For the sake of individual privacy, I do not publish the email addresses of correspondents to the Shedmaster.

Earlier emails

I would like to say that I also worked at Nine Elms as a fireman from 1959 to 1964. As with most I started off with Driver Austin and Dr Phebe on the shed shunter (Vic was then name of the turntable man I think). My first real driver was Albert Wright (who had the task of licking me into some sort of shape) then Tommy Coles who I spent some time with in # 4 link (we were known as Tom & Jerry) as this shout often went up when we entered the crewroom. Peter Stewart was next in #3 then into #2 link. I never rememberd who I was with as we would go up and down to Bournemouth and Salisbury and never a word was spoken. I left in 1964 and finally retired in February 2009 having spent most of the years in the film & tv industry doing lighting. My name is Jerry O'Sullivan (my brother Danny also was at Nine Elms - he was with Chopper Adams I think). Does anyone remember us?

Also - just to say on viewing the Nine Elms engineman section there are many faces I well remember, that of the late D. Davis, Fred Pricket, Chopper Adams, and many more but one sticks out at me that was the picture of Dicky Thomas. He lived at Worcester Park as did I. On many occasions we would bump into one another in the small hours of the morning in the shed and he would be delighted to hop on my motorbike for a quick lift home rather than wait for the first train. If you look at his picture in enginemen you will notice his cap badge, there are two, the bottom being a BR and over it a ENGINEMAN SR. This badge was very distinctive as it was chromed with a green enamel background. How do I know this? It is because not very long after that picture was taken he retired and gave me (as a delighted young fireman) the badge. I have it 45 years later on a shelf at the side of my bed. Every time I look at it, I am back at Nine Elms - Jerry (Tom and Jerry) O'Sullivan

I don't know whether it's generally known /realised pure trivia, but factual, both 34059 and 73082 were towed to Barry (Woodham's) together from the Elms (where they were withdrawn) and both departed Barry together in October 1979 for the Bluebell.

Another piece of recollection trivia that may be amusing to the Web visitors was the occasion when a Caprotti valve gear Standard 5 was rostered on one of the evening commuter trains probably 17:09 Waterlooto - Basingtoke. It had passed through Eastleigh for overhaul and was being run in prior to going back to the Manchester area, anyhow I could not resist a run behind this strange machine as far as Woking. On arrival I passed a comment to the crew, who were totally gobsmacked and bemused when I got them off the footplate and showed them the complex collection of connecting rods etc which made the Caprotti's so different to the run of the mill 5's which put in such stirling work especially towards the end of steam (their comments were punctuated with F's and B's which made the encounter all the more amusing !!).

I was at Waterloo from June to August 1988 - I only went there to get my Driver's job, then I moved to Victoria MT where I have been ever since.
My Dad, John Westgate had been a Nine Elms and Waterloo man from 1958 to 2006 when he retired at the ripe old age of 65. He is still going strong, working at the Brooklands Museum on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
I remember blokes like Ron Feltham, Ted Masey, Mad Merricks, Peter Giles, Tony Jackman, My Boy Jim Robinson, Dick Flann (who was one of my instructors on my MP-12 course) Ken Coppard, Alec Watford, Frank Matthews, Glen Webber, and Barry Brett to name but a few. Then I also recall ex-Nine Elms men at Woking like Bill Tickner, Eddie Green, Jim Grainger and Barry Foster, Jim Lester and Tim Crowley 'The Gov'nor'. Then there are a couple of blokes on the Central Division of the Southern like Geoff Dartnell, Paul Taylor (GI Jane as we call him at Victoria). Then there is Mark Butler at Gillingham and Dave 'Dizzy' Deadman at Victoria Eastern. We are everywhere on the railway, what you might call a unique breed.

