then but lost touch and I would very much like to get in contact with him. My working history with the SW Railway at Nine Elms was between 1963-67 approximately.
Alan and Robbie are now in touch - Shedmaster Nine Elms Website

I am Alan Domm’s daughter. I Google searched his name and found this website and saw a email from John Embery and Jim Lester. My dad, granddad and uncle are no longer with us but if anyone would like to contact me I would be happy to hear some stories.

I am looking for my great grandfather WILLIAM GEORGE BUTLER. He was a locomotive engine driver in 1870. He lived at 4 Pownall Road Fulham. He was only 30 when he died in 1881. He seems to have had an accident at Queen Street Station in London. This is all I can find on him. I do hope you can help me find out some more about him.

I have just come across your site and I am the the Robert Lee mentioned in Alan Dedman's posting!! My working history with the SW Railway at Nine Elms was between 1963-67 approximately.

Just a brief note to thank you for adding my query to your Nine Elms site and a particular thanks to Jim Lester for his very interesting and insightful response. The full facts of the tragedy will be forever lost but it is most interesting trying to piece together what may have happened to my unfortunate ancestor. In similar circumstances today I suspect that the Health & Safety Inspectorate would be less likely to find that the death was caused as a result of personal recklessness and rather more attributable to the woeful lack of a safe system of work. After 40 years working on the railway Alfred’s widow received no compensation and died a few years later in poverty!

The story of the fatal accident of Alfred Read is a tragic one which rekindled some bad memories of my own. I, too, succumbed to a similar experience from an electrical flashover while racking-in 3.3kV switchgear during my employ in the power industry. Forty-nine percent burns cost me a year off work! In this case I escaped death but while undergoing lengthy and very painful treatment, there were times when I wish I hadn't!

What puzzles me, in Arthur Read's case, was the presence of sawdust in a stationary boiler when coal was amply available there. Would they have used sawdust for lighting-up each morning when wood and oily rags were the general method; or was the boiler a convenient means of disposing of 'by-products' from the nearby Carriage & Wagon works?!

I now turn to a mystery which I have been intending to submit to, and seek an answer from, the popular railway press. Within my collection of books and films of Southern railway subjects I've noticed that the earliest scenes of the 70A turntable show a 'below-girder' type - which was commonplace at our own depots. Then, suddenly, during a period between about 1948 to 1960, an 'above-girder' type is shown. When I arrived in mid-1962, a 'below-girder' type had returned, lasting until 'the end' - in July 1967.

My theory for this 'temporary' change points to the possibility of 'inconvenient' table damage from a wartime air raid and that a speedy replacement could only be affected by filling-in (what remained of) the well and substituting an (ex-GWR) top-girder type. Any other theories and solutions would be greatly appreciated.
Roger Carrell.

I wonder if you could help with some family research I am undertaking. Below is a copy of a report relating to the death of my great, great grandfather Alfred Read who died following an accident at Nine Elms locomotive works on the 7th July 1885. In the report he is described as a 'stationary engine fireman' although in the 1881 census he was described as a 'railway engine driver' as indeed he was similarly described on his marriage certificate in 1853. I would be very interested to know what a 'stationary engine fireman' was employed to do and also if you have any information relating to the furnaces within Nine Elms, and again what they were used for. What is the 'plate of the furnace' which should have been 'shut'? I presume that all employment records for the L &SW Railway dating back to the 19th century have long since been lost or destroyed but I wonder if there is any other source of information relating to L &SW Railway and Nine Elms in particular that are available that you are aware of.
Thank you in advance for your assistance. Regards, Mike Read

Jim Lester has replied:

The surname Read is not too uncommon wherever you may have worked and certainly the railway industry had quite a few employees by that name in the steam era and beyond. My own grandfather's name was also Read, he was born in 1864 near Wimborne Minster and, during such times, was a Dorset shepherd amongst other rural occupations.

Whether any of the other Read's later associated with Nine Elms were related to the tragically killed Alfred Read would be a very interesting connection indeed. Reading the report of his demise I conclude that in fact he was employed in Nine Elms Works not actually at the Running Depot. Interesting indeed is the reference to his position as a 'Stationary Engine Fireman'. The reference to the stationary boiler would make more sense of its purpose in the circumstances bearing in mind the numerous line-shaft driven machines tools in the works that would need powering by steam in those days and as such these boilers 'furnaces' would require constant attention.

As regards to the 'plate of the furnace', it certainly is not a precise locomotive term that I recall. The nearest similar associated word would be 'footplate' where fireman would actually stand and shovel coal into the firebox. However this is not consistent with the report that it should have been shut! Perhaps more importantly was the reference to the 'strict rule' that another person should have been in position during the hazardous shaft incursion!

I can but speculate that the 'plate of the furnace' possibly alluded to either the 'fire hole door' or more likely the 'damper arrangement' that adjusted the amount of primary air entering beneath the fire-bars, thus controlling the level of heat generated from the fire. I suggest that if this had been inadvertently left open it most certainly would have had an impact on the dry, volatile, sawdust that fell onto the fire bed that fateful day by causing its immediate combustion that then resulted in the awful consequences described.

