Ted Harrison. (‘Handlamp’); biography. RAILWAY AT BARLICK

[Stanley]

BARNOLDSWICK LMS RAILWAY STATION AND ITS WORKING IN THE EARLY FORTIES

Ted Harrison. (‘Handlamp’); biography.
After service in the R.N. as stores Petty Officer, the remainder of my working life was spent on British Rail, being a Booking and Parcels Clerk at Skipton 1946 -48; Relief Clerk, located at Skipton 1948-51; Station Master/Goods Agent, Milnrow 1951-58; Assistant Yard Master/ Goods Agent, Hasland Sidings (Chesterfield) 1958-61; Station Master/ Goods Agent, Sutton in Ashfield 1961-64; Yard Master, Kirkby in Ashfield 1964-65; Assistant Station Manager, Newark 1965-67; Assistant Area Manager, Grantham, located Newark 1967-75; Station Manager, Newark 1975 -81; Area Operations Manager, Grantham 1981 up to retirement December 1983.

Posted by Stanlery for 'Handlamp'. (Ted Harrison, a member from Newark)
BARNOLDSWICK LMS RAILWAY STATION AND ITS WORKING IN THE EARLY FORTIES
Having entered the service of the LMS Railway at Skipton on 24th February 1941, where I trained as a Booking and Parcels Clerk, I was transferred to Barnoldswick as a Junior Clerk on 30th June of that year. The duties of my post, which was remunerated at the princely sum of £35 per annum, were split between the Passenger and Goods Offices which were situated adjacent to each other on the sole platform.
Barnoldswick was the only station on a single line, located 1mile 1342 yards from Barnoldswick Junction at Kelbrook, which in turn was 1166 yards west of Earby Station Box on the Skipton to Colne line. The line had originally started life as the Barnoldswick Railway in 1871 but, in March 1898 the local company had approached the Midland Railway to see if it would purchase the line outright. As the line had always paid out a `regular and reasonable’ dividend the Midland agreed to do so and powers were secured in 1899. For many years it appears that the Barlick folk had to make do with hot water bottles as a source of heat until authorisation was given to fit steam heating to the two locos and nine carriages allocated to the Branch on 16th November 1922, some 20 years after the Midland had fitted their main line coaches. The Branch finally closed on 27th September 1965.
Barlick was the place that gave me my first taste for the `thrills’ of railway operating. The single line was worked by the `Only one engine in steam or two or more coupled together’ system, section V1 of the Rule Book. All points on the single line were locked by the train staff which the driver held as his authority for being on the single line. The staff was round and black with the person responsible to receive and deliver it to the driver being the Signalman at Barnoldswick Junction. The only signal at the station was an old Midland `Stop Board’ which protected the level crossing on Wellhouse Road and the Coal Yard beyond. The oblong Board fully presented to approaching trains gave a danger aspect (with red bullseye lamp above), a clear indication being given when it was turned 90 degrees to a side on position, i.e. parallel to the line facing Wellhouse Road.
Every lunch time found me hurriedly partaking of my sandwiches in the Porters Room before going out to `help’ with the shunting of the Goods Yard. This took the form of pinning down or releasing wagon brakes or `knobbing up’ points, only rarely was I allowed to handle a shunting pole. Most evenings I returned to spend more time with the leading porter and the engine crews until the last train at 9:35pm when I usually had the treat of driving the engine. A push and pull train was allocated to the Branch, being propelled towards Earby. When propelling the driver was located in the cab at the front end of the leading coach (normally two on the train) with the staff where he operated the vacuum brake whilst the fireman operated the regulator on the locomotive. It was the practice of most crews, prior to shutting off power, to open the regulator momentarily to the full, then close it at the bridge over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The train then `coasted’ to the Junction which was traversed slowly until the driver had surrendered the staff to the signalman. On receipt of the bell code to indicate that the staff had safely been delivered the regulator was opened with some gusto for the run into Earby. Mr. Dawes, the Station Master, must have been aware of my activities as his house and garden overlooked the all station area but he turned a Nelsonian eye and never restricted my enthusiasm in any way.
The Booking and Parcels Clerk was, and had been for many years, Louis Barwick, a much respected member of the community and a leading light in the town’s glee union. He had a good baritone voice and would frequently burst into snatches of anything from the Mikado to the Messiah. Cotton manufacturers travelled to the Manchester Market each Tuesday and Friday and two of their number would sometimes come into the office and join him in song. Exceptionally Louis retained his entitlement to uniform dating from the Midland Railway days when his duties included the examination and collection of tickets. An avid pipe smoker he was often blamed for the destruction of the gas mantles with his practice of lighting paper spills from them. Although then in his early sixties, he had a good head of wiry hair. Tommy Corkill, a Goods Guard from Skipton, regularly cut the hair of most of the staff on his visits but did his best to avoid Louis on the alleged grounds that his hair ruined the scissors.