Can I let people know, through your website, that I shall be retiring at the grand old age of 60 on 25th April after 38 years on the railway. The long shifts are too much for me and the working conditions that the grand old union men of A.S.L.E.F.won for us years ago are now being eroded away. How they must be disappointed to see all the conditions they won for us after many disputes have gone .I feel more than ever that they were a special breed who stuck together during the hard times years ago. Although I was not a steam man I was brought up to realise that if you stuck together you were strong.
I was at Waterloo from 1971 until 1994 when I transferred to Brighton. We only have one ex steam man left at Brighton but the legacy lives on. We need reunions like the Nine Elms/Waterloo events to keep in touch as I don't think there is an industry like the railway where people serve such long terms of service. I would like to hear from any of my old mates from Waterloo.

Out of interest I have been browsing your website. Although I am not a railwayman myself my great grandfather was. He lived at Woodgate Street Battersea which was very near to Nine Elms depot, this street was demolished some years back. My ancestor's name was Frederick Tom ISAAC he worked for the L&SWR as a guard from around 1870 until about 1915. My purpose in sending this email was to obtain knowledge of his working life with L&SWR. If you are unable to help, could you direct to where I might find records and, maybe, old photographs etc. I know as I write this message it is a bit of a long shot.

I was at Nine Elms from 1960 - October I think - until about 1963/1964. I started as a cleaner and I think Dicky Berry was in charge. I moved on to a fireman and fired to many drivers, Clive Groom, Spider Web, Dicky Knop, plus a few more. The last driver I had was Sid Nash. I made passed fierman did a small amount of driving on the steam mostly shed work. I then went to Dartford as a driver on emus and then after some time went Hither Green. From there I went to Australia. We lived in same block of flats as C Gray. It would also be nice to hear from some of the Nine Elms crew.

Some of you will know that I live in South London, within earshot of the Brighton Main Line. A while ago I was in the garden when I heard the unforgettable sound of a "Bulleid C Whistle" and I then heard a wonderful sound of someone Blowing Up "Ar******s" - now was that directed at me I wondered? So in the evening I hit the keyboard and sent emails to a few likely culprits. A "Gentleman" quickly owned up (I know he won't mind being identified). It was Pete Roberts taking "Tangemere" down to Chichester.

Now that set me wondering, how many of us remember those "Unofficial Codes" we used to use? I remember vividly the code used to signify that a "Boiler Blowdown" was about to take place, when doing it inside the shed, over a pit of course, to warn anyone who might be underneath oiling up - it was 1 long followed by 3 short.

Does anyone recall others?

I knew Geoff Chandler from my days at Waterloo as a secondman in the seventies. Please say hello to Dick Flann (ex Waterloo man). My mates were Tony Alosko, Andy Bennett, Terry Keating, Dave Snelling, Malcolm Hugget, Richard Usher, Dickie Lawrence and Andy Flett. I am Now a driver at Brighton since 1994.
I was a secondman at Waterloo from 1971 untll 1994. I remember a lot of the drivers and secondmen mentioned on the website and was fortunate to renew old friendships at the Waterloo/Nine Elms Reunion 2007. When I joined BR, a lot of the old steam drivers still used to use the old expression "fireman" and they were most disappointed to find they had a brand new group of secondman to put up with. Still they taught us well and I am proud to say they were the best! Old names I remember are Ron Mills from Felham, Sam Waddup, Dusty Miller, Sooty Saunders and poor old Frank Mathews who was killed on a ballast train. I would like to hear from any of my old mates who remember me before I went to the outer limits of Brighton depot. All the best to Geoff and the Waterloo/Nine Elms Train crew past and present.
Barry Brett - a great website!

With regards to the e-mail from Les Goulding. He was asking about some old work mates, one of those being Mick O'Rourke. I am a driver at Strawberry Hill and I can tell you that Mick O'Rourke recently took early retirement from that depot. He is in good health and is still strumming his guitar and making music. I have e-mailed him a link to your site. As for myself, I started at Old Oak Common and got a drivers job at Strawberry Hill in 1980. I remember alot of the firemen featured on your site who were or still are drivers. Bernard Tipping. Ray Benton. Billy Hughes - When I had a suicide at White Hart Lane Crossing in 1991 - I hit the victim, but poor old Billy saw it all happen as he approached on the Down line. Although he dosn't know me I remember Geoff Chandler working on the platform at Feltham. (See: Email received from Geoff Chandler) His brother Mick was at Strawberry Hill..The last driver who drove steam locomotives at that depot...Albeit from Feltham Loco...He retired in 2005.
My Great Grandfather was a goods guard at Nine Elms. Retiring in the 1920s after moving to Wimbledon Yard.