I started at Feltham in 1960, I fired to Bill White then to Bill Skinner. I went to Basingstoke in 1962 then went back to Feltham as a driver. When I was made reduntant I moved to Charing Cross. I went Wimbledon Park in 1989 and then moved to Cardiff Canton until I retired in 2007. I still go the Feltham reunion on a Friday. I still keep in touch with Bill Skinner. I would like hear from old mates. I will be going to the Nine Elmes Reunion in August - hope to see you there.

Hi my name Berni Sluman. I started at Feltham in 1960, my first Driver was Bill White, then Bill Skinner. I moved to Basingstoke in 1962 went back to Feltham in 1966 as a Driver. I still go to the Feltham get together on third Friday of the month. I only found about this site by talking to Charlie Slimmon. I found it very interesting. I did know Dicky Flan. I would like to hear from mates. I still hear from Brian Menday. I went Cardiff Canton to finish my time, and I retired two years ago.
Hope to hear from you, Berni Sluman

Hi to all loco men from Feltham, Waterloo and anyone whos knows me, I fully agree with Barry Brett who stated that all the conditions we enjoyed in the passed has been eroded, what would the old boys now think of it all now. This is just to let every one that know Im still fighting fit following a heart atack some 4/5 years ago. As some of you may know, I was made redundant about 10 years ago and would love to hear from as many ex loco men from Feltham, Waterloo and anywere I went. So keep in touch and e-mail me via this great site.
Richard (Dick) Flann.

I, too, was a Nine Elms fireman! I started my railway career as a cleaner at Hither Green on 7th February 1962. It was, alas, an all-diesel depot by then, but the cleaning was easy!

In May I and two other Hither Green cleaners attended the very last firing school at Bricklayers Arms. Two weeks later I became a Passed Cleaner and was continually sent on loan to both Bricklayers Arms and Stewarts Lane sheds. During one particular week this included turns on the Kenny Belle, before I knew what it was! However, I still need to ask, was this a Stew Lane or Nine Elms duty?

In June I received notice of my appointment as fireman at Nine Elms. Mark Thom and myself made our way by train from Hither Green to Vauxhall and, after alighting there, promptly lost our way! We were saved by following the direction of a plume of hideous black smoke, which turned out to be from the chimney of a Spam Can brewing up at 70A.

While stationed there I had several permanent mates - George Hawkins (on the table gang), George Fursey, Jack (Spider) Webb (on the Ups 'n' Dahns) and Alan Wilton. In Autumn 1963 my parents moved to Basingstoke so it was prudent for me to apply for a transfer to that shed. In the meantime, travelling the forty-odd miles up to Waterloo and back at all hours of the day and night was very tiresome. It transpired that driver Ron Tallet also lived at Basing' so any turns which involved working down, being relieved there, then home 'as passenger', were happily given to us by crews booked to work them. For us it was work down, get relieved then a bike-ride home to bed !

My appointment at Basingstoke MPD pushed the horizons back to mind-boggling distances: ninety-five percent of turns were running jobs - Feltham and Waterloo in the east; Southampton, Bournemouth, Poole and Portsmouth in the south; Ludgershall and Salisbury in the west and Reading, Didcot and Oxford to the north. This was surely the zenith of my career! While there I had George Rattue, Ron Rood and Harold Dory as permanent mates - a great bunch. My experiences at all three depots were documented in an article, entitled "Cleaning Days to Firing Days", published in Steam Days No.19. It's good to see that 'Dropgrate' Wilson is having his Std 5 experiences published in the forthcoming May issue of Steam Days also.

By 1965 I'd noticed that the rot (for steam) was setting in - poor steaming, name and number plates missing, etc. - so when my parents announced they were immigrating to New Zealand, I decided to accompany them. New Zealand Railways still had pockets of steam about but, unlike the renowned photographer Derek Cross, I didn't take to their 3'-6" gauge very well so I joined the thermal power industry instead.

In 1982, with a family of my own, I decided to cross the Tasman Sea and experience Australia. I'd barely settled-in to my new home when I received a phone call from one Frank Stacey who'd recognised my (unusual) name in the phone book(???!) and said he lived just down the road from me (in Aussie terms!). The anecdotes we shared during our get-togethers were most enjoyable . . . It's a small world!

I'm gladdened to see more and more colleagues putting fingers to keyboard with anecdotes for publication in the popular railway press; most of the drivers we knew have passed away and we ourselves are a dying breed ! However, it's comforting to see our skills being continued by the handful of crews on the various preserved railways and steam specials.

Regards, Roger Carrell, Bunbury, Western Australia.

On another matter I saw a picture of 34101 Hartland at Waterloo by Bob Grainger. I worked on the restoration of Hartland before it went to the "moors" and am still in touch with the Hartlands owner Richard Shaw. We'd love a copy of the picture and would appreciate it if you could pass on my request.

It a great website - nice to see the real characters of the railway remembered.

Many thanks, Alan Berck-May