Applying to work at BR

I got the job as a guard on BR after contacting a friend from university who worked for BR at Waterloo. He said that he knew they wanted guards at London Bridge, indeed were desperate to recruit guards.

I also saw this news story in the Daily Telegraph dated 18th August 1983:

Recruiting Ban Apology by BR

British Rail apologised yesterday to people who tried to get jobs yesterday as trainee guards only to be told at all stations that there was a total ban on recruiting.

“The shortage affects only some depots and at those we are recruiting,” said BR. “Southern Region is short of about 260 guards and this had led to many cancellations. We are certainly recruiting for essential jobs, but it as a case of enquiring to find out where the vacancies are.”

No, that’s not a typo; it does say Two Hundred and Sixty vacancies!

And why a ban in recruiting? Well, basically because the railways were in a sorry state. At this time the railways were not anything like what they are today in terms of passenger numbers etc. or government interest in investing in railways.

Mrs Thatcher and her government were still basking in the post-Falklands triumphs and privatising everything they could and railways, especially BR, were not seen as having a future, the onus was on getting rid of staff not taking on new people. While the London area and other parts of the UK have had lines added since this time, back in the early eighties the government was still thinking about closing down lines. Mrs Thatcher had, for example, commissioned the Serpell Report that came out in 1982 suggesting that the BR network could be pruned even more drastically than Beeching, Serpell proposed getting rid of 80% of the lines leaving the country with little more than two or three Intercity lines and some limited commuter routes in the South East. Other idiots came up with ideas for closing all the railways and covering the track beds in tarmac to turn them into roads and express coach routes!

see Serpell Report

Thus, in 1983, the dedicated Gatwick Express had not started running and yet it has now got to the point where it no longer runs.

This is a photo I took of a Class 73 loco approaching Norwood Junction at the rear of a Gatwick Express test run.

BR still operated trains on the Wimbledon-Mitcham Junction-West Croydon line as the Croydon Tram Lines had not even been thought of, indeed they’d just closed one of the rail routes that would later reopen as part of the tram network. The East London Line of the London Underground was a very minor affair to and from New Cross and New Cross Gate, now it is connected to the Central Division’s lines and has frequent services that run down to Crystal Palace and West Croydon.

There were no Docklands in need of a public transport link; the ruined Docklands had only just been designated as a redevelopment area. The dock’s main role, to my mind, was for it to be used as a location for car chases, murders etc. in TV cop shows like The Sweeney. So, there was no DLR at all let alone a link under the Thames to Lewisham, and the Jubilee Line terminated at Charing Cross.

The “ThamesLink” through lines in the tunnels between Blackfriars and King’s Cross via Farringdon had not been reopened, and the Central Division still served a Terminus at Holborn Viaduct. (It was strange/sad how Holborn Viaduct had become such a minor run-down station by 1983; when my great grandfather James Latchford Edwards set off for one of his mini-Grand Tours with Thomas Cook in the 19^th century he set of for the Continent and North Africa from Holborn Viaduct.)

And people would have thought you mad if you’d suggested it would be a sensible idea to invest billions of pounds in a new railway to Heathrow, or a Channel tunnel and HS1, let alone CrossRail and HS2.

The trains were all as old as buggery too. The 4-SUB suburban stock that was withdrawn shortly before I started work at BR had been designed in 1939 and built during the war. The SUBs were meant to be excellent trains nicknamed “Shebas”, as in the quote from the (King James) bible: “The Queen of Sheba came with a magnificent train.”

see 4SUB

The 4-EPB stock I spent a lot of time on was also designed in the 1940s and built in the 1950s and used until 1995.

see 4-EPB

The electric multiple units (EMUs) that were used on mainline services (4RET, 4CIG, 4CEP etc.) which were first introduced in the 1960s when the mainlines to the coast were electrified where actually made by sticking electric motors under carriages from the 1950s and adding drivers’ cabs at the front! That said the 4REP used on Southampton and Bournemouth services was a powerful beast rated at 3,200hp (2400Kw): only a few horsepower less than the massive Deltic diesel locomotives!

BR trains were built to last though: the HST125 is still seen as a great train today - albeit with manually operated doors! - but it has just celebrated its 40th birthday and was designed only six or so years after steam trains were withdrawn! And the 4CEPs were in use for 49 years!

see: 4-CEP

A job as a guard did, however, seem like a reasonable way to start, as it was not about the idea of being a guard per se, but the fact that within the BR system you could work your way up the career ladder from such a position into management - though I would encounter a flaw in this principle later.

(I think the biggest problem I had with being a guard is that I had, and still have, a great deal of difficulty spelling the word GUARD correctly!)

Another important step I took that helped get the job was to move to London. In August 1983 Teresa and I found a top-floor furnished flat in Greenwich though it was old, cold, draughty, and generally only just bearable. But it was in a nice spot between the Cutty Sark and Greenwich Park. Once I was in London, in addition to having written BR a letter I was actually able to pop up to London Bridge to ask to see someone about a job. They were very helpful and, having applied for the job of guard, was almost asked for an interview by return of post.

I had an interview at London Bridge with the train-crew manager, himself a former guard; we seemed to get on well. (Having worn a suit and tie to that interview, I did note that very few other people in the office were in suits!)

I got offered the job before the interview was even finished, or at least I got offered the chance to be taken on to be trained as a guard. I recall that he asked me what my father would make of me working as a guard, given he was a doctor and stuff and that I had been to boarding school and university. I said that in the first place I expected that my father would be relieved I had got a job, and in the second place that he’d be happy that I was happy.

The pay was not great, well not for a London-based job. (I made notes during the interview and still have the notes!

The basic national pay/wage on BR was £72.20 for a 39-hour week, though, thanks to the unions, there was an agreement that nobody should receive less than £84.85, and my rate would go up to £90.25 after I’d finished training to be a guard. There was then an extra £14.95 per week for being based in London, an extra £1.80 per shift for working anti-social hours and another 55p per shift for working irregular shifts. On Sundays you were paid time-and-three-quarters if you worked overtime on your ordinary shift was paid at time-and-a-half.

These are, of course, gross rates of pay, and So I earned about £120 per week before tax and deductions; I usually took home just about £65 per week, as I remember noting that I usually had £30-35 available per week after paying the rent which was £30.

It is slightly bizarre that I got a job working on the Central Division of the Southern Region without ever having travelled on any part of the Central Division, yet I had travelled extensively on almost all the lines of the SE and SW Divisions! Thus, my first foray into the Central Division was when I was given a ticket and a chit to go down to the Head Office in Croydon for a medical! (I’m not even sure I’d have been able to point to Croydon on a map!)

Here's a photo of the ticket they gave me to go to East Croydon for that medical and it’s dated 25th August 1983. I think this was the day of the interview as the ticket is only for a journey from between London and Croydon and not between Greenwich and Croydon.