I shall have to recall some genuine Southern memories during these long winter evenings. One was a trip up from Southampton one evening behind 34038 Lynton, the train was a renown rotten timekeeper getting into Waterloo around 11pm. Anyhow I recall there were several recorders on board all hoping for some fireworks but it was not to be, the highlight was that we missed out the stop at Southampton Airport!! Drifting through at about 10 mph, the thinking behind this was almost "IF THERE IS ANYONE STUPID ENOUGH TO WANT TO BOARD AT THIS TIME OF NIGHT THEN THEY CAN EITHER PUT THEIR HAND OUT OR JUMP ON". On arrival at Waterloo the driver, one Harry Pope of Nine Elms (what a character), thought we were joking when we asked him why he didn't stop at Southampton Airport. Those were happy days!!

Hello my name is Graham Weeden. I was a secondman and driver at Waterloo from 1974 before moving on to Charing Cross then back to Waterloo, then Grove Park then onto Blyth, St Pancras and Bedford. Some the drivers in the picture gallery I was secondman to late 1970s. I also know Richard (Dick) Flann and would to get in touch with him again.

Hello, could any one help me? When I was a Passed Fireman at Waterloo there were three Drivers at Waterloo - a father and his two sons. One was Alan Domm the other was Tony Domm and I think the father was Fred? Did they all have accidents at work?
I first met Bert Hooker at Waterloo, what a great man he was, taught me every thing about driving trains. In his last years as a Driver he was at Slade Green, that's when I met up with him again as, by then, I was a Train Crew Supervisor, and he said to me "I taught you well then". Is driver Bill Hughes still around?
I would love to hear from anyone who knows me.

Jim Lester replied: Yes I recall the Domm's were a railway family that lived in Putney in the late 1950's and were indeed associated with 70A. Dad Fred was a Driver and his two sons, Alan and Tony were Firemen during my time there. They certainly did have unique horrendous accidents between them which involved the loss of legs. 'Rocker' Dedman refers to these events. Unfortunately Fred and Alan are no longer with us, the whereabouts of Tony is unknown, equally sadly Bill Hughes passed on many years ago.

Thanks for the email from Don Benn, it makes wonderful reading. It was a great week and 35005 was a remarkable loco. My time in 3Link were amongst the most enjoyable weeks of my railway career - and the 5.30 and the 2.45am papers were probably my favourite turns.Though the 2.45 papers wasn't strictly a 3Link turn - I had my far share of runs on this duty. It wasn't popular with young married fireboys!!

I read the email from Dave Wilson with great interest as I didn't know that the loco for the 530 down on 7th June had been changed to 35005. However the fireman that evening definitely was Dave (Dropgate) Wilson, so the photo caption refers to another occasion. Dave was the fireman the next night with 35019 when Brian Smith was also on the footplate. The same footplate crew produced what was possibly the best run of the week on the Friday with 35017 which as Dave says caught the 523 down which had 73092 on 8 and itself got past Basing in 47 minutes. However 35017 only had 11 on whereas both 35005 and 35019 had 12. The racket from 35005 climbing past Brookwood at 78 mph (after a sigs stop at Esher) was unbelievable, and my calculations show an edbh figure of 2,350. The net time to Basingstoke on this run was around 42 minutes compared to 41 minutes on the run with Gordon Hooper on the 920 down.

I wonder if Dave still remembers the early Sunday morning drive through south London in Brian Smith's Vauxhall Velox to my mother's house in West Wickham for a cup of tea after returning to London on the up mail following that epic run on the 920.

I am trying to find some photos of my father who was a driver`s mate at Nine Elms. His name is Ron West, now retired from British Rail.