The parcels were delivered by horse van, the van man being another stalwart, Charlie Moore. Nowadays one is inclined to forget that horses had to be fed and watered twice daily and Charlie, or a substitute, had to attend the stables for this duty at weekends and on bank holidays. Charlie thought a lot about his horses and I recall his sadness at loosing one of his favourites when he loaded it into a horse box for transfer to another station. When a telegram was received advising the timings for a horsebox with a replacement horse for him from the Stables at Oakham he had extreme difficulty containing his excitement until the train conveying it arrived and he had viewed his future workmate.
Another long standing member of the team was Tommy Westmoreland, one of the two Leading Porters. Tommy was a big genial chap who seemed equally happy diving under the buffers to perform coupling on the passenger trains, wielding a shunting pole out in the yard, or dealing with the public in the office or on the platform. I suppose his trade mark was his tobacco tin, pipe and pen knife which he seemed to be perpetually using to cut up his twist. When I first started at Barlick the other leading porter was Joe Creasey who was soon transferred on promotion to Leeds as a shunter and he was replaced by Dick Dawson. Dick had come from Clitheroe and had recently taken up residence on, or near to, Wellhouse Road. The one other member of the platform staff was Walter Scales who resided at Skipton.
One regular daily visitor to the Booking Office was Henry Carter, a local newsagent, who usually arrived around 4:15pm to collect his evening newspapers. Henry was renowned for his hobby of the manufacture of cigarette lighters and he kept the staff well supplied with these, particularly at that time, very useful items.
The Goods Department was very busy as most of the commodities for shops and industry were being conveyed by rail. Large quantities of explosives were also received from, and forwarded to, Gledstone Hall which was being used as a military storage depot. The town cartage work was performed by a horse and dray, industry and out lying areas being served by one or more Scammell units loaned from Skipton. The Goods Office was manned by Mr. Reynolds, the Senior Clerk, and Miss Mary Wensley with myself halftime. In 1941 the system which had prevailed from the days when the railways took over from the stage coach still prevailed and every consignment required an invoice, raised at the sending station and sent to the receiving station, with full details including weight and charges shown thereon. Apart from assisting with the invoicing, as was to be expected with the junior post, I was allocated the more menial tasks. One of these was `abstracting' details from invoices station by station and `summarising’ the financial information thus obtained for each railway.
The Branch was normally serviced by a Class 1 0-4-4 tank engine and two coaches fitted with push and pull equipment which did not require the presence of a guard on the train. However in my time there, so far as I can recall, until around 1:00pm, a Class 2,3 or 4F 0-6-0 covered the passenger service on top of its freight work which, of course, involved `running round’ the coaches at both stations and a guard being employed. Barlick trains connected into and out of all trains at Earby between 7:00am and 9:48pmSX, 10:27pm SO. Even at that time the branch trains were usually lightly loaded. One glaring exception was the 11:10pm from Barlick which conveyed around 200 `late night revellers’ fresh from the regular Saturday evening dance at the Majestic Ballroom. There was no booked Sunday service but the Branch occasionally opened for special trains. In the winters of 41/42 and 42/43 traffic had built up to such a degree that I can recall at least three or four freight specials running on the Sabbath. The booked freight service on weekdays arrived from Skipton around 6.10am when traffic was `set’ in the Goods and Coal yards and departed around 1/30pm. `Mixed’ trains (i.e. conveying passengers and freight) on which the freight wagons were not required to have continuous brakes, were scheduled to run on the Branch. A train departing Barlick around 5/30pm was booked as a mixed train and regularly conveyed the maximum of 20 wagons with a brake van and quite frequently included wagons of explosives
Early in 1943 Rodney Hampson entered the service and commenced training for my duties and it was apparent that my days at Barnoldswick were numbered. As anticipated `the call’ came on 16th March 1943 when I was transferred to Colne, still a Junior Clerk (but this time filling a senior position as Booking Clerk) , my rate of pay having risen by then to £55 per annum.
Colne, a busy little station, was an oddity in that although it was staffed as a `Midland' station a good 80% of its work was for the `L&Y. This was presumably due to the fact that the Leeds and Bradford Railway, later to become part of the Midland, actually planned it as their territory. The East Lancashire Railway met up with the L&B at an end on junction immediately south of the platforms. To the best of my knowledge, during my time there it was understood that the down line from Skipton changed to the Up line to Rose Grove at Colne North signal box which conformed with the LMS Central Division Sectional Appendix to the Working Time Table. However, the Midland Division were apparently reluctant to concede ground as the Midland Sectional Appendix that `their' up line started at Colne No. 1 box.
Completion of lines in Lancashire and the West Riding in April 1849 allowed through trains to run each way between Leeds and Liverpool, a route of 89+ miles. However, the amalgamation of the ELR and L&Y in 1859 gradually led to a reduction in these services as Leeds - Liverpool traffic was routed via Manchester, thereby remaining on the L&Y throughout, rather than giving the Midland a `share' between Leeds and Colne. From that time the line from Rose Grove took on the status of a branch line, albeit a busy one. Nevertheless Colne remained the terminus for most services from the East Lancashire direction. A few holiday express services and special excursions between Lancashire and Yorkshire and the North East continued to be booked via Colne and Skipton right up to the mid nineteen sixties. I had learnt this at a very early age when my mother and I had boarded a Co-op excursion at Earby one afternoon en route for Skipton which kept going until it reached Leeds in spite of entreaties to the guard to bring it to a stand earlier. My dad who had joined a later train with the intention of meeting up with us at a relation's house was on the point of enlisting the services of the West Riding Constabulary when we tottered into the house some five hours late. In spite of the through services between Lancashire and Skipton, as a station it was really treated as a terminus for two branch lines. Although care was always exercised in ensuring that the call `All change' was made on the arrival of all terminating services it was not unusual for an odd passenger to finish up in the carriage sidings.
In 1943 just over forty L&Y trains terminated, and a similar number started at Colne each weekday. It should be remembered that diesel multiple units and two way working were not available in those days and much shunting and running round was involved after each trains arrival. The exception were the `push and pull' trains which acted as a local service between Rose Grove and Colne. The coaches on these trains were fitted with folding steps for use at New Hall Bridge, Reedley Hallows and Bott Lane halts. Of the dozen trains running each way to and from Skipton, four turned round at Colne. A remnant of the `good old days' remained in the form of the 8.18am Skipton - Liverpool and the 4/40pm Liverpool - Skipton. Propelling movements of stock between the station and the carriage sidings crossing the viaduct over Colne Water was a regular sight. Colne had a complement of passenger guards and carriage cleaners, with locos and and engine crews being obtained from Rose Grove, as a small L&Y shed had closed in 1936. Before then Colne had two loco sheds, the Midland shed (which also closed in 1936) being a sub shed to Skipton. This shed had been used by the ELR/L&YR until 1902 when the L&Y shed (sub shed to Accrington) was brought into use along with the new carriage shed located on the down side of the line from Nelson. The carriage sheds were still actively engaged in cleaning and essential maintenance in 1943 and remained so up to the Beeching era.
Returning to 1943, I took over one of the two Booking Clerk's positions, the turns being 5.00am to 1/00pm and 3/00pm to 11/00pm weekdays. My colleague on the opposite shift being John Spencer. There were also two Sunday turns which were shared with the Senior Clerk, Tommy Walker, and the two Parcels Clerks. I had to cycle from my home at Earby to Colne Station, a distance of about six miles each way. The `blackout' rectrictions meant that the headlight was shaded so that it concentrated on a small area immediately ahead of the front wheel which could be a bit disconcerting on a dark and/or foggy night. Fortunately there was very little vehicular traffic on the road at the times I had cause to use it in the dark and, apart from a minor collision with an Aberdeen Angus heifer near to the Stone Trough Inn, I encountered no problems.
At Colne, on the Midland Division the Up line ran towards St. Pancras, and on the Central Division former L&Y) towards Manchester and eventually Euston. On its inception in 1923, for operating purposes, the LMSR was split into three divisions south of the Border, Western (mainly former LNWR lines) Midland (mainly former Midland lines) and Central (mainly former L&Y lines) with H.Q's at Crewe, Manchester and Derby.
I think I should further clarify the position regarding the direction of the running lines as shown in the Sectional Appendices. These documents, along with the General Appendix and Rule Book were the `bible' so far as traincrews, signalmen and other operating staff were concerned. The anomaly between what was shown in the two appendices, when they were published in 1937, as regards the direction of the up line between Colne No.1 box and Colne North was downright dangerous. I am sure that one or the other would have been expeditiously amended as soon as the discrepancy was seen which would certainly have been as soon as the books got into the staffs' hands. During my short time at Colne as a clerk I was not au fait with the intricasies of railway operation and I was astonished to see the confliction in the original books when researching for my memoirs
The Parcels office was manned weekdays from 7.00am to 10/00pm, the two clerks being Arthur Green (getting on in years) and Geoffrey Watson. Geoff was a junior like John myself and had been in my class at EGS, Skipton. Arthur was a grand old stick but was not the best of writers and I remember one occasion when the paybills were returned from Derby with the sole comment `illegible'. Unfortunately Arthur couldn't read his own writing with the result that the wages had to be recalculated from scratch. A rare arrangement applied at Colne where an `Agent' was employed to collect and deliver the parcels and, at that time, was paid 1d. per parcel.
The Booking Clerks were kept fully employed. On early turn you kicked off with around a dozen `workmen's' tickets to Great Harwood on the first train, the 5.10am. After this there was a steady stream of mainly low fares to nearby stations with a sprinkling to the more `exotic' destinations like Blackpool, Liverpool and London Euston. Around 6.00am the guard working the 6.35am `push and pull' service, which for that trip went as far as Hapton, collected his tickets and cash float. These men were the forerunner of today's `pay train' guards and their `wares' were in the form of different coloured `bus tickets', of varying denominations, secured in spring clips on a wooden hand ticket rack. On Fridays one assisted the Senior Clerk in making up the wages, the money having been brought from the bank by the Station Master, Mr. Hopkins. The wages for the Porter Signalmen at Foulridge were `sealed' in a leather cash bag with a flap bearing the station nameplates which was sent under registered cover on the 12/30pm train. A similar bag was received each morning containing that station's takings. Ticket racks (for the Edmondson tickets) were topped up and further stocks of tickets ordered. Soon after midday the tickets were `taken off' in the Train Book. This procedure involved recording the destination and the commencing number (a) which had been chalked on the slate above the tube at the time of the first issue. The next number to issue was then recorded (b). Sales to that station were (a) - (b) multiplied by the fare. The total of the train book was entered under `Trains' in the Cash Book which, cross cast with items under other headings, gave the total on the debit side. This required to balance with cash and other credits such as travel warrants on the credit side.
On the late turn all tickets sold during the full day had to be `taken off' in the traffic bookthe total of which was balanced with teh `Trains' total in the Cash Book. As the closing numbers were recorded in the traffic book the next ticket to issue was `stood up' and tucked into the tube in the rack. When a ticket was still `stood up' in the front of a tube it indicated to the clerk that no tickets had been issued from that tube on that day. The late turn also completed the paybills as far as he was able, except for the entries for a few late turn Saturday staff. These were finished off on the Sunday and despatched to Derby. Minor jobs included the `push pull' guards paying in their takings, emptying the takings from the platform ticket machine and altering the dates on that machine and the ticket date press in the office. Saturday was extremely busy from taking duty until about 7/00pm as you never left the `window', booking a constant stream of returns to Nelson and Burnley. The fares being so small that you were lucky to achieve a £100 receipts to show for your labours. On late turn the tickets sold were, of course, accounted for in the train/cash books as described for the early turn.
Unlike Skipton in 1941 the bombing seemed to have little effect on the services at Colne in 1943. The through Colne-Euston services had been withdrawn for the `duration' and, apart from the through trains to and from Manchester, possibly the most important ones were the 3/35pm to Stockport and the 8/15pm from Stockport.There was a `residential' service for the east Lancashire businessmen (primarily cotton manufacturers) who resided in the Lytham/St. Annes area, departing Blackpool 7.31am and returning from Colne at 4/30pm. However, this could never claim to have the fame of the Morecambe - Leeds/Bradford residentials. During the late evening `circuit' calls were received on the `omnibus' L&Y telephones in the Parcels Office giving first the Air Raid Warning message Yellow inevitably followed by the warning Red code indicating that usually Liverpool or Manchester were `getting it'. Usually,the Green code was not received until well after I had left duty.
As my eighteenth birthday approached I was required to register for national service and also sat what was then known as the Schedule B examination for entry into the adult clerical grades. I successfully passed this test, one of the requirements for which was a Pitman's shorthand speed of 60 w.p.m. and on my birthday, in November, my salary was advanced to £85 per annum. Immediately I became eighteen I was required to attend a medical examination and it soon became obvious that the powers that be had decided that the only way to stop Hitler was to get me in the forces pronto, as I was called up for the Royal Navy on 2nd December 1943.

[Stanley]

Bumped.