I was amazed to see the photo of Maurice on your website. In the 1950's he lodged at my Grandparents Mr & Mrs Fisher's boarding house at 2 St. Barnabas Villas off Lansdowne Gnds SW8. Many other locomen stayed at my Grandparents over many years. I believe a fair few of the locomen lived in the West Country and only lodged in London. I was only a young boy about 8 or 9 at the time and Maurice was very kind to me and was instrumental in starting my love of steam locomotives. I spent most of my childhood watching the loco's at Nine Elms and Maurice often carried me in the cab from Nine Elms to Waterloo and arranged another loco to ferry me back to Nine Elms. I lived with my Grandparents when my parents split up in 1949 and I will never forget the great kindness of the Nine Elms Locomen in helping me over a difficult time.

You were a great bunch of blokes and thanks for the memories in your wonderful website.

I was talking to G Holloway at the Waterloo dinner and dance recently and he suggested that I email you. My name is Richard (Dick) Flann, ex Feltham, Stewarts Lane, Hounslow, Waterloo, South side instructor, A.T.I. Gillingham and finally T.C.S. at London Bridge. I would love to hear from anyone who knows me.

I worked at Waterloo depot as a secondman from March 1970 to May 1975. I was taken off through ill health and ended up on Feltham station platform. I found your site on Google. Many of the photos brought back some great (and funny)memories! I remember loads of the old faces of drivers and firemen. Most of the firemen were my old drivers! I still have the greatest respect for these men, particularly Bert Hooker, Bill Turner etc. If anyone remembers me, I would love to hear from you.

I had a sleepless night last night after seeing a newly added pic of Eric 'Sooty' Saunders and his then fireman 'Kipper' Roe. The pic is dated June 7th 1965 - the problem for me is that I am 100% sure that during that week I was still 'Sooty's regular mate and, more importantly, that during that week we made several all-out attempts to get to Basingstoke in 40 mins with the 5.30down. The logs for these runs have been published both by Don Benn in an article on 20 years of Southern Steam in Railway World in 1987 and in D.W.Winkworth's book Bulleid Pacifics.

The reason these runs were made was because on May 15th I had made a run with Gordon Hooper on the 9.20 mails on which we made Basingstoke in about 41 minutes and did 105mph on the descent to Winchester. I talked to 'Sooty' about this and we decided to have a go. The reason we had 005 was that I told 'Sooty' this was the engine I had done the run with 'Madman' with and he persauded Len Trigg to swop our booked engine for 005. This period was pretty much the high water mark of my footplate career - I'm sure I didn't imagine it - but the date on the pic says different.

Also :
Have just been looking at your photo essay on July 1967 - love the pics. One which struck a chord was the 5.23 'relief' and the '5.30 down', an emu -uuugh! On the runs to Basin' with the 5.30 in June 65 ,when we were trying to do the run in 40 mins - on the Friday we caught the 'relief' before MP31 - which spoiled our chances as we encountered a series of checks.

I was really sorry to hear of the passing of Tom Moult aka Black Tom, I have very fond memories of Tom and Martin Hole and David Bryce also a Feltham Fireman by the name of Mick O Rourke, are any of them still around? My brother Brian is still on the Railway and works at Paddington, sadly he stayed on the wrong side of the tracks, working on the station. I left the Railway in 69, and then spent nearly thirty years with Royal Mail, before taking EVR. Lovely to see a picture of Alan Newman.

I'm after some pictures of trains in Weymouth preferably the one that used to go down the road to the ferry quay. I used to live in Bournemouth in the 80's and used to hang around the station most days and I've just recently discovered over the past few years that a train used to run through Weymouth town to get to the quay in the 80's I kick myself every time I go to Weymouth and see the old line thinking I could of got on the train at any time and gone down there to see it my self. I was wondering if you or know of any one who has got some pics of this event and doesn't mind sending them to me so I can further kick myself and wish I was there.

I could not even remember which side if the main line Nine Elms was, its so long ago that used to pass on the Atlantic Coast Express as a youngster. For years since I have looked out of the train when going to London to try to work out where you had been! I am thrilled that you are all able to keep in touch again - after having disappeared for 40 years! A great thank you to all at Nine Elms for doing a wonderful job, a skilful job and a very hard job. Thank goodness I am now able to have a small taste, by with being with Clan Line.

Regards, Patrick Collett, Guildford, Surrey.

My grandad, Will Chaney, worked there from about 1915 or so until he retired - as far as I know. He died, aged 70, in 1970. he was born in 1899 and began work, using his older dead brother's birth certificate, waking up railwaymen in the mornings at the age of 12 or 13. He then went to work on the railways himself; I have been told that he was instrumental in the establishment of union membership at the depot. I don't suppose you have any records that show his name; unfortunately the only photo I have of him at work is a late one which shows him, white-haired, operating a fork-lift truck. It may even have been taken on a visit after his retirement. I do know that he was in the Nine Elms depot cricket team; we have various photos of my mother and grandmother at cricket matches although there are none of the players in the shots! I have photos of him and his work colleagues on various outings. One of them includes an Eric Chitty - not sure if he did work at Nine Elms - who drowned in the Seine on a jolly boys' outing to Paris. (Not so jolly, perhaps!).

Regards, Helen Salthouse

I was born to late to see steam on the rails but knew an engineman who I believed started as a cleaner and rose through the ranks to driver at the Nine Elms depot. Unfortunately James (Jim) Hake died 25 years ago now although I remember some of his stories. Would any member remember him?
Best regards, Malcolm Rogers

We re trying to gather as much information as possible on Clan Line and other Nine Elms locos to mark what would have been my father's 100th birthday. He was Thomas Arthur Meech. He was a guard at Waterloo from the early 1950s until his retirement in 1973. There are photos of him with Clan Line in 1966 and in the Waterloo mess room around the same time. We would like to reconstruct something of his workings out of Waterloo to Southampton, Bournemouth and Weymouth. Any information would be helpful as we have only fragments to date.

The Enginemen obviously loved their job and the locos, especially the Bulleid Pacifics. Maybe that was why they were the ones that worked what were all but the last machines properly used to run everyday expresses. But, they must have had well maintained engines to work with and, compared to some tales I have read at the end of steam days, the Nine Elms fitters, foremen and even Eastleigh works people did an amazing job in those days; so must have their own illuminating tales too.

Regards, Andy - just (nowadays) an old trainspotter from 85B

I collect photos, logs, workings etc of absolutely anything to do with 35023. Recollections from enginemen would be most welcome as well. I would greatly appreciate any help you could provide.
Regards, Ernest Andrews

I am trying to find some information on an Engineman George Butler Payne who worked out of Nine Elms for many years. He lived in Yeovil Street. Period 1870-1920 approx. If you could offer any guidance on where to look this would be appreciated.
Frank Lewin (Grandson)

As your very active site includes not only photos but reminiscences of many Nine Elms men and indeed 'Diary' details such as those of John Cant, would it be possible to put an appeal on your web site to ask whether any of them can help in my search for additional information on these engines. I am aware that although none of our engines were actually allocated to Nine Elms (except 31618 for a short period in 1951) the engines visited the depot for servicing on countless occasions over the years.

Mike Frackiewicz

I was born not far from Feltham yard, and have travelled to Waterloo countless time, and am not sure where this great MPD was. A great addition to your site would be a map of the area, "then" and "now"!

The "black sheep engines" article was fascinating too. My Dad went to Uni in Southampton and reguarly caught the train up to London from there. He used to say that if it was a very heavy boat-train, the passengers at Southampton would groan if a light-pacific came in with it; whereas a Merchant-Navy would be met with a sigh-of-relief and a "we'll be on time today then, lads!". It was fun to go to the Mid-Hants line with him recently where we were hauled by a West-Country, as my Dad was sent that way once due to engineering works North of Winchester.

Dave Wilson : "I live near Forfar, Scotland. I was at Nine Elms from 1963-66, in 4 link with Fred Walker, 3 link with Eric Saunders and finally 2 link with Frank Morris. Most folk knew me as 'Dropgrate'."

Alan Dedman : "I fired locos out of Nine Elms for a few years, ended up in the #2 Link and was known as 'Rocker'. I am still working and now live near San Bernardino in sunny Southern